Credit card debt has affected this nation so dramatically in the past ten years that legislation has had to be passed to circumvent the effects.  Most American households have an average of $5000 to $10,000 in credit card debt. It could take the average cardholder  up to 30 years to pay off a $5000 balance.  High interest rates, large fees, membership cost, and penalties allow the credit card companies to keep cardholders balances from ever going down.  The government has taken notice of a lot of these unfair practices and they have started to regulate the credit card companies more stringently.