The death of the credit card is inevitable. 

Still don’t agree? Continue reading Part 2 below.

Current Situation.

Want to buy a new car, the dealer down the street will give you a lease.  Tired of your old television? Get 10% off by opening a Best Buy credit card.  Two hundred dollar steak dinner at Ruths Chris?  Charge it.  Kindle? iPhone? Christmas?  Whip out that plastic card, and justify it with all those great points you’ll get. 

While it makes sense to charge it at the time, because you know you’ll pay the charge off that  month or in a few months, what happens when suddenly you can’t,  and you’re forced to make only the minimum payment?  You may find yourself, like many people in this economy, charging necessities like gas, groceries and utilities to your credit cards, further exacerbating your debt load. 

In 2008, the average credit card debt in America of households was $10,679 (and likely higher in 2009).  If some of these households now can only make minimum monthly payments, they could be looking at 30 years to pay off that balance, and in the end they will have paid about $15,000 in interest alone.  Check out Bankrate.com’s  calculator and see for yourself.  

Note – In the current economy, banks are paying only about 1% in interest for borrowing your money, but charging as much as 29% when you borrow their money. 

Continue to Part 3 of this 3 part series.