I can say that my Credit has saved me a few times more than I would like to admit, and had it not been for that I don't think I would have made it through some of the rough times that I have endured over the past few years. I would never advise using credit in a time were your money is tight because the whole idea behind credit is pay now, but pay back more later. And for you to get credit you have to prove that you don't really even need it, in other words you have to be able to prove that you make more than enough money to pay it back, and your Credit to Debt ratio is not upside down (where you have less credit that the amount you owe). This is where the problem is today, not for the Credit Card companies, but for the people. More and more people are signing there souls away (so to speak) to the Credit Card companies, and because of job statistics how they are, these people are finding them selves in a situation where they owe more than they can pay. This is generally not because the person is irresponsible, but because they have made some sort of change that they did not expect to have the effect on there income that it did, and because they were used to living a certain way, they didn't adjust when they should have to compensate for their current financial standing.
Here is a good link to advise on how to adjust if you were to receive a pay cut...
http://moneywatch.bnet.com/career-advice/article/how-to-prepare-for-a-pay-cut/309145/
Now when this is associated with Credit, sometimes people seem to think that they will be able to use a Credit Card for an emergency financial situation, when that is the worst time to do so. If your financial situation is already bad, then why would you take a "loan" that you know you wont be able to pay back? Well, the answer is that these people have not adjusted and because of the pay cut they now live beyond there means.
Its actually a scary thought that as of March of 2010 the peoples consumer debt alone was at 2.45 trillion dollars, which in relation to our Nations GDP (Gross Domestic Product - this is how a nation shows its worth) that was reported in 2009 to be 14.3 trillion, is almost a ratio of 1:5. That is only the consumer dept which debts that are secured by real estate like mortgages.
The other problem here is that now that we are at this economical condition, more and more people are obtaining credit cards and procuring more and more debt (which is exactly what the Credit Card companies want - the more you owe, the more they get paid on interest). These "Second Hand" credit lending companies that are giving credit to people that do not readily qualify are really causing a lot of problems with variable interest rates and a starting rate that is already super high.
After its all said and done, we live our lives almost our whole lives in debt, and that seems to just be the American way... We need to have credit, as how else would you buy a house or a new car, I really doubt that you would be dropping $3-400K cash for a house, or even $25-30K for a car. So the importance of Credit and Credit management, in my opinion, is at its most critical state for our economical situation, and we all need to balance our spending, but also build credit so that when the economy strengthens again, we will be in a stronger financial standing.
Please feel free to comment and go ahead and sign in if you'd like to follow, as I have quite a bit to blog about over the next few months...
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