Credit cards, the Dracula’s of the monetary world, drain resources out of our lives at a frightening rate. Put one more way, a credit card is like a cheeseburger: It is full of fat (interest), clogs your veins (debt), and makes you feel lethargic, and it adds nothing to your health.

And like fast-food burgers which are occupied with additives, credit cards are easily marketed. As soon as women entered the labor force in huge numbers, banks launched huge crusades to target these magnificent new customers and presented credit cards-sometimes free of charge - with intended addictive features to make it simple to spend.

With plastic in hand, women took purchasing to glorious and new heights. Credit card firms taught us lessons about expenses, such as the concept that "if something is not new, it is not good." Do you wish to know just how much we have been spending with our credit cards?

And, based on Consumer Federation of America, credit card debt surpassed $400 billion in 1996 and augmented to $880 billion in the recent years. Some folks have more racked up on their credit card balances than they make in a year or two, and credit cards have been a primary cause in the alarming rise of individual bankruptcies and home foreclosures.

It's time to reorganize our spending behavior and start to assess what we purchase and what we select to do in life based on lasting values-the peace or joy we derive from a control or an activity-and not just on the temporary thrill of spending. You will have fewer crumples on your face - and not imagine that you require that face lift - if you’re a girl with money in hand.

The bad credit cards are the high-interest bankcards, like Visa and MasterCard. Except you pay off the balance every month, you are stuck with unnecessary interest as well as the principal from your charges.