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Credit card debt in the United States approaches one trillion dollars. There are more than two credit cards for every person in the country. In 2004 banks and other credit card companies earned $43 billion in income from late payment, over-limit and balance transfer fees. These same companies spent over $100 million lobbying for the 2005 Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act, which seriously raised the level of protection credit card companies enjoy when individuals file for bankruptcy.

The first two sentences above indicate just how prevalent credit card use has become in our country; the third indicates how profitable this method of payment is for the companies involved, while the last sentence shows just how successful these companies have been in protecting their source of income.

Companies that issue credit cards are, for the most part, for-profit entities whose primary responsibility is to their shareholders, not to the consumers they serve. The most successful of these companies will strike a balance between profitability and customer service, with the balance falling somewhere else along the spectrum. The largest of these companies control tens of billions of dollars in debt, and set policies largely without oversight.

In 1980, and again in 1982, Congress deregulated certain aspects of the credit card industry, including eliminating state usury limits. As a direct result, open-ended credit skyrocketed, and innovation in the industry has led to more options for consumers, and more sophisticated methods of profitability and risk management for companies.

Overall, credit card interest rates are lower than before deregulation, but credit card companies are much more profitable regardless. How they maintain that profitability is the reason that further regulation is needed.

Company policies and procedures have tipped the complexity scale to such a point that an average consumer could not be expected to understand the nature of the contract they are entering when they sign up for a new credit card. The relationship between the issuer and card-user is so complex and the document that defines it so esoteric that basic consumer protection is forfeited under our current system. Add to this situation the increased protections credit card companies were granted by a business-friendly congress in 2005 and we have an untenable credit crisis waiting.

If this crisis ever becomes critical, the damage to our economy will

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