Wow...am I sorry I asked? Not on your life. These stories by comparison are ALL eye-openers. Jo I'd like to come up there and give those bankers a piece of my mind. Back a hundred years ago when I had a small business (outlet store) I had a leave of absence from my "other" job, and had banked with a credit union for 25 years. When I approached them one time for a loan it was like I had a disease. I was flabbergasted since I had always paid my bills, never late, yada...yada. And they said, "no can do, you're a high risk." Huh? And the reason was? Female, if you ask me...but I couldn't get them to admit that out loud.

I was forced to use CC to make inventory. This was devastating to a small biz...as I'm sure you already know...
And that was in my hometown. I've had plenty of loans with them since that time, all paid off ahead of schedule, but that one time when I really needed them to be there, they weren't. I've never gone inside THAT particular branch since then, and never will. (Like that hurts them? ha!)...

To me and with my experience in debt, CC are evil. Are the cards themselves evil? Of course not. But they become a evil presence when someone is desperate to make ends meet for whatever reason, and feel they are forced to use them to survive, like Jo ... and me.

I just cannot believe they are not regulated any more than they are. But hey, they are big business. If you think about our parent's lives compared to our lives, and whats available to us now, it seems we have it better, much better, in some sense, but in other CENTS, we do not. I'm thinking that most people paid cash for everything they owned/bought back then.

JJ