Bankruptcy INK

If the financial pinch isn’t too tight over the next few weeks, you might just want to go see James Scurlock’s independent film that dissects the credit card industry, Maxed Out.

Featured on Nightline earlier this week, Scurlock’s story began at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, where he was inspired by Donald Trump, was an entrepreneur and started a successful investment newsletter and, later, became a vocal consumer advocate.

It was the credit card industry’s policies and financial history Scurlock wants to expose as debt for individuals in America continues to grow at alarming rates.

Some of the issues Scurlock explores in the film:

Credit card fees have gone up 160 percent over the last five years.

The average American household has more than $9,000 in credit card debt and pays more than $1,300 a year in interest rates.

The credit card companies mail out about 4 billion offers a year.

"Back in the '80s [we] were paying $15 for over limit and late fees," said Bud Hibbs, a consumer advocate featured in the film. "I just saw that raised to $43. Think about that: $43 if you are late, $43 if you are over limit. That's $86 dollars on your credit card before you even do anything. Then your interest rate is going to jump to 21.9 [percent] and then all the way up to 28.9 [percent]. They want you to be late."

ABC’s feature on Scurlock and Maxed Out also looked at the government’s role — or lack thereof — when it comes to the massive debt and business practices of the credit card industry.

"After 9/11, all of our politicians came out and said spend more money," Scurlock said. "You know, keep this economy going. And I thought, that's so odd. Because normally in a time of war you would sacrifice and save, and here we are being told by our leaders to spend, spend, spend."

"Congress gets a lot of money from the credit card industry, in contributions," Scurlock said. "More than that, though, I think politicians are really terrified of what would happen if they came down too hard, and all this easy credit was suddenly snatched away and the economy dried up."