Wouldn't it be great to get along in this world without needing or using credit of any kind? This might be a question that more and more of us are asking these days. After all there's a lot of us out there who are suffering in this latest economic downturn.

Even if we count ourselves among the lucky ones who still have jobs and are not falling behind our scheduled monthly payments, the plight of others is a sobering one.

What if you were in that situation? We can't help putting ourselves in that picture. Maybe the next time a recession hits it would be better not to have four or five credit cards, each with a balance that never gets paid off.

It's easy to buy stuff on credit, things that we think we really need, counting on future income and good fortune to pay for it. And so the cycle continues on and on with balances ballooning to ever increasing heights.

Maybe we rationalize that we need credit cards in case of an emergency. What exactly is an emergency? If we get sick, we have health care, if we lose our job, we have friends and family. If the roof leaks, that doesn't mean that the whole thing needs replacing. Patch it up and wait until you have enough real money in the roofi
ng fund.

With our big lines of credit and our pocket full of cards, we have lots of "emergency" insurance. But wait, we also have insurance on practically everything, so emergencies get down-graded to special treats and perks that we feel we deserve.

Then if a real crunch comes, a real emergency and we lose our job, or our business take a down-turn, what happens? We use our credit cards and lines of credit to tide us over. And when everything is maxed out, what then?

Of course cutting up all our cards isn't going to happen in most cases. However, just think of the savings on interest and late payments that could be saved if we used fewer cards and were more prudent with our credit buying. At least then, if hard times come knocking, we'd be on a more level playing field, rather than standing in a huge hole of debt.

If you've fallen behind on a variety of debts, there is no doubt that bill collectors will come calling. If things get nasty with intimidation tactics and you don't know where to turn, remember that you have rights under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and contact a FDCPA attorney.

They won't be able to erase your debt, but they can make the harassment stop and can even get you compensation from the very agencies that are trying to collect from you.