I've had great credit for over 25 years but this last year I ran into a lot of personal problems that I couldn't prevent. I used up my full IRA and couldn't pay my credit card bills. I tried to explain the situation to them but they wouldn't listen or care and this is after 25 years of paying on time and paying the increasing interest fees.

I don't have any cards anymore except for a debit card. I like the debit card better. I can only spend what I have in it and there are no interest fees.

True, I can't buy that big screen HD television but do I really need it. At least now I think about what I spend.

I should have gotten rid of those credit cards years ago.

Congrats on dumping the credit cards. I wish I could cut all ties to mine. But I just can't stop thinking that I need them "in case of an emergency".  

Ha! I can remember when I first started getting the cards again after my second bankruptcy. I was only going to use them in case of emergencies. Yeah, that's the lie I told myself.

I must have had a lot of emergencies in the following years!

I still have them but at least now I really am only using them for true emergencies. I always have to learn things the hard way!

I ran into the same problems early on with my credit cards and I am still paying for it today.  In 2002 I lost my high-paying job and couldn't find a new job.  I had been paying extra on my credit cards for protection in the case I couldn't pay the bills due to loss of job or injury (etc).  When I lost my job, their "protection" froze my account (so I couldn't use the card) and increased my interest rate to 20% (doubled).  I was so angry!!! They sent me a packet to fill out of about 30 pages and I never heard from them after I submitted it.  I am still paying off the debt from interest.  I tried to cancel the protection a few times and they finally quit charging me and un-enrolled me from the program.  The only one who actually got "protection" was them.  I probably should have gone further into calling them out on what they did but I had so many problems at the time that I never called or reported them.

Credit cards have their value but the main problem with credit cards is that they can quickly devolve into a mountain of debt in a very short period of time.