Reply #4: Of course, the best remedy.....

[Uben]

....would be for Amwericans to quit using credit cards for instant loans. That's not what they were initially set up for. They were to be a convenience for paying bills. You paid a monthly fee for the convenience. When people started using them for instant loans, the banks saw a goldmine in interest payments. If you need a loan, you can shop banks for fixed loans and pay much less than the credit cards charge.
While the banks have surely abused their credit card customers, they did not make those customers use the credit cards for instant loans. That was a choice, and a bad one, by the customer. Why more people don't get fixed loans to pay off these cc debts is beyond me. If they do not have the collateral to obtain a fixed loan, they should never have been issued a card. That, IMO, was the banks fault, and I have no sympathy for them for their stupidity in issuing those cards.

Do you have a high credit card balance? Are you still using credit cards? That's like buying food you know is poisoned!

A lot of people continue using the cards knowing they can't pay them off at the end of the month, and knowing the banks will not give them a loan. In other words, they know they will have to default, so they rack up as much as they can before the card is cancelled. That is theft, plain and simple, and they should prosecuted to the full extent of the law.