If you think that credit card agreements are fair contracts between you and your financial institution, consider these recent activities by credit card issuers :

• Last year, using the slogan that "a deal is a deal", Citigroup marketed a card that promised that the company would no longer reserve the right to raise rates on the credit cards at any time for any reason.  The company could still raise rates on those who mismanaged their finances or at card expiration.  Now, a year later, Citi is considering reneging on its promise.
• Because of problems at some banks, credit limits on some consumers are being dropped, which ends up damaging their credit score, which is partially based on the ratio of used credit to available credit.  The higher the ratio, the lower your credit score.  The reduced credit score may increase the rates that those borrowers pay for mortgages, insurance, cell phones, etc.  In addition, some of these banks are also reducing credit limits on HELOCs (home equity lines of credit).
• Rates may be raised, not because of your own financial situation, but because the bank mismanaged its money.
• Inadvertently making a late payment or going over your credit limit can set of a chain of events that makes it nearly impossible to get out of debt in a reasonable amount of time.  In these cases, interest rates can approach 30%, which is extremely punitive.

Clearly, the deck is stacked against you when dealing with the credit card issuers. 

If you have credit card debt, we advise implementing a debt snowball to pay them off as quickly as possible.  To read more about the debt snowball method, click here.