When I first came to the US and started making some money the allure of credit was pretty strong. One year later, I had about $100k between amex and my bank. I

When I first came to the US and started making some money the allure of credit was pretty strong. One year later, I had about $100k between amex and my bank. I was on even on track to get an amex Centurion, as I had some side business doing $50k a month on my card. The whole access to lots of cash and the positioning of status is a powerful thing. Even though I'm well aware that it's just a trick to get you to spend "oh, a black card sir, please enjoy some cheap perks that cost you more than they're worth, because you're special". It's lame, but I'm not the only one that went for it. A friend was paying over $10K a year just to have additional black cards for other buddies. On the credit itself while at first I was cautious and against the idea of debt, the moment there's any cashflow issue, bam. I'm rather embarrassed, but without discipline it's easy to get lost. And every time I'd hit the limit, the limit would go higher. WF started off at $3k, and moved to $20k with zero explicit requests from me. If you're living month to month (US health insurance was $1600/mo), a single bump can easily permanently put you on credit. And, WF never approved me for a line if credit or a normal loan, so getting refinanced at a decent rate was more difficult than it should have been. They also wouldn't split the card off so I could just pay down part. In the end, it was my fault for being easily wooed and lacking self discipline. But they make it easy enough to step into and harder to step out.