Credit cards work to make tremendous revenues to credit card companies, banks and retail sales. They do not however work the way they used to work for the customers that temporarily possess them. Many years ago when credit cards were invented and I was a young boy they were a means to finance household items considered necessary. These were things like washing machines and clothes dryers. Credit cards today have such a high interest that they are no longer attractive to purchase such items. Credit cards are primarily now seem to be used to hide and avoid indebtedness.

There is nothing really good about debt. Americans have been convinced by retail salesmen and the banks that to have good credit one must have a solid credit history through credit cards or credit accounts. A solid history means more than the fact that you have consistently made payments on time without failure. The credit card companies and the banks evaluate your spending tends, the debt load over time, your savings history, checking deposit history and actual check spending history. This personal information is felt by these institutions to be proprietary, belonging to the institution because of their unique methods of collection, rather than belonging to the individual who creates this activity.

A credit card, if it is the only credit card you possess, could start improving a portion of bad debt only if you liquidate your current debt in a steady, reliable manner. This will only show a history of reliable payment. As I have already stated banks and credit card companies are not interested only in your reliability, they want the “juice” off of the advanced credit you have obtained. This means they only want you if they can get their interest in a regular and steady manner. This is not the same as pay your debt regularly until it vanishes. They want you to remain indebted permanently but repaying them in a timely manner.

If you are debt free you may not be judged to be a good credit risk. This is the state that underage children and young adults find themselves whenever they attempt to secure a credit card. Simply stated, good credit doesn’t mean what it did just fourteen years ago. The protections afforded the consumer since the Depression of 1929 no longer exist. The Financial Laws passed through Congress in 1992 allowed banks, insurance companies,especially health insurance companies investment firms to handle banking, insurance and investment operations. Laws passed after 1929 had prevented banks from insurance and direct stock exchange trading, likewise insurance companies could not pursue banking operations or stock exchange nor could stock exchange companies pursue insurance or banking operations. This freedom was granted without the subsequent protections of the consumer included in these new laws. There currently exists no single body of consumer law. The private citizen must fight the triumvirate of bank,insurance and stock exchange through the court system.

Joseph Kenny