Chances are you now know that plastic payment plans are everywhere these days. While many people think they are milking the system by paying for things on credit, the truth is that credit cards are one of the biggest businesses in the United States.

Marketing Plastic

Americans have a love, hate relationship with plastic. The consumer buying frenzy has been in place for a number of years now and spending has been swift. The fact is, though, that many consumers, though gleefully spending, are not using their own hard-earned cash, but are instead buying more and more on credit. Consumers are no longer balancing checkbooks, but watching their credit balances rise higher and higher month after month.

The attraction is the ability to be able to get credit in the first place. There are plenty of consumers who should responsibly be denied credit, but in the interest of competitive marketing, they are not. Instead, they are being subjected to guerilla marketing tactics by some companies who see their business as an investment. High interest rates bundled in with the promise of purchasing power. Many people at credit risk simply want to have the same things as do their friends and neighbors and, unfortunately, high-fee, high interest credit cards allow them to.

Fees, Fees and More Fees

The business of credit cards is really wrapped up in their hidden fees. Credit card companies, after all, are not going to lose money just to provide consumers with more and more goods. Business is business and plastic is big money. So, credit card companies must find increasingly savvy, even shady ways to grab the consumer’s dollars while they are not looking.

Many cards come bundled with hidden “membership” or annual fees that consumers are often completely unaware of, unless they are among the dedicated few who actually look at the itemized monthly credit tab. While companies are promising zero percent interest on balance transfers—another attractive card incentive—they are really tacking on a tricky little transfer fee that most consumers are, again, completely unaware that they are paying for. And then there are the late fees and over-limit fees that are considerable penalties. For some strapped consumers, even getting out of an over-limit situation can be costly. And there are others whose climbing over-limit fees are compounded by consistent late fees, meaning they stand a chance to never pay off their purchases.