Housing bubble over - check. Housing ATM closed - check. Wages flat and declining - check. What to do now? Run up the credit cards of course!

The housing crash doesn't end with the REIC layoffs, missed payments and foreclosures. It just starts there... And Americans just LOVE those credit cards - MORE FREE MONEY THAT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE PAID BACK!!! YIPPEE!!!

So will Congress put together a credit card junkie bailout plan too?

This downward spiral doesn't stop until the banks figure out they should just stop lending. Looks like we've still got a ways to go.

Housing crash fuels rise in card debt

Like many Americans, 34-year-old Jack Zenteno and his wife, Betty, found their finances taking a severe hit from the housing crisis.

"My wife went into real estate right when the market began to fall apart," Zenteno said. "And it occurred at the same time I lost my job."

With no savings to draw from, the Zentenos found themselves quickly racking up $30,000 worth of credit card debt — mostly to pay for daily expenses.

As more homeowners struggle with skyrocketing house payments, several experts expect many of them to start using their credit cards as a means to get by. Once unpaid balances reach five figures and interest rates creep past 20% or even 30%, however, credit card users face trouble.

"Anybody who is having trouble servicing their mortgage is going to try using credit cards to finance those other expenditures," said Tom Cargill, an economics professor at the University of Nevada, Reno.