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That shiny piece of plastic burning a rectangle-shaped hole in your wallet is one of life's trickiest necessities.

On the one hand, you can't make it much farther than 25 without some line of credit to show for yourself.

On the other, credit cards are often intimidating: whole episodes of Oprah are dedicated to really good people with decades' worth of credit card debt they didn’t mean to accrue. You're a good person. Does that mean you are going to accrue a Kilimanjaro-sized mountain of debt as well?

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Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard professor appointed by Obama to get the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) up and running, sat down with the LA Times earlier this week for a Q&A session.

If you missed it and still have lingering questions about what it is Warren and the CFPB will be focusing on in the coming months, I highly recommend checking out the full interview for all the details.

 Dear Creditnet: I recently began helping an elderly neighbor pay his bills. One credit card statement arrived today and indicated that his payment is due in just 18 days. They also request that it be mailed at least 7 to 10 days in advance to avoid a late payment fee, so that only gives him 11 days to cut a check and get it in the mail. This just doesn't sound right to me. Am I wrong? Answer: I wish my grandparents had a neighbor like you. Kudos for lending a helping hand. Your neighbor's credit issuer will need to receive payment by the due date or they will most likely charge a late fee and begin charging interest on the existing balance as well. That's why they're suggesting you send payment at least a week or so in advance. Unfortunately, the mail can be quite slow sometimes.