I'm really pretty amazed at what credit card companies are able to get away with these days and how easily they are able to flip you to an outrageous APR. They require constant monitoring and to be honest, I really want as little to do with them as possible.

I saw a news story today about the rise of personal lending sites like http://www.prosper.com. Essentially Prosper.com is in the business of making loans, but they the money is funded by individuals rather than a banking institution. Their lending requirements, at first glance, seem to be a little more straight forward than financial institutions.

The up side to these types of sites is that they certainly beat having to deal with the constant games that credit card companies play.