11.   But you must notify the card issuer about your plans to discontinue using their card for new purchases.

12.   By using a credit card, consumers now have a potential ally, the card issuer, if they run into a dispute with the merchant.

13.   By contrast, many card issuers might wait weeks to mail the first notice.

14.   Card issuers also may cap credit lines, act faster to collect delinquent payments, cancel high-risk customers or refuse to renew some accounts.

15.   Card issuers must look askance at the success shown by such sports figures as Dan Marino, Dan Dierdorf and Jim Palmer in pitching home equity loans.

16.   Card issuers say they most often encounter disputes involving unauthorized use of a card and billing errors.

17.   Card issuers may seize on the most minor infraction as an excuse to impose huge fees or rate increases.

18.   Card issuers want consumers to leave some debt unpaid each month, so the issuers can rake in interest payments, Nader said.

19.   Card issuers did relax credit standards to get more of the cards into circulation, analysts say.

20.   Card issuers have committed enough money to back the securities, he added, so as to ensure that investors will be paid on time.