Credit Cards
Credit cards are one of the most popular forms of payment for consumer goods and services in the United States. To use a credit card legally, you must be eighteen or older, but many teenagers disregard this law and sign up for a credit card through the junk mail they get in their emails. Credit cards work in a very interesting way. You get a limit of how much you can spend each month, and you must pay off that money by a certain date. If you don’t pay off that money, you must pay a certain amount of interest for ever day since you spent the money, not for every day since the day you were supposed to pay off the money. The consequences of not paying off the money will amount to a lot. Every month you will be in even bigger debt and your interest will be extremely high, and you will eventually go bankrupt. Some teenagers sign up for a credit card through advertisements they receive in their email. Most of the time they don’t know what they’re getting into, and they will spend the money and not be able to pay it back. The law used to be, if you declared bankruptcy, the company that lent you money cannot get it back. Now, the law is that if you declare bankruptcy, you go to jail. The consequences are much greater now, so some people, who would borrow money and just declare bankruptcy to avoid paying it back, will reconsider their actions. The law also states that you may not have a credit card unless you are over eighteen. Some parents sign up for a credit card and give it to their children, and although cashiers are supposed to check to make sure it’s the correct person, they don’t, and even if you don’t look eighteen, they let you use the credit card because they want business. Who’s at fault? Is it the store, for not checking how old you are, or the parents who gave their children the credit card? Is it the credit card company for sending out advertisements to teenagers, whom they know will overspend? Why would they send the advertisements if they