Thousands of consumers are massively in debt after maxing out many different cards

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Credit cards are both a saviour and bête noire for spenders: they provide instant credit but sting you with crippling interest charges on the money you spend.

Who's to blame? The consumer for using them? Or credit card companies for encouraging us to spend now and pay later?

Many consumers get angry when they 'discover' the interest charged on their cards – interest that averages 15.5% in today's market.

Some are initially lured in by 0% introductory rates, but fail to keep track of when offer periods end and are surprised by the size of the repayments they have to start making.

Store cards charge even more, with interest rates soaring to 25% and above. Martin Lewis, the well-known consumer finance champion, recommends cutting up any you have immediately.

What many consumers don't realise is that some cards currently charge as little as 6.8%, rather than the much higher rates charged by many of the most widely held cards.

But who's to blame? Credit card companies have been criticised for making it too easy to take out a card, and thousands of consumers are massively in debt after maxing out many different cards.

Among 30- to 50-year-olds, the average owed on plastic is £2,580, recent figures from Alliance & Leicester show. Overall, the UK public are £56bn in debt to card providers and the figure is getting progressively greater.

And companies are notorious for aggressively chasing up unpaid bills and overlooked payments, fuelling the anger of those who feel they were encouraged to borrow in the first place.

People's confusion over financial products contributes to the problem, but it could be argued that easy card availability and targeted advertising simply encourage people, especially the young, to spend, spend, spend.

What do you think of the plastic explosion? Share your opinions of credit card companies and any experiences, good or bad, that you may have had.