Evaporating Credit

Recently I was speaking with my sister who frantically told me that one of her credit cards had been cancelled and the other's credit line had been drastically reduced. She owns her own business and uses these cards for work related costs and to float expenses when customers do not pay. She looked at me with tears in her eyes and asked what she should do? I felt awful for her and had no solid resolution on what she should do other than break her customer's kneecaps (joking of course). I gave her the standard interrogation of the times; you know the questions, were you late? Did you have a high balance? She answered no to these questions and we discussed on figuring out how to use cash instead of credit. Even though this wasn’t really any help in the short term she did understand. I suggested she go online and search to see if anyone else was having these problems. Not surprisingly, she found many of the same horror stories that happened to her was happening to others all over the country. This news did bring her some relief knowing she wasn’t the only one but also deep sadness fell upon her knowing many Americans that were already struggling and relied heavily on credit cards were now in a worse situation then they were before. So if you're reading this and are having the same issues trust me you are far from being the only one.
Some of us are in this situation because of carelessness and others because of circumstance we now have to start thinking outside of the box because the old ways of doing things no longer apply. Credit is disappearing and wealth is being transferred out of the middle class' hands, the dollar is sinking ever lower and the cost of living is skyrocketing. We need to take inventory of ourselves and come up with creative ways on how to barter for goods and services, how to save more money, how to earn extra income and how to safely invest the money that we do have. This credit crisis does not seem to be subsiding anytime soon. Hang in there, take a few breaths, research and pray. When you are ready, start getting to work because the only person that is going bail you out is you!