You are defending the indefensible here @StefanF. By their very...

You are defending the indefensible here @StefanF. By their very design CC's are a predatory product. People are given quite significant limits (often amounts that would be well above their ability to repay in the typical one month cycle when fully drawn) and then hit with extremely penal interest rates if they can't bring their balance down to zero every month. These interest rates are well above what you would be charged for say a 3 year personal loan which is also an unsecured product. If the well being of the CC holder was actually being taken into account, they would be re-designed so that you are required to clean down your CC to a zero balance every 3 or 6 months. If you didn't do that, your remaining limit would be suspended and you would be put on a plan to repay the outstanding balance over say a 1 year period. This would stop people revolving in credit for an extended period of time, paying exorbitant interest rates and also potentially continuing to increase their outstanding balance. (often until the CC is completely maxed out). Why don't banks re-design their CCs in this way - I hazard a guess that it would make them less profitable.

I would also hazard a guess that most of the profit generated in the CC division of banks (I am talking about the credit provider here, not Visa or MC) comes from those people that are stuck in the revolving debt trap, not those people who pay off their balance every month. Hence the profitability of the product in an overall sense is being subsidised by a small subset of users who are generally the most vulnerable - this is classic predatory behaviour.

The argument that CCs couldn't exist if they didn't charge such high interest rates doesn't mean that they are not predatory. Why does the government regulate the maximum interest rate that pay day lenders can charge - because pay day lenders would otherwise prey on those people that have no other option than to pay up (I would suggest that even with the caps, it is still a predatory product).