One of the most common credit card mistakes that cardholders make is to get seduced by the beguiling option of paying only the minimum monthly payment on their credit card. It’s easy, it’s simple, and it endlessly postpones the pain of facing up to what we actually spent last month—and the month before, and the months before that.

If you have bad credit or no credit history, one of the fastest ways to improve your credit or establish a credit history is to apply for a credit card. Because it is difficult for people with poor credit to get approved for a credit card, however, this easily becomes a Catch-22: you can’t get approved for a credit card to improve your credit score until your credit score improves.

Credit card reform has taken much flak for giving card issuers plenty of time to take measures to protect themselves against some of the more important provisions of the new law. Card issuers have aggressively hiked interest rates in advance of the February 22 deadline for new rules that limit interest rate increases on existing balances.

Like an emergency medical assistance team rushing a dying patient to the hospital before the last vital signs fade away, members of Congress are pushing to move up the deadline for the enactment of the key provisions of the new credit card law to December 1.

As a nation, we pride ourselves in having overcome many of the racial barriers that marred America in the past. However, according to a recent study by economist Ethan Cohen-Cole at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, when it comes to getting approved for a credit card, race may still matter.

Based on an analysis of the credit files of 285,780 individuals, the study found evidence that credit card companies may base their decision about who to approve for credit cards in part on the racial composition of the neighborhood in which the applicant lives.