61.   Some card issuers including American Express and MBNA, are now offering by-invitation-only cards to appeal to upmarket consumers.

62.   Similarly, many card issuers are constantly monitoring the payment performance and debt levels of customers and increasing or decreasing their credit lines accordingly.

63.   Some card issuers, for instance, tack on initial activation fees, surcharges for every call and monthly or even weekly maintenance fees.

64.   Sometimes card issuers are raising rates, lowering credit limits, or doing both in a pre-emptive move to lessen damage from the recession.

65.   Some card issuers are offering such high rates on the amount on deposit that they have lured savers instead of borrowers.

66.   Some card issuers have developed electronic techniques for spotting unusual activity.

67.   Steve Boyden, a spokesman for the big card issuer MBNA America Bank, said his company offered things like payment holidays and increased credit lines for emergency purchases.

68.   Still, there are signs that the card issuers may well have taken a strategy designed to avoid bad credit and pushed it too far.

69.   That depends mainly on the card issuer and, to a lesser degree, the telephone carrier over whose lines the calls are transmitted.

70.   That is because card issuers generally wait until after the end of a quarter to adjust their rates, McBride said.