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If you're like millions of other Americans then you've got a credit card. Just about all credit cards require you to make a minimum monthly payment on your balance of charges. Very often you choose the date you want to designate the one-month point -- say, the 1st of every month, or the 16th.

It's easy to forget when the bill is due, and when you forget the bill is due you forget to pay it, that results in you getting a late penalty fee added to your balance, and a ding in your credit history. Why doesn't the credit card notify you when your balance is do?

For the very reason that if you miss your payment date you'll get hit with a late fee, and those late fees are a big part of your credit card's profit margin.

Credit Cards Need to Make Money

It's no fun being cynical, but let's face it, when it comes to credit cards and the way they treat their members, profit is the name of the game. That's what all business is about, of course, but with credit cards its more overt, because they consciously seek to trump their members in order to get as many dollars out of them as possible.

Notifications that the credit card minimum monthly payment is due would alert plenty of people who are busy and forgotten tha it's time to pay. They'd rush to the computer, click on the "pay now" button, and all would be well.

The problem is that the credit card company wouldn't get your late fee.

Not All Credit Card Companies are Out to Get You

Some credit card companies do send out notifications that the monthly payment is due, but they are few and far between. The vast majority of credit card companies won't offer that courtesy, and can actively -- although never explicitly -- seek to confuse their members with confusing monthly statements and even counter-intuitive design of their online account pages.

When it comes to paying your monthly bill on time, you need to rely on your own organization skills to give you the necessary prompt.

Georgian Bank in Atlanta Georgia was the 95th institution to fall prey to bad loans and real estate woes and more failures are predicted in the months and years to come. What could be worse? Analysts believe that failures could result in an insufferable depletion of the FDIC's insurance fund for deposits, which has already reached its lowest point in nearly 20 years.

The FDIC is fully backed by the government; however, there is only so much money in the fund for deposits. In June, the FDIC's fund fell to $10.4 billion, which is extremely low, yet, it is expected to need to spend an additional $70 billion to support bank failures by 2013.

The FDIC's takeover of Georgian Bank alone is expected to cost $892 million as it has to cover each depositor's account for up to $250,000. Currently, there is $21.6 billion in cash, along with the insurance fund, which means the money to support banks is still insufficient as it tries to manage the multitude of banks closing their doors.

To try to keep up, the FDIC is considering a number of options, including borrowing from healthy banks, tapping its $500 billion credit line with the Treasury Dept., or imposing a special fee on the banking industry. In the meantime, the Treasury Dept and federal bank regulators are looking at new banks to see which ones might qualify for bailout funds that didn't in the original group receiving $700 billion. To date, there are a whopping 416 banks on the list.

Bernanke recently noted that the recession is "technically" over, but it certainly doesn't show in the seemingly continued weakening of the economy.

Have you been affected by any of the 95 bank closures? What was your experience?

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