When you sign a credit card receipt you obligate yourself to do something you have no power to do.... predict the future. And for the majority of cardholders who don't pay off every month, but rather, carry a balance on their credit cards, you are predicting that, no matter what, you will be able to pay at least the minimum payment on the account and continue to do so, without fail, every month until the debt is paid off.

You accept the trade off of interest in order to maintain the illusion that you can afford whatever it is you are purchasing. Affordability actually means you can pay cash for it. If you can't pay cash you may be able to finance a purchase but since being able to manage a debt with your current cash flow doesn't speak at all to whether you can continue such payments uninterrupted by any circumstances... it's all a lie.

Credit card companies collude with you in foisting a lie upon your mind such that you can buy what you want, ANYWAY, despite the foundational, logical truth that says you have no way to know whether or not you will be able to pay, uninterrupted, and on time, every single month until the debt is paid in full.

When you fail to back up your lie with profitable payments to the bank that they can count on every month without fail, it doesn't matter to them how long you have been a customer or how much money they have made from you in the past. If you fail to back up your lie, they will make you pay for it.

This is the fundamental error that most folks fail to recognize when they fall upon hard times, lose a job, lose a source of income, or just plain forget to send the payment on time. They think that since they have been a good customer they can "afford" to skip a payment. Not so.

In fact, the credit card companies can't wait for life to happen to you so they have an excuse to jack up your interest rates and/or charge extra fees. They make billions off your failure to execute on your lie.

And because they recognize that they have helped you lie to yourself and that that has great value to them and to you, they feel no shame in making you pay when you betray yourself and fall behind.

Am I on the side of the credit card companies? No. I think they bring shame upon themselves by their actions. But until you recognize what is actually happening in a credit card transaction, and own your responsibility, and choose to tell the truth to yourself, you have no hope of escaping the grip of debt.