This weekend, the New York Times ran a series of articles on debt in America. It’s definitely worth reading, but if you don’t have the time to go through all of them, there are two paragraphs that I think are absolutely key:
Average late fees rose to $35 in 2007 from less than $13 in 1994, [...]

Good credit score? Clean credit history? Make a lot of money? It might not be enough with the new limits credit card companies are imposing.

It seems like every day there’s another preapproved credit card waiting in my mail box. And some of those offers look pretty tempting — after all, who wouldn’t want a 0 percent interest rate if only for a few months. It doesn’t stop at the mail box, either — every store at the mall has [...]

We all know that a good credit score is instrumental to getting a decent deal on a mortgage. But did you know that a bad score could keep you from landing a job?
Employers don’t want to hire applicants who have problems in other parts of their lives, and that includes debt. It’s more than just [...]

With all the talk about why credit cards should be avoided, especially for people whose credit history is questionable, I thought it might be a nice change to talk about the good that credit cards can do. Here are a few reasons not to get rid of every credit or charge card you have.
1. Charge [...]

Classic advice for handling any amount of debt — mortgages, credit cards, etc. — is to pay more each month than is actually required. For instance, if I had a monthly credit card bill of $100, but I had an outstanding balance of $10,000, with 10% interest, it would take me 213 months (or 17 [...]