25 Reasons Why I Hate Credit Cards

I hate credit cards. They are like a drug that you get addicted to. Pretty soon the thought of making a move without one or more credit cards at your side seems virtually impossible. After a while though, you get mad. Anger is a good motivator and anger at the whole credit card system (along with repeated Dave Ramsey lectures on TV) pushed me to the point that I abandoned credit cards all together. Here's why I hate credit cards:

1. Over limit fees.
2. Late payment fees.
3. Annual card fees.
4. Universal default clause.
5. Companies that slash your credit limits randomly.
6. Crappy customer service.
7. Companies that jack up your interest rates to loan shark levels.
8. The ease with which it helps you spend money.
9. The psychological reliance on a piece of plastic.
10. The ease with which an addiction to spending can develop.
11. The ease with which an addiction to collecting credit cards can develop.
12. The way that being granted credit makes you feel superior, worthy, and important.
13. The psychologically manipulative way that the color of a card makes you feel important...red...black...gold...platinum!
14. The impact your credit card use has on your credit rating.
15. The paper trail that using a credit card leaves.
16. The fact that when you most need credit, like in a crisis, they refuse to increase your limit. When you aren't in a crisis they seem to raise your limit randomly.
17. The fact that people will use a credit card when they are having a crisis (job loss, etc) which actually has the affect of compounding their crisis (because then they have added debt to the mix).
18. The greedy credit card companies. If they treated people fairly, people wouldn't hate the credit card companies.
19. The marginally illegal collection practices they and their collection agents use.
20. The ease with which you can spend more than you can afford.
21. The manipulative way they use "incentives" to keep customers. Air miles that are virtually impossible to use, for example.
22. The way that you can use a card to pay for a meal and still be paying off that meal two years later.
23. The way that by paying the minimum amount due, you can actually be paying the card off for thirty years even without adding any more purchases!
24. The changeable interest rates (they can raise your rates any time they want to while you have no say so over this even though you entered into the contract at a set interest rate).
25. The changeable due dates. Some credit cards seem to change their due dates monthly without giving you any notice so if you set the payment to recur on a certain date which worked the last few months, this month paying on that same date could cause a late payment.

I hate credit cards! Blah!