Everyone is getting ready for that big day- Black Friday when all the sales and bargains are to be had. One word of warning- don't use your credit cards unless you can pay off the balances.
The reason you need to be especially wary this year is the increase in the interest rates on the cards. You may have used them last year at say, a 15% APR. However, most cards have increased their APRs this year, many to as much as 30% or more. Along with that increase will come an increase in your monthly minimum payment. If you only make minimum payments, it will be all but impossible for you to ever pay these bills off at these interest rates.
Why are all the cards raising their interest rates? Credit card issuers state that it is to recoup some of the heavy losses that they have already had on credit card charge offs. It seems to me that if they are losing money on charge offs, the simple answer would be to lower their rates rather than raising them, thereby causing more people to be unable to pay their accounts down. This is what the government bail out money has done, to save the banks so that they could squeeze the lifeblood out of the consumer, which in turn will make the current economic situation even bleaker.
Don't let the banks do this to you. Use your credit cards wisely, or you will have the visits from the "Ghost of Christmas Past" for years to come.
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