Rising rates and minimum monthly payments aren't the only problems plaguing credit card holders these days.
Many credit card companies are also lowering the credit limits for consumers, and some are simply refusing to grant credit altogether.
There are a number of reasons for this recent phenomenon.
While in the past, credit card companies were bombarding consumers with offers, recent surveys show that junk mail from Visa, Master Card and American Express has all but dried up.
The reason, said Peter Garuccio, a spokesman for the American Bankers Association, is the economy.
"When there's a downturn in the economy of this magnitude, it affects all business," he said. "While America is suffering, there's a feeling the credit card companies are having a field day, and that's just not the case."
The economic downturn has hit credit card companies as well as consumers.
"Over the last several years, it's amazing to see how much unemployment tracks with credit card charge-offs," Garuccio said, referring to delinquent credit card accounts that never get paid. "Both are around 10 percent.
"If you are going to continue making loans going forward, you've got to factor in those losses, meaning higher costs to the rest of us. In effect, people who pay their bills end up subsidizing those who don't."
Garuccio said Americans carry about $900 billion in credit card debt, and with a 10 percent default rate, that means $90 billion isn't getting repaid.
He said about half of credit card loans are funded through deposits in banks, and the other half through investors. Those investors, he said, are looking for a higher return on their investments.
"They're still going to invest — they just demand higher interest rates and reduced credit limits," Garuccio said.
There's only so much money to go around, he said, so if someone is sitting on a credit limit of $20,000, that's money that can't be used by someone else who will pay higher interest rates.
Further straining the system is the fact that there are fewer investors out there willing to invest in credit.
"That market was bone dry when the bottom fell out," Garuccio said. "It was like the mortgage industry."
The other side of the equation is that demand for credit is dropping.
"People are spending less and saving more," he said.
