Credit card use can be a minefield for consumers

BALTIMORE - He’s anonymous, but his advice resounds through the ages — most recently in the words of Stuart Clode, senior vice president for marketing at Aberdeen Proving Ground Federal Credit Union.

“The guy who first invented the phrase ‘caveat emptor’ [let the buyer beware],” Clode said, referring to the hidden dangers of credit card use in a market where, reportedly, 6 billion credit card offers were mailed in 2005, “knew what he was talking about.”

And what this unknown pundit was talking about — when it comes to credit card use in America, where the average revolving debt is now $9,000 per family and the industry’s 2004 profits from fees was $46 billion — is legion and often lurking in fine print.

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