In the near future, I see credit card regulations that penalize credit card users for NOT using credit that is made available to them. As it is, you pay in full, you pay on time, and your credit limit goes up as you pay no interest. What if they started charging you for the credit that you did not use? Then it would be harder to pay on time, and when you did, it would drive your credit limit up, and since you pay a penalty for not using all the credit you have, eventually you would have induvidual credit bubbles bursting all over the place. Every "pop" would represent the shackles being placed around the ankles of an already broken slave. So as a credit card user, you face a balanciing act of paying just enough on your card that your credit doesn't go up, while spending just enough on the card that you don't pay a non-useage fee.

When I cut up my cards, I was suprised to find out that even with a zero balance, my card was still generating service fees that began to generate interest. As I had a balance and didn't know it, they were also charging me for non-payment. Of course, my paperless account did not email me until the card was maxxed again and I was facing collection action. If you decide that cash is king and you want nothing to do with credit cards, then make sure that they really are cancelled. Simply not using the card does not nessesarily protect you from accumulating debt.

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Why Live in Pain?