Ten Biggest Reasons Credit Card Companies Are Evil

When you hear that someone is evil, does a chill go down your spine? Evil is something that’s associated with cruelty and fear. It’s something that makes you think about the dark corners in the bedroom that make you pull your covers up around your neck a little bit tighter. And it’s something that can be aptly used to describe the practices of your credit card companies.

No, your credit card companies don’t have horns peeking out of their heads or forked tongues to stick out at you but there’s a subtle kind of evil pervading their actions. If you look the word up in the dictionary, you’ll see that evil is defined as “that which causes harm or destruction or misfortune”. When credit card companies engage in actions that cause you to go into severe financial debt, you most certainly experience some version of harm, destruction or misfortune. Evil, definitely evil.

Here are the ten biggest reasons that credit card companies are a source of evil in the world today:

1. They lure you in. Search through movies and literature for references to the devil and you’ll see that this evil character is almost always in disguise. It looks like something nice that’s going to improve your life and then it latches on to your heart and destroys you. This is the case with credit card companies. Credit cards seem great. They seem like they can help you through financial rough patches, help you get the items that you desire and even give you some rewards in return. But we all know that isn’t the whole story when it comes to using credit cards. Those companies suck you in with their sweet deals (and those insidious cash advance checks) and you don’t realize that there’s evil in there until it’s too late.

2. Prey on you when you’re weak. Credit card companies are all too happy to offer you things that you don’t need right when you feel vulnerable. That’s the basic premise behind many “bad credit” credit cards. They’re designed to target people who are unlikely to be able to be good borrowers. They charge these people a fee just to open the card and a monthly maintenance fee to keep it open. Most people who have bad credit can’t afford these kinds of fees but they get sucked in because they’re in a tight spot with money and these companies are offering them a deal.

3. Kick you when you’re down. Credit card companies are evil enough just for the fact that they’ll prey on you when you are weak. But then they also kick you when you’re down. You get into a little bit of trouble with payments and suddenly you’ve got late fees and overlimit fees up the wazoo. You can’t pay them back and they just keeping tacking them on. Your credit gets damaged, your money goes out the window and they’re laughing their way all the way to the bank. Harming someone that’s already harmed is just plain evil.

4. A ruined reputation. One of the things that evil can do to your life is ruin your reputation with others. No one wants to be with someone who has been sullied by evil. Credit cards do this directly through those credit bureau reporting agencies. And the worst part is that your ruined reputation isn’t usually your own fault. When credit card companies report to these agencies, they frequently tell only half-truths about your actions. That doesn’t matter to the other lenders out there because once you’ve got a bad credit reputation, you have to work ten times as hard as before to regain your good name.

5. Ruined relationships. As if it’s not bad enough that credit card companies are out there soiling your good name, they’re also worming their way into your personal relationships and eating away at them. They get in there and give you reasons to keep secrets from your family. They wiggle into the crevice between your heart and your spouse’s heart and provoke fights that can damage the entire marriage. If you let that evil too deep into your life, you may find that the only relationship you’ve got left is your relationship with your credit cards.

6. They are all wrapped up in mystery. Part of the reason that we’re so attracted to evil is because it’s something a little dangerous that’s shrouded in mystery. We want to know more. The mystery of credit cards lies in a lot of different areas but is exemplified best by the whole interest rate issue. Do you know what interest rate you’re being charged on purchases, balance transfers and cash advances? Are you sure? Because in most cases, your interest rate is variable and changes by the day. Better yet, do you understand what portion of your payment is going to the different aspects of your credit card? It’s all a mystery to the average consumer and that mystery can suck you in and get the best of you.

7. Damage to your health. Evil means that something has become harmful to you and what’s more harmful than damage to your health? If you get mired in credit card debt, there’s a good chance that you’re going to have increased stress in your life. This can cause significant health problems including heart damage and chronic muscle pain. If you over-work to pay back those credit card debts, you may also damage your health through fatigue and physical exhaustion.

8. Playing with your emotions. In addition to damaging your physical health, credit cards can wreak a lot of havoc on your emotional health. The practices of credit card companies exacerbate those problems. They convince you that using their credit card is going to give you an emotional high but then you crash when those bills start coming in. Additionally, trying to communicate directly with your credit card companies can cause your emotions to rise and fall because they make it so difficult to actually get anything proactive taken care of through their customer service centers.

9. They ignore your communication. Speaking of customer service, have you tried calling your credit card company lately? They’re happy to talk to you when they want to offer you an insurance protection program (that costs money and doesn’t benefit you) but try calling when you want to cancel a card or resolve a billing statement error. You’ll be put on hold. You’ll be told that you’re getting transferred and they’ll hang up on you. You’ll be told to call back a different number at a different time. In short, you’ll get the runaround. This not only eats up your time but also causes you frustration that can ultimately lead to you giving up on taking care of the situation.

10. Credit card companies are to debt problems what drug dealers are to addicts. Let’s face it; credit cards can easily become an addiction. You get into this whole cycle of wanting to buy things but not having the money so you use a credit card which ultimately reduces how much money you have so that you still don’t have money the next time that you want to buy something. It’s a cycle that’s not easy to break. The credit card company just feeds your addiction. You get close to your credit limit and they bump it up another thousand dollars so you have more money to spend. You start to pay down your debt and they send you cash advance checks to reel you back in. To make a clean break from a drug addiction, you have to get as far away from your dealer as possible. To make a clean break from debt, you’d better extricate yourself from the relationship you have with your credit card companies.

Something is evil if it lures you in to a bad situation and causes you direct harm. If you’ve been suckered into debt problems because of the allure of credit cards, then you know that there’s something a little bit evil about the way that they work. If you’ve struggled to get out of debt only to be pulled back in by the addiction which is fed by your lenders then you know that this is an evil that can really get a good grip on you. Do you really want to be drawn to the dark side of debt? Battling that evil with smart credit habits is the only way that you’re going to keep yourself safe.

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This entry was posted on Monday, March 10th, 2008 at 1:45 pm and is filed under Credit Card Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.