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Consumers are Overspending. That's Work for Credit Counselors.: Chris Viale, acting CEO of Cambridge Credit Counseling, understands consumers' escalating credit-card debt. Are banks doling out aspirin?

Article Excerpt
The average American credit card holder is $14,000 in debt. That's where Cambridge Credit Counseling comes in, which aims to raise financial literacy among the masses. The non-profit, which has more than 180,000 clients nationwide-a fraction of the 3.5 million on debt-management plans-helps consumers restructure payments to avoid bankruptcy. Are banks part of the solution or part of the consumer-debt problem?

USB: What are the biggest trends you're seeing?

Viale: Right now, consumers are leveraging their homes at such high rates to pay off their credit cards. There aren't any recent statistics, but in 2001, the Consumer Bankers Association reported that 52 percent of equity loans and 47 percent of equity lines of credit were used for debt...

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