September 2009
If you're happy with your current credit situation, you may wonder: why should I bother to compare credit cards? After all, my current card has a reasonable interest rate and hasn't caused me any problems. What's all the fuss?
I frequently get the question: why would anyone want an anonymous prepaid credit card? Isn't that basically a debit card? And isn't half the point of a credit card to establish a solid credit history -- in your own name?
Well, yes. But there are people out there who want to remain off the grid. I'm not talking about criminals, I'm talking about regular, ordinary people who don't want the government, their favorite charities, or the places they shop tracking their transactions. If that describes you, an anonymous prepaid credit card is your ticket to privacy.
When it comes to average credit card debt, average will always be a relative term. By its very nature, you find an average by adding up a bunch of different amounts and dividing them by the total number. In other words, if you took three people -- one with a debt of $8,595, one with a debt of $50, and one with a debt of $200 -- the "average" debt between them would be about $2,950 -- a very misleading figure.
Having said that, however, the more people involved in the study, the closer to the actual average your answer will be. So although you should take "average" numbers with a grain of salt, they can be very informative about the amount of debt people actually carry.
Many people dismiss their credit card debt, but carrying more than they should leads to significant problems in the future. Let debt get out of hand, and watch credit scores plummet.
