This is from my newspaper:

Between now and the end of the year, it's more important than ever to carefully read any information leaflets sent to you by your credit-card company as well as scrutinize your statement.

With tighter regulations to the Federal Trade Commission Act hanging over our heads, some of the credit-card companies are trying to get some changes in while they still can.

One of the changes the act will make is that arbitrarily increasing the interest rate on a pre-existing balance will be prohibited. Consumers, even those with excellent credit and responsible credit-card management, have been receiving information leaflets saying their interest rates are going up - for no apparent reason.

Read your statements carefully and pay attention to the interest-rate information to make sure it hasn't changed, and check your available balance.

Credit-card companies can (and do) arbitrarily lower your available credit, making it appear that you're using a larger percentage of available credit, which impacts your credit score and can make your interest rates go up. It's a vicious cycle.

Debit-card transactions will see changes, too. When you use a debit card to make a purchase, especially at the gas station, you're no longer in control of your money. Let's say you know you have $100 in your bank account. You swipe your card and ring up $40 for gas. The station will often put a larger hold on your money, say for perhaps $80. Then you spend another $50. You assume that, out of the $100, you have $10 left. WRONG. You're overdrawn by $30 because of the gas station's hold on your money, and that hold can stay there for days.

Solution: At gas stations, pay inside and use the PIN. This will force the transaction to go through at the exact amount of purchase.

Don't write a check or use your debit card unless the money is in the bank and you've verified that it's been credited to your account.

However, if you use the Internet or ATMS to check your account balances, you could be given the wrong information, as the computer is set up to acknowledge deposits, even if they haven't been credited to your account.

Precisly why I have no credit cards.

Oh and didn't someone say once...

Neither a borrower nor a lender be...

Warnings are allways ignored by humans.

Never had one of those plastic debt traps.

Compound interest may be the most powerful force in the universe, if we are to believe Einsteins attributed quote.

I'm a cash guy, which is good, considering it seems that there has been a movement afoot to create databases on what people are doing, including sales lists, library books, whatever.

A society that operates in a cashless format is holding what of value exactly?

I know alot of people that use debit cards. The article surprised me when it said that the gas station can hold more more money than you used.