An Empty Dining Room

For the first two years after the McAllisters bought their house in Newark, just after they had received their first credit card in the late 1960s, there was no furniture in the dining room, because the family simply didn't have the money to spend on a table and chairs. That money went to food and clothes for the most part.
"We put carpeting down and that was it," Beverly McAllister says.

But there were times when she did use the card unnecessarily. She'd buy a dress or something for her kids that "they didn't really need to have." According to Mr. McAllister, a retired longshoreman, her balance at one point more than 10 years ago was as high as $4,000. She insists it was far less. Whatever the balance was, they agree that it took them the better part of six months to pay it off. But since then they have not carried a balance.

Her daughter Lisa has become intent on paying off her balance as well. She recently took part in a roundtable discussion about credit cards with correspondent Lowell Bergman for FRONTLINE's "Secret History of the Credit Card." She heard for the first time from some of the other panelists that it's possible to negotiate with credit card companies for lower interest rates.

"I didn't know anything about being able to call and ask to lower your interest rate," she told Bergman. "[It's] something I'm going to try."
She also learned for the first time about something called "universal default," a provision contained in most credit card agreements which allows the card issuer to raise your interest rates if you've missed payments -- not just on the credit card in question, but on any credit card -- or anything else for that matter.
When Clarke learned about this phenomenon her eyes widened, seemingly in disbelief. She now has made it her goal to pay off all of her credit cards within two years, and she has a plan to get it done. Simply put, she says she needs to stop using the cards -- period.
"I have to just say no," she says. "I've done it before but I haven't been consistent in doing it," Clarke admits.
So that means that her debit card will be the piece of plastic in her wallet that she turns to when the next bill comes -- so she hopes. When pushed about whether she really intends to stop using credit cards, Clarke paused, and then said she would stop using them, "as much as possible."