Readers: Tell Us Your Credit Card Experiences

READERS, SMARTMONEY NEEDS YOUR HELP:

If you’ve read some of our recent coverage on credit cards (such as Card Issuers Get Drastic on Plastic and Banks Lowering Consumers’ Credit Card Limits), you know that the down economy means tough times for many credit-card holders. Perhaps the most difficult development for many consumers has been the crackdown on credit limits. Card issuers have started tightening limits for all kinds of reasons -- in some cases, not just looking at how much money you spend but where you spend it.

Here at SmartMoney we’re continuing to follow this story -- and taking an even deeper look at credit-limit reductions.

And that’s why we need your help. We want to get more information on the criteria being used to cut credit limits. One way for us to do that is to get you involved. This approach is called crowdsourcing, and it lets us tap the power of you, our readers.

So if your credit-card provider has informed you that your limit is being cut -- and particularly if they have cited an unusual reason, such as your purchases from merchants where other cardholders have had a bad repayment history -- we’d like to hear from you. I’m Kelli Grant, the senior consumer reporter for SmartMoney.com, and I’m heading up this effort. You can write to me directly at kgrant@smartmoney.com. (Please include “Credit Line Cuts” in the subject line.)