A recent change to my credit card terms gobsmacked me

[sweetapogee]

17. we have been

totally debt free for 4 years, no credit card usage or debt for 6 years. 6 years ago, interest was 14-15% we thought that was high, now of course it is higher. My partner and I keep a cash buffer for emergencies. There is nothing we need to buy so bad that we need to pay interest or bank fees for, and we couldn't give two craps about reward points. News flash: the banks are not your friends. We had an enormous amount of credit card debt and finally got so sick of it that we stopped using them and paid them off best decision ever, life is so much better without the stress of debt. Some lessons are learned the hard way, and we learned that lesson in a very painful manor. If everyone stopped using them, the interest rates would come way down, and the fees would disappear. But we are headed in the opposite direction so I doubt that will happen anytime soon.