In 2003, almost one and a third percent of US househoulds (about
1,650,000) filed for bankruptcy, indicating that bankruptcy may
not have quite the stigma attached to it as in other parts of
the world.

Somehow, the USA, with a population of about 294 million,
managed to have over a billion credit cards in issue. That's
over 4 cards for every man women and child. About 20,000
different cards are on offer from suppliers. Those credit cards,
together with debit cards, account for a quarter of ALL personal
expenditure in the US. Debt is a fairly recent phenomenon.
Before the 1930's, most people couldn't borrow, even to finance
property, and either rented homes or built them from scratch.
Nowadays, mortgage debt runs in the trillions. Personal debt
excluding mortgages is about $19k per household on average, over
half of which is on credit cards, a figure that is triple the
statistic of 1990.

Nowadays, over 40% or US families routinely spend more each year
than they earn. The difference? Financed by debt.

Convenient to use? That credit card convenience ends up costing
the average Joe 12% more than paying by cash.

If you only ever pay the 2% minimum monthly payments, each $1000
you owe will take nearly 22 years to repay and will add a
further £2,300 to the bill, meaning you effectively pay $3,300.
Despite this being common knowledge, almost 60% of credit card
users DON'T pay their credit card bills in full each month. This
reliance on high interest credit cards means that the average US
family pays about $1,200 in interest on their cards each year,
at an average APR of 18.9%.

90% of Americans 'are not concerned' by their credit card debts,
although about 50% of them would refuse to tell a friend how
much they owe.

A quarter of adult Americans have 'maxed out' a card at some
time or other.

A tenth of them have been hounded by collection agencies for
late payment, the same amount as have gone at least 30 days
overdue on their credit card bills.

The typical US student has 7 credit cards, and a significant
percentage of them (over 10%) owe $15,000 or more on them.

Credit cards encourage you to spend more. In surveys, it was
found that paying for junk food with a card as opposed to cash
led to a 50% increase in spend. You want fries with that?

Far from becoming rich, the average middle aged US citizen is
only worth about $40,000, and that INCLUDES any equity in their
homes. The rest of it belongs to banks and lending institutions.
This reflects the drop in personal savings, down from 8% of
income to less than 1% in 2004, thanks mainly to the poor
returns on savings accounts, and the easy availability of credit.

In 2002, the sum total in card fees for the US credit card
sector was $45 billion. It is expected to top $60 billion by the
end of 2004. Why is this? Find out at http://www.nodebtever.com