Make credit cards work for you

Today, Explained

Vox

Politics, Daily News, News

4.3 • 10.3K Ratings

🗓️ 22 February 2026

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

America runs on credit. Those plastic cards we carry around can get us into big trouble — or score us free vacations. This episode was produced by Peter Balonon-Rosen, edited by Avishay Artsy and Jenny Lawton, fact-checked by Melissa Hirsch, engineered by Patrick Boyd, and hosted by Jonquilyn Hill. AP Photo/Keith Srakocic, File. If you have a question, give us a call on 1-800-618-8545 or send us a note here. Listen to Explain It to Me ad-free by becoming a Vox Member: vox.com/members. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for this show comes from Indeed.
0:03.0	If you're looking to hire top-tier talent with expertise in your field, Indeed says they can help.
0:08.5	Indeed's sponsored jobs gives your job the best chance at standing out and grants you access to quality candidates who can drive the results you need.
0:17.2	Spend more time interviewing candidates who check all your boxes.
0:20.5	Less stress, less time, more results. Now with Indeed sponsored jobs. And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to help get your job the premium status it deserves at Indeed.com slash Fox Business. Just go to Indeed.com slash Fox Business right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com slash Fox Business. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring, do it the right way with Indeed. In today's fast-changing digital world, proving your company is trustworthy isn't just
1:00.2	important for growth, it's essential. That's why Vanta is here. Vanta helps companies of
1:06.2	all sizes get compliant fast and stay that way, with industry-leading AI, automation and continuous monitoring.
1:14.5	So whether you're a startup tackling your first SOC 2 or ISO-27-001 or an enterprise managing vendor risk,
1:23.5	Vanta's trust management platform makes it quicker, easier and more scalable.
1:29.0	The results? According to a recent IDC study, Vanta customers slash over $500,000 a year in costs
1:37.2	and are three times more productive.
1:40.4	Establishing trust isn't optional. Vanta makes it automatic.
1:45.0	Visit vanta.com slash Voxpod to sign up for a free demo today.
1:50.0	That's V-A-M-T-A.com slash Voxpod.
1:55.0	Crazy that they hand out credit cards to 18-year-old.
2:04.8	Interest rates are no joke.
2:06.6	Paid for flights to Greece? It's pretty credible.
2:11.2	Americans are in serious debt.
2:14.1	Together, we owe nearly $1.3 trillion in credit card debt alone, and our average balance, around $6,500 each.
2:23.5	Owing that much can get really scary and overwhelming.
2:27.3	I know firsthand that you can make your way out of it, but it can be really hard.
2:33.4	Spent about $15,000 on furniture when I moved into a new place, and I'm still paying that off.
	...

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