Credit Card Plot/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A character gets out of control with a credit card.

  • Played Straight: Alice gets a credit card, and goes on an expensive shopping spree with it.
  • Exaggerated:
    • Alice has maxed out her brand new credit card in the first hour. Bonus Points if several cards are involved.
    • Alice bought really expensive big-ticket items, like a yacht, a private jet, etc.
  • Justified: Alice doesn't really understand how credit cards work, as she has never had one, and no one ever discussed their responsible use with her.
  • Inverted: Alice pays for all her items with cash, or with a debit card. With money she actually has right here and now, in other words.
  • Subverted:
    • Alice saves her credit card for emergencies.
    • Alice writes a check, or makes a purchase using a debit card.
  • Double Subverted:
    • But an expensive car repair comes up, and she charges that on her card, which does some serious damage.
    • But she doesn't have enough money in her checking account, so the check or debit purchase bounces, and the bank charges her an extra fee.
  • 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, and she has more peace of mind.
  • Parodied:
    • Alice is blacklisted by every single credit card company, and her credit score is 0 across the board.
    • Alice is preapproved for a credit card...despite the fact that she's (literally) a dog.
    • The credit card company takes Alice into slavery 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.
  • Lampshaded: "Woo! New credit card! Come on, baby, Alice needs a new pair of shoes!"
  • Averted: Alice doesn't go bananas with a credit card, or doesn't even use one.
  • Enforced:
  • Invoked: Alice (The Ditz, or even just a Naive Everygirl) gets a credit card, without understanding how they actually work.
  • Defied: Alice throws the credit card offer away, knowing she'll just get herself into serious trouble.
  • 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."
  • Played For Laughs: Almost always is.
  • Played For Drama: Alice is drowning in debt that she cannot pay, and it's causing problems for her.

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...

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