The Federal Reserve gave consumer a few months to mull over this proposition: Should credit card companies be allowed to raise the rate on debt you already owe? Is it fair for them to constantly reshuffle your debt so you are always paying the highest possible interest rate and the most fees? Should banks keep secret the way to opt out of their overdraft protection plans, where they can charge a huge fee for a tiny overdraft? And can they send you an offer of one rate, then switch you to another?

Guess what? Consumers overwhelmingly hate all these current practices. They think credit card companies should be reigned in. Nearly 20,000 people wrote in on the three parts of the proposal: credit cards, overdrafts and truth in lending rules. Many call for stricter rules and use florid language like "usury."

Also guess what? Banks think the rules are a stupid idea. Bank of America is not just worried about itself, of course. BofA is concerned about the "broad impact on the economy both at the retail level and in highly complex securitization markets, slowing growth and limiting access to financing. To quote Bill Murray: "Dog and cats, living together!"

BusinessWeek's Jessica Silver-Greenberg says that it's the most significant credit card rule change in 20 years. Till now, she writes, regulators were content to simply force banks to clearly disclose their terms (which resulted in those pages of small-type that practically nobody reads). So now regulators and getting around to actually regulating. The comment period ended August 4, (though the comment form is still up).

When you travel for work, you know the drill: Get receipts for everything. When you spend cash for stuff like meals, beverages, hotels, and rental cars, your employer is likely to pick up the tab as long as you've got proof of purchase.

But what if you have to spend money on the road but can't get a receipt? It's happening more and more. The major airlines have deployed their newest fees with such haste that they are not always equipped to issue receipts for on-board purchases. Ask a flight attendant for one, and on some carriers you're more likely to receive a blank stare than appropriate documentation.

Take U.S. Airways. As of Aug. 1, the carrier began charging for drinks of any sort, including $2 for water. Passengers are not permitted to carry their own beverages through security, and buying drinks in the terminal is not always possible either because of a time crunch or because of personal dignity over gouging. If you, a business traveler, decide during Hour Three of a flight that you're thirsty, the staff will sell you a drink but they won't be able to give you a receipt.

I called U.S. Airways to ask if any of its flight attendants were equipped to furnish receipts for this newfangled charge. The answer was no. Right now, an airline rep told me, there are "plans" to give on-board staff hand-held devices for printing receipts by the first quarter of 2009, but for now, they have nothing, and those nebulous "plans" could not be elucidated for me. U.S. Airways' flight attendants also have neither the training or the equipment to write receipts by hand.

While you may not know it; merchants have to pay a fee to use the credit card machines which typically is 2% of the actual purchase price. To defray this cost of doing business many retailers factor the 2% fee into the shelf price for items which leaves cash-paying customers shelling out the same 2% overhead on their purchases too. During this year your family will spend on average $427 to cover these fees while the credit card companies net a cool $48 million from the interchange fees.

You can't make that kind of money in the U.S. without attracting attention from Congress and lobbying groups especially when your industry is already under fire for high interest rates and complicated anti-consumer fees and fine print. Congress is looking to regulate the interchange fee with the Credit Card Fair Fee Act of 2008. This fee is a cost of doing business; get rid of it and you risk a less reliable system or having the cost will moved to a different area under a new name. Even if the retailers can negotiate a lower fee, how likely is it that they will drop prices to reflect it? Consumers are already adjusted to the current price so the profit will stay with the retailer, not be passed to the consumer.

Rather than driving five miles out of your way to save a penny or two per gallon, you can generally save between 3% to 5% on gas if you keep the right credit card in your pocket. At $4 a gallon, that's the equivalent of 20 cents off per gallon. Even if gas goes back down to $3 per gallon, you are still paying the equivalent of $2.85 a gallon.

If you already pay with plastic, you can check your credit card statement to see how much you are paying per fill-up and go from there. If you are filling up every two weeks that translates to 26 fill-ups per year, so the amounts can add up quickly.

The old adage, if 10 years ago makes for an adage, was to monitor your credit and close down any unused credit accounts. Before the advent of "instant" mortgage approvals and automated underwriting systems, loans were actually evaluated completely by a living, breathing human being: an underwriter.

When a borrower would make an application for a home loan, an underwriter would look at other credit accounts. Some that had a credit limit with a low or zero balance. If the potential borrower had any past history of running up his credit line to or beyond his credit limit, it would make an underwriter nervous. What if a borrower who was pushing his debt ratios to qualify for a home loan would suddenly go out and buy a boat, a new car and take a trip to Cozumel right after he closed on his mortgage loan? Suddenly that new homeowner might not have the ability to pay his brand new mortgage.

From another prudent point of view, having old, unused credit accounts simply should be canceled should anyone ever attempt to steal an identify or otherwise charge something on an old card. But that's old school. Here's the new school.

Yesterday I wrote about colleges teaming up with textbook publishers to screw students out of just a little bit more of their hard-earned money.

Not wanting to miss out on the orgy of exploitation, credit card companies are also collaborating with colleges on misleading credit card offers loaded with undisclosed conflicts of interest. Basically, credit card companies are paying colleges in exchange for student information, and working out licensing deals that put colleges in a position to prosper by trapping their undergrads into a cycle of debt. Find out more about this sordid tale in this BusinessWeek story.

Here's how students can avoid this trap: if you receive a credit card offer in the mail, throw it in the trash. College students should never have more than one credit card -- there's just no reason to and, given that they're new at this, there's no reason for them to complicate their lives juggling multiple accounts. Log-on to creditcards.com's special card finder for college students, pick one with no annual fee, and pay off your balance every month.

If you know any college students, forward this post to them and save them some agony.

A GfK Roper Public Affairs and Media for CreditCards.com poll found that people would be rather talk about anything with complete strangers before they discuss credit card debt. Religious views, politics, age, weight and health problems are more popular topics.

Obviously it's difficult to find solutions to a problem when you can't even talk about it. But it may be even more damaging. The rise of consumer credit has made it nearly impossible to tell a person's financial situation without looking at their tax returns. Remember the LendingTree commercial with the guy who has a dream home and a nice car but is in debt up to his eyeballs? That's a very common situation. That guy you envy probably leases his car, is upside down on his house, and pays for his haute couture with a wallet full of credit cards.

But you have no way of knowing that, and so you end up feeling a need to keep up with the Joneses, even though the Joneses are broke. There's nothing you can do about people's unwillingness to talk about their debt, although you certainly should consider opening up about your issues with a few trusted friends. You might find out they have similar problems. But keep in mind that most people are probably in far worse financial shape than you'd think from meeting them. We live in an age of conspicuous consumption.

As lenders realize that they spent the last few years throwing cash at anyone with a pulse and an IQ over 20, they're cutting back credit limits for a lot of people, even those who have never been delinquent.

Here's where it gets really bad: one component of your FICO score is the amount of credit you currently have drawn down divided by the amount you have available. Lowering your limits decreases the denominator and can quickly send your credit score plunging -- even though you didn't miss a payment, open a new account, buy a Ferrari, or do anything else to draw the ire of the credit gods.

So millions of people have seen their credit card stories go something like this: use credit card, make regular payments to build strong FICO score, see your credit limit slashed because of broader macroeconomic conditions, be required to pay a higher interest rate because of changes in your credit score caused by something the bank, not you, did. Oh, and you'll also have to pay a higher interest rate if you borrow money from someone else to buy a house, which cost you thousands of dollars over the years.

The conspiracy theorist in me thinks that that's exactly how it's supposed to work out: lend someone money, reduce the limit, and then lend them more money at a higher interest rate. It's brilliant!

I would be nice to see the Fair Isaac take some action to prevent these credit limit cuts from increasing the cost of credit for people who have behaved responsibly. Somehow I doubt that will happen.

Ken and Daria Dolan, America's First Family of Personal Finance, answer your money questions every Friday.

Dear Ken and Daria,

I have "fair" credit. What kind of credit card is right for me?

-Cathy

Unsure what kind of credit card is right for you? Confused about what your credit rating really means? Ken and Daria Dolan keep you money-savvy with their advice on credit concerns at Dolans.com.

Click here to ask Ken and Daria your question.

Americans love their rewards, don't they? According to TNS Global's Financial Services Research, some 57% of rewards card holders have cash-back credit cards.

And there are lots to choose from. Some have complicated rules about when and how much you'll get back, depending on how much you spend and on what. Others are more straightforward, simply sending you a check based on a percentage of what you charged over the past year. Others let you accumulate points, which you can then turn in for services or travel. I've known more than a few people who used these cards to finance air fare abroad.

But as with everything in the credit card universe, there are hidden snags. Fortunately, it just got a lot easier to navigate the pros and cons of various cards.

Bankrate's first Cash-Back Reward Card Study offers an in-depth analysis of 30 reward cards that offer cash back from nine of the top credit card issuers. The good news? There are credit cards out there with annual rebates of up to $1,000! (Of course, you'd have to charge $100,000 to get that kind of reward with a USSA Federal Savings card, so don't run out and apply for one just yet.)

We've all heard the stories of credit card companies suddenly deciding to raise your interest rate. If you've made a late payment or gone over your limit, the credit card agreement allows them to immediately raise your rate. And there are other lesser-known reasons for raising your interest rate. Now it's become more common for credit card companies to have a clause in your agreement that allows them to raise your interest rate if your credit score decreases or if you have a late payment to a different credit card company.

One WalletPop reader wrote to me with this note about her increased interest rate:

I am writing because the Bank of America, where I have 5 or 6 different accounts, all in good standing, called me to tell me that my small business credit card finance rate was going to be increased to 23.99%. Not because I was ever late on a payment. Not because I went over my limit. Not even because I wasn't paying the minimum payment (I always pay more than the minimum payment). Nope. It was because I wasn't paying my balance down "fast enough".

If you've noticed that your mailbox isn't quite as full as it used to be, it's because credit card companies are mailing out fewer credit card offers to let naive consumers know that they've been PRE-APPROVED!!!! ... to pay 23% interest.

Mintel Comperemedia reports that unsolicited mailings from credit card, banking, investment, and mortgage loan companies mailed out 12.7% fewer unsolicited offers in the first quarter of 2008 versus the same period last year. JPMorgan Chase alone cut its credit card mailings by 34%.

Well isn't that just great: now that the economy is struggling and food costs are rising, the credit card issuers are tightening up. Of course when the economy was booming, they were happy to lend stupid people money to buy luxury apparel. Now, many consumers are tapped out, maxed-out and overdrawn, and they're no longer good risks for credit card issuers.

In the long run, like most developments that reduce the availability of high-cost consumer credit, this is good news for most people. With credit card companies pulling away the punchbowl, they'll have to resort to more creative ways to meet their expenses like, oh, I don't know, working more and spending less.

Ken and Daria Dolan are widely known as America's First Family of Personal Finance.

If the weak economy has you tightening your belt a bit these days, you're not the only one. The subprime crisis is putting a strain on banks' bottom lines all over the country since they aren't making as much income off of loan interest. I know, cry me a river, right? But this is important because it impacts your money in a big way.

To compensate for the dip in funds, banks are once again finding more ways to nickel and dime folks like you and me. The latest tactic is a fee increase from the usual suspect: ATMs. These fees can quickly add up to hundreds of dollars that can drain your account. While we can only dream about a world where we never have to deal with banks again, there are ways to avoid these costly fees. Check out my video below to learn about new ATM charges and my advice for protecting your money.

For more ways to fight back against bank fees, check out the Dolans' banking section at Dolans.com. Click here to learn more.

Don't forget to send your money questions to Ken and Daria!

Welcome to WalletPop's series "You've graduated. Now what?" Our bloggers have a wealth of suggestions to help you find you way through that time of amazing transformation, from student to working stiff.

I still had my diploma in one hand when my father handed me a bill totaling up all that I owed the family for my four years of higher education. He's the sarcastic type, so I thought he was joking, but he was actually serious. I was taking on some of the debt burden, but my parents had taken out loans as well and he figured they were my responsibility. My mom had to talk him down and let him give me a little time to get on my feet -- interest free -- before I started making payments.

They also ended up co-signing my first rental lease and fronting the broker's fee and first month's rent when I moved to New York for an internship that paid $5 an hour (just to give a sign of the declining times: A few years later, that internship paid nothing at all, and the company went out of business last year). So it wasn't just Sallie Mae that I owed.

The video below from BusinessWeek looks at how touchy credit card companies are getting. The slightest mistake -- for instance, sending in one payment two days late -- can lead to a huge increase in your interest rate. But more slimy, even making a minimum payment or showing a steady increase in your balance can you flag as a greater risk and result in a higher interest rate.

Congress is taking a look at these arbitrary and unpredictable rate hikes but, in the meantime, the best way to avoid being at the mercy of your creditors is to avoid being a debtor. if you find your interest rates hiking, I'd suggest taking it as a wake-up call to start paying down your debt aggressively.

I'm not defending the credit card companies: but being subject to their whims is the nature of owing them money. A pound of flesh indeed ...