Avoid The Trap Of Credit Card Debt

Credit card debt is so easy a trap to fall into and in so little time can build up to an extent, which could take many years to clear and get yourself back on an even keel.

The reason it starts is quite simple really, the lack of ready cash means that we will turn to a credit card to purchase goods, with the pretence that we will clear off the balance at the end of each month thus keeping us debt free, where as in reality we stick it on the plastic, get to the end of the month and discover that once the other household bills have been settled, the minimum payment on the credit card looks like a good proposition.

This will invariably lead to the interest kicking in and immediate guarantee of a bill the following month, even if you don’t use the card. But we all know that this little piece of handy plastic will be used again, by the time of the next statement, which will only add more interest to your account. This will soon snowball from month to month, till eventually the debt is going to take a lifetime to address.

All of this has added up to an overall credit card debt in the UK alone, of £54.3 billion up till February of 2005, this figure is for the debt that is still owed to credit card issuers and doesn’t show the full extent of money that was spent on credit cards, a figure that has was quoted in the month of December, as being £269 billion for the year past and was a billion pounds more than was spent using good old fashioned money.

An another small example of our apparent need for a fix of plastic, is that there is now more credit cards in this little island of ours than there is people, leaving the UK with the distinction of having over 50% of the credit cards in circulation in western Europe, being owned by the British public.

Our un-extinguishing need for plastic doesn’t even look to be waning either, as ever time that almost one in two of us leave the bosom of our homes, will return with some form credit from shops, even though the thought was not in our heads when we left.

As you can see, it is so easy to fall through the trap door of credit card debt and with leaflets falling on to the doormat to the determent of a small Rain Forrest, advertisements where ever we turn our heads and shopping malls with credit card sales people jumping on you as you walk through the doors and once you have talked your way past them, you will find that you will be accosted by sales assistants, who are trying to flog store cards to you as you pay for any goods that you have picked up. It is in your face 24/7 and trying to avoid it is almost impossible.