Matthew Bohn didn’t let lack of money diminish his Christmas shopping list. He ignored price tags and whipped out his Visa card. But when the season ended and Bohn’s bill arrived, his heart sank along with his credit score.

“It seems so convenient at first,” Bohn said, “but when your bill comes and you realize you have to pay it all back, it’s not so fun anymore.”

Bohn isn’t the only consumer who gleefully bustled in and out of stores, clutching bags filled with presents paid for with plastic – and he isn’t the only one feeling the sting of post-holiday shopping.

Kaitlen Cowell, an employee at JCPenney, said starting in early November, the number of card-holding customers essentially doubles until the holidays are over. Part of Cowell’s job is to sift through credit card receipts at the end of the day.

“We had so many credit card receipts that we couldn’t even rubber band them,” Cowell said.

Part of American life

Linda Cullinan, vice president of marketing in the bank card division at Intrust Bank, said credit cards have become essential to daily living.

“The product is one that’s completely saturated into society,” Cullinan said.

As credit card activity rises, so does credit card debt – now hovering at a whopping $900 billion, according to the Federal Reserve.

Credit card applications are packed with fine print. And it’s important to read and understand it. Take the universal default clause, for example.

“A universal default clause allows the credit card lender to raise your interest rate to a subprime rate if you have defaulted on any other debt that they know of,” said Robert Baker, a credit counselor at Housing and Credit Counseling. “It doesn’t even have to be credit card debt. It could be any debt.”

In other words, forgetting to pay for a magazine subscription or neglecting an insurance payment could affect your interest rate.

People who don’t believe they’ll be able to make payments shouldn’t sign up, Cullinan said. But even those who do manage to make monthly minimum payments sometimes get overwhelmed.

Sarah Woods signed up for a card when she enrolled in college.

“I paid it every month on time, but the debt never got smaller,” Woods said. “I never paid attention to my bills so I didn’t even know my interest had gone up.”

Minimum payment trap

“A lot of people don’t keep track of late fees and interest rates until they have to,” Baker said. “Studies have shown that 50 percent of all consumers only look at the top portion of their bills. They never look below where there might be charges for late fees, if they paid late, or a hike in their interest rate.”

And making the minimum payment often isn’t enough to eliminate the debt. Baker calls it the minimum payment trap. In December 2006, Baker said, credit card companies were asked by the government to raise the minimum payment to an amount that if consumers never had a late fee, if they always paid on time and always made the minimum payment, they could pay off their balance in 12 years.

“If you get stuck paying the minimum payment, you could be paying for a long time,” Baker said.

Walter Glaude, consumer credit counselor for Housing and Credit Counseling, suggests cardholders pay balances as quickly as possible.

“You could pay the minimum payment on your credit card, and it could only be covering interest,” Glaude said. “Your payments may not be applying toward the principal.”

But if debts already have been racked up, what do you do? Cullinan advises consumers unable to make payments to notify their lenders and see what services they provide.

“The worst thing you can do is to decide not to pay,” Cullinan said. “In the end, all of this goes toward your credit record, and you want to avoid damaging it.”

Get to know what you owe

Many banks offer consolidation loans, which allow you to lump your balances into one cohesive debt with a single interest rate.

But not all places offering consolidation are reputable.

“If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is,” Cullinan said.

Baker said if you’re going to go through a debt repayment service, the ones legitimately able to do business in Kansas will be registered at the Kansas state banking commission Web site, www.osbckansas.org.

“If they are not registered there, you shouldn’t go there,” he said.

Another option for debt relief is to reprogram behavior – curb spending and establish a budget. Glaude, who teaches a class called “I love to spend, but I hate to budget,” said sometimes all it takes is a closer look at money earned and a more responsible approach to managing it.

But every case is different, and if a person is in too deep, they can seek outside help through credit consultants.

Baker usually sees an influx of people seeking credit and financial counseling after the holidays, particularly in February and March. Many come in after experiencing problems directly related to Christmas shopping, such as Bohn, who pledges to refrain from whipping out the credit card next year.

“I slit them in half,” Bohn said. “My new philosophy is, ‘If you don’t have enough money, you don’t need it.'”