We’ve all seen the big, hairy Viking oaf who is the spokesman for the CapitalOne Visa card: ”What’s in your wallet?”

He demands to know, because if it’s not the credit card he is hawking, you are missing out on all the rewards you could be getting. Every credit card company out there is trying to convince us that running up even more debt is a “rewarding” thing to do. We will be the recipients of all these wonderful “rewards” if we just use their card for all our purchases. Discounted merchandise, frequent flyer miles, room upgrades, even cash back formulas, are all promised by various cards as our “reward” for jacking up our monthly bill.

But for the most part, all those perks and presents are trotted out in order to draw our attention away from our ever escalating balances and the bank…