Consumers in the United States have something to smile about. A Senate hearing, held just two weeks ago, discussed the credit card problems that consumers face today. Attended by representatives of the three largest credit card companies, consumer advocates and members of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation; the hearing focused on the credit card practices that are being blamed for the consumers’ huge indebtedness to these credit card companies.

Household debt has risen from $59 billion to $830 million. Aside from this, a 609 percent increase in bankruptcy filing was observed. Among the unscrupulous credit card practices mentioned were the trailing interest, grace periods and double-cycle billing, all of which put more and more consumers in debt. The credit card companies’ disclosure statement was also criticized for being too technical and the subcommittee recommended to the credit card companies to change it to be more consumer-friendly.

Of course, credit card debt has always been seen as a personal consumer problem. There are also many individuals who use their credit card even though they can not afford to pay for their purchases. As a consumer, it all boils down to how you would manage your debt. It can not be denied, though, that any improvements on the practices of these credit card companies would help consumers manage their credit card debt better. They should re-evaluate their important role in the consumer’s financial life.

In addition to these, you can not deny that the fastest and easiest way to recover from bankruptcy is by managing, for example, a secured credit card properly. If you pay on time and in full, you would easily improve your credit score. Over all, both consumers and credit card companies have to make adjustments and work together in addressing the nation’s many credit card troubles.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 22nd, 2007 at 10:00 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.