Credit card scams and the average American household debt.

I just wanted to say that I almost bought into a credit card scam yesterday. I was looking at www.amazon.com and I almost bought their reward card. It wasn't until I realized that it was just a promotion to get me to keep buying things that I stopped thinking about it.

I'm just thinking that these promotions are one of the causes for most Americans here to be so addicted to credit card usage. It's like everything they own is on credit. They're buying into these scams.

Is there anything we can do to reverse this trend of debt?

Yes, there is a way to get away from credit cards. Pay Cash! Do it the way our grandparents and great-grandparents did. If you can't afford it, do with out, until you have the money to pay for it.
I have credit cards. I use a credit card when I buy something online, or when I buy gas. Then I come home, log into my bank account and make the payment.
There are a great many people out there who teach you how to live debt free. (Including your home)
Suze Orman and Dave Ramsey come to mind, and of the two, I would recomend Dave Ramsey. Suze's advice seems to be geared more toward women, whereas Dave's is geared toward the entire family. Mind you, this could just be my interpretation.
We followed Dave's plan, the day we paid off the last credit card, my wife cried tears of joy.
It takes discipline to not use a credit card if you have one, or to discipline yourself to come home and pay off what you just spent(Gas), or for that book you just ordered on line, and if you don't have it, then get rid of them. Cut them up, cancel them and do without.
We have gone back to saving money, paying cash, and making what we have last.
Trust me, if I can do it, then anyone can!
Americans MUST learn to ignore TV and Radio ads. We MUST learn that we can't have everything we want right now. We Must learn patience, prudence, and above all, frugality.
It is the lack of these virtues, along with prodding by the vovernment and Madison Avenue that got us into the financial mess we are in now.

[edit on 28-9-2008 by kettlebellysmith]

The entire credit card game is an Al Capone type con game. Since when was it permissible to get a non-collateralized from a bank? Since when was it permissible to charge usery rates of interest? I highly resent the fact that there are people, who run the credit card racket, who are basking in luxury via their income from interest and fees collected from people and stores.
There is only one legit credit card and it has President Jackson's picture on it. That $20 bill is acceptable virtually anywhere, even in Moscow, Russia. No signatue or interest charges required.
The banking industry has forgotten the rules by which our grandfathers did business with loans and mortgages. As a result this country and much of the world is on the edge of financial disaster. What we need is a severe shock like the Great Depression gave us, the lessons which have been forgotten.
I hope the Dow Jones keeps going down, maybe to 1,000, which will wake up some people. The real danger in all this is that the government will want to instigate some legislative "cures" to the problem and that will really change our American system for the worse, I fear.
If half the banks fail along with their depositors, then so be it. They made their bed, now sleep in it. I just hope that the problem is not solved by another Adolph Hitler, as was the Great Depression. He was elected by proposing cures to the depression and he succeeded. It only cost 50 million lives and loss of treasure which has not been recovered since.
I was born in Chicago in the 20's one mile from Al Capone's hotel headquarters and lived in the corruption ridden Calumet Region of Indiana for the following 40 years. The corruption he engendered is still with us (read the newspapers if you don't believe it), was one of the causes of the depression and debt, then and now, will cause grief again.
Have fun,
Dick