Basic Trope: A character learns a lesson in excessive spending when they obtain a credit card, goes on a spending spree, and either gets slapped with debt or maxes the card out when they need it the most.
- Straight: Alice gets a credit card, and goes on an expensive shopping spree with it. By the end of the month, she gets a $1.000.000 bill from her expenses. Cue fainting.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice maxes out her brand new credit card in the first hour, and several cards are involved. She maxed out all of the caps by the time she leaves the mall, and is unable to pay her parking fee (it's cashless).
- Alice buys lots of really expensive big-ticket items, like a yacht, a private jet, etc. After all her spending, her total debt is higher than the country's national debt.
- Downplayed: Although she doesn't fall into debt, Alice ends up spending more on needless shopping than her personal budget would allow.
- Justified:
- Alice knows nothing about credit cards (either she was never taught or she's completely ignorant of what credit cards are and how they function).
- Alice is a teenage girl or irresponsible twenty-something about to be taught a lesson in money management.
- Alice is bad with money.
- Alice has a mental illness of some kind that involves impulsivity, which can impact spending and/or remembering to pay bills in full and on time (e.g. compulsive shopping, bipolar disorder, ADHD, and schizophrenia, just to name a few).
- Inverted:
- Alice pays for all her items with cash, or with a debit card — as in, money she actually has right here and now.
- Alice hears about her friend Bob who got into deep debt trouble, so she swears never to use credit cards. She runs into trouble when trying to get a loan or lease a car because the bank or dealership can't run a credit check on her simply because she has no credit. Not "zero" credit; she was never in the system in the first place.
- Subverted: Alice seems like she is pushing her limits, but she has a wealthy backer who is footing the bill.
- Double Subverted: The wealthy backer decieds to stop backing her when he finds out how much she is spending.
- Parodied:
- Alice is blacklisted by every single credit card company, and her credit score is zero across the board.
- Alice is preapproved for a credit card. Alice is actually the family dog and her masters use the card for themselves.
- The credit card company takes Alice into forced labor when she fails to make payments, citing that that was stipulated in the fine print (that even God would need an electron microscope to read!).
- The credit card is a MacGuffin.
- Zig-Zagged: Alice exceeds her credit limit on the first day she has a credit card. The debt incurred and the unpleasantness of the repayment process frightens her into not using credit cards for years afterwards. Then she gets her credit card back and begins to use it responsibly, but then her immature children get hold of it and run up a giant bill...
- Averted:
- Alice doesn't go bananas with a credit card.
- See "Inverted".
- Enforced:
- A form of Status Quo Is God.
- A Very Special Episode that plays Alice's irresponsible money management skills for laughs and drama.
- Ms. Red Ink
- Lampshaded: "Woo! New credit card! Come on, baby, Alice needs a new pair of shoes!"
- Invoked: The credit card salesman deliberately misleads Alice (whom he knows is economically blind) into thinking that the card would grant her unlimited purchases in order to encourage her to spend more.
- Exploited: Alice is unable to pay her credit card bills. Bob offers to settle her debts, and putting her in his debt, with higher interests.
- Defied:
- Alice throws the credit card offer away, knowing she'll just get herself into serious trouble.
- Alice uses her credit card only for emergencies. (Real emergencies, not last-minute anime conventions and music festivals, or Retail Therapy.) For everything else, she uses a debit card, a secured credit card (which basically works like a debit card, except it's not connected to a checking account), checks, money orders, or cash.
- Alice puts the item she wants on layaway, instead of using a credit card.
- Alice decides that since the item is more of a "want" than a "need," she can do without it or see if it's available cheaper elsewhere.
- Alice never uses credit of any kind (credit cards, loans, what have you), except maybe for things like buying a house. (And maybe even then.) She pays for everything with cash upfront.
- Discussed: "Poor Alice. I hear she lost everything to the repo men."
- Conversed: "Repo men only come for secured debt, like houses and cars, not junk bought on a credit card. Still, I have no sympathy for Alice; she should have been more responsible."
- Deconstructed: Sure, Alice can charge now. But the bill comes later. And if she can't at least make the minimum payment, it will ruin her credit history. That could be a problem when it comes time to buy a new car, a house, or even rent an apartment or get a job.
- Reconstructed: Alice uses her credit card only when she can justify it, and only when she can afford to make the payment. The rest of the time, she pays with money she actually has. She builds good credit, which helps her, she has more peace of mind, and she ends up getting some cash-back rewards out of it.
- Implied: Alice is the only character not said (or said not, as the case may be) to be using a credit card at present, and while she gives no more than Cryptic Background References, the others can figure out that she probably used to use a credit card but stopped due to misuse or abuse.
Here's a link back to Credit Card Plot, and remember: It's not free money, so you can't just — and there he goes. ... Oh man, this is gonna suck...
