When credit cards put you in jeopardy (CNN) {record debt, defaults}

(CNN) -- Americans are drowning in debt.

Consumers have racked up more than $2.2 trillion in purchases and cash advances on major credit cards in just the last year. And it's become a habit for them to spend more than they have. The overall credit card debt grew by 315 percent from 1989 to 2006, according to public policy research firm Demos.

To compound the problem, fewer people are paying their credit cards bills on time. The percentage of people delinquent on their credit cards is the highest it's been in three years, according to CardTrack.com.

With banks tightening their standards and the drumbeat of recession getting louder, there's no better time to grab control of your debt than now.
***
more: http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/personal/02/22/financial.security/index.html

The credit card industry has only themselves to blame for that.

With every credit card company putting as many accounts at the default interest rate as possible (30%+ in most cases) to increase their profit margins, the consumer no longer has any incentive to pay the bill on time.

Their own greed is biting them in the butt.

to make up from the losses they know they'll be facing from folks who can't pay.

In the meantime, some fools who are in arrears in their mortgages are charging them on those high interest cards.

The come-ons promising 0% interest on an old balance are getting fewer and farther between. I've only gotten one in the last 2 weeks when they used to come in two at a time, week in and week out.

Subprime mortgages were the tip of the iceberg. Unsecured consumer debt is the iceberg, itself.

flawed from the beginning, but the banks had a lot of money to lend.