I have been running the credit card gauntlet for close to fourteen years now, maybe 17 not sure.  It starts when you start thinking about your future credit needs.  Someday I want to buy my own car, my own house, start my own business.

I might need credit to do that.  Before you know it you have a card or two and then you bounce balances around and then an emergency pops up here and there at a thousand dollars a pop and before you know it, you are maxed out.

I have been there and its ugly.  I know the ins and outs of the industry.  I know the interest calculations like I know the back of my hand.  The truth is that its a lot like Christmas.  Its all a big elaborate decades long practice of charging you for the convenience of buying something. 

You could use cash, the government could just as easily come up with a universal ATM system that costs less than maintaining a currency but they allow Mastercard and Visa to run the show and we all pay for it.

I was reading an article about credit card in the UK. The article pondered the concept that maybe the UK needed to follow the potential US example of cracking down on predatory lenders. I think that is a fine idea, but the truth is that politicians in the states are only paying lip service to the concept and not actually doing anything to crack down.

So that means that people will continue to go back for more 0% balance transfers on both sides of the ocean. Originally because they wanted to, but more and more because they need to.

Thee was a time when 0% credit cards were prevalent back when the real interest rates were hovering at just a few points, now its getting much harder to find those good deals and the real gauntlet for many people is just getting started.