The silent trap of cards

Lately, I've seen several close cases of people trapped in a spiral of debt due to credit cards or quick consumer loans. It's something that happens little by little. One day you buy a cell phone. Another, you finance an appliance. Then comes the trip that seemed harmless.

And suddenly, you can't repay the principal. You can only keep paying interest. Month after month, installment after installment. The debt remains fixed. The amount borrowed remains almost intact. And you're stuck.

The serious thing isn't that this happens, but that it continues to happen every day. It affects all kinds of people. I'm not talking about uneducated people, but workers, students, the self-employed, even professionals with higher education. We can all fall for it. Because consumer credit is becoming easier, more instantaneous, more automatic. Sometimes a click is all it takes.

And of course, no one tells you that a 9% interest rate isn't so innocent. If you add up fees and charges, they're charging you 12%. 15%. 20%. And you keep paying. Until one day you discover you've already paid more interest than the amount you borrowed. Literally.

Fortunately, judges have begun to react. Several rulings have set limits on these abuses. They have defined what interest rates can be considered usury. Interest charges cannot be extended indefinitely, nor can they exceed certain thresholds relative to the amount borrowed. Consumers will have the right not to pay if there has been unfair advantage.

But even so, this hasn't stopped. Quick loan ads are seen on social media, on apps, on every website. And the silent debt is spreading.

I think we should talk about it more at home, with our children, with friends. And I've long insisted on something I consider basic: financial education should be part of the school curriculum. Just like we teach driver's education. Just like we talk about sex education. Why don't we talk about credit, insurance, savings, mortgages?

Young people should know—we all should know—what it means to get a credit card. How to protect yourself from over-indebtedness. How interest rates are calculated. How debt actually works. What insurance covers. It doesn't matter if they study medicine, art, or engineering. This is part of their future. Part of their adult life.

And the sooner they understand this, the better.

Because avoiding over-indebtedness isn't just a matter of common sense. It's also a matter of training. And, above all, prevention.