Sadly, most of the country is just barely scraping by from month to month in this very harsh economic environment, and turning to credit cards for some relief can be extremely tempting. A thousand dollar credit card balance can turn into four or five thousand dollars in the blink of an eye, and once you get that deep into the hole it can be very difficult to ever dig yourself out. Of course if you end up losing your job or having a major medical emergency, that can be enough to push you completely over the edge financially. Today, that is happening to an alarming number of Americans.

For some perspective, let's go back to the end of 2024.  At that time, it was being reported that "credit card loan defaults soared this year"…

Experts are sounding the alarm over a new report indicating credit card loan defaults soared this year, warning the dam is about to break on Americans' record-high consumer debt.