Howard S. Dvorkin, CPA, founder of Consolidated Credit Counseling Services, Inc., a nonprofit credit-counseling service based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and past president of the Association of Independent Consumer Credit Counseling Agencies. He is author of Credit Hell: How to Dig Out of Debt (Wiley). www.consolidatedcredit.org.
Credit cards provide great convenience, but they can also create friction and escalate financial tensions within a family, especially at…