Wendy Bounds' tips on managing your credit card bills.

UK credit card companies wrote off £3.64bn in bad debts on their customers' cards in 2011, the Bank of England says.

Cautious consumers' repayments on credit cards, loans and overdrafts outstripped new borrowing by £305m in February, figures show.

Earlier this week, the New York Post shouted the headline "US Credit Card Debt Nearing Toxic Levels." The article was referring to the latest report from the Fed that in December, total consumer debt, which is the sum of both non-revolving and revolving debt, increased by 9.3 percent to almost $2.5 trillion. The increase in revolving debt, principally consisting of credit card balances, was at an annual rate of 4.1%. Thus, despite the fact that for a few short months in 2011 the amount of outstanding debt actually fell, the long-standing trend of strong expansion in consumer credit card debt returned with a vengeance in December, measured month over month, quarter over quarter, and year-over-year. We're slowly killing ourselves with our oil addiction, and the dealer yet again is jacking up the prices.

The online payments unit for eBay launches a credit card reading device which plugs into smartphones.