I try to take advantage of sales whenever I can to buy things I need, especially clothing. If it's not on sale, I ain't buyin' it! And so, there I was, strolling the men's department at JC Penney's browsing through the heavily discounted displays of polos and slacks, when I heard a woman's voice announce cheerfully "The magic number is nine! ... Janice in ladies'."  How odd, I thought, for the magic number to be nine, did that mean if I had nine items and scurried to see Janice in ladies I would receive the items free? Hmmm... this required some investigation. Because I was not anywhere near the ladies department, I asked the cashier at the men's department what exactly they meant by the magic number being nine and what Janice had to do with all of this. I was told that it meant Janice had just opened another credit card account. Gulp, wow! They take this credit stuff seriously at Penney's!

Leaving Penney's, I wandered over to Khol's accompanied by my wife and daughter, to search for clothing for the rest of the family. While we were checking out, I heard another mysterious announcement come over the PA system. "Congratulations to Debbie in shoes!" I thought I was starting to catch on to this little game. I asked the cashier if that meant that Debbie had just gotten somebody to open a charge account.  "Yes it does." Confirmed the cashier.  Hmmm... "And is there a reward of some type?" I asked, "A way of motivating you to ask people to open accounts?"  "Oh yes," The cashier answered. "There are prizes for opening a certain number of accounts."  Whoa!  These guys are playing for real! They've got a highly motivated army of trained professional plastic pushers!!! I can picture their basic training class. Watching films of cashiers in actual combat conditions, practicing the thrusting of applications..  Interrogating customers.. (Please simulate German accent here.) "Do you haf a Penny's card!?" "No?" "You open one now, yes!?" Then the battle cry.. "You'll save 15% and get a free duck if you open one now!"                            (OK, I admit it..  I made the duck part up.)

Recruiting more troops

Department stores are not the only places the war to push credit cards is heating up. On college campuses across the country, credit card companies are looking to sign up new customers. On one campus, students gathered in a room with a Citibank representative were told they could earn extra cash by getting other students to fill out credit applications. Each application would be worth $5 - $10 some serious money!  At the University of Pittsburgh, freshman Ryan Rhoades saw an opportunity to earn extra spending money.  Starting on the third floor of the dormitory, Rhoades didn't stop until he had reached the twentieth floor and had signed up almost 30 students.  Rhoades' actions may have been most damaging to himself. Rhoades ended up with $13,000 in debt that he is now struggling to repay.  

No sign of slowing

The Federal Reserve reported that consumer credit rose almost 6% in August, the biggest increase since May. The biggest increase was the use of revolving credit. Consumers are using their credit cards more often now that home equity lines of credit are becoming harder to obtain. In total, consumer credit rose by $12.2 billion to a record $2.4 trillion, our appetite for credit is increasing.

Where will it end?

Where will current trends take us? Retailers, banks and credit card companies are constantly coming up with new ways of encouraging us to use credit. (Hmmm.. marketing idea .. free monkey?) What will happen as consumers continue to borrow? As home equity disappears, instead of curbing spending, consumers simply shift their method of borrowing. The only thing that is certain is that consumers are moving further away from the freedom of a positive net worth.