Credit cards. The centipede drops another shoe.

With all the words hereabouts lately, I know the premises tumble into each other if you're not following closely. Wrote a few days ago

...And there was Joe Dokes, taunted to "Go for it!" by ads made by guys like me. Get that HELOC or 3rd refi -- shop till you drop and to Flip This House! The fees, the fine print, the floating nebulous and changeable rules of their contract with us were all designed to render the "customer" into a commodity to be squeezed, harvested, pandered-to. Until it wasn't useful to do so anymore. It's a weird existence living in the parallel universe of pretend public care (Customer Advocacy™) and jeering private disdain.

Except now, the disdain is leaking out.

Here's Fortune to carry the narrative forward...

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- When John Dykstra got his September credit card bill from Advanta, a small-business card issuer, he was shocked: Dykstra says he has a good credit score and has never missed a payment, but his interest rate had jumped from 7.99% to 26%.

He was even more shocked by the explanation: A brochure in the mail told him he needed to be aware of the "continually changing business environment."

He's not alone. Card issuers from Bank of America to Capital One are using the economic crisis as a reason to raise rates. According to Consumer Action's 2008 survey of card companies, Bank of America, Citi, and Capital One have recently said that "market conditions" could cause them to increase APR's.

"It's becoming a more common practice," says Ben Woolsey, director of consumer research and marketing at creditcards.com, a comparison site for card offers. "It's a broad, nebulous provision."

Betty Riess, a spokesperson for Bank of America, says the bank's fine-print provision for "market conditions" doesn't refer to the economy at large, but notes that "the current situation might cause us to take a more aggressive look at accounts."

Credit card companies often boost rates for reasons other than delinquency; the so-called universal default provision lets them change terms at any time based on customers' usage of other lines of credit. But when the Fed asked lenders in its most recent quarterly survey why they would tighten standards, 98% of responders blamed a less favorable economic outlook.

"They're saying, the economy is getting bad, and our earnings are under pressure--so we can change your account," says Woolsey.

Just a thought as the battle goes on for the high ground of "what's American." Found this via News N Economics which has a nice post on the accelerating shift to revolving credit as people dig deeper for staples and transportation costs. Home equity borrowing provided the bump in recent years--augmenting the wage growth or pay raises that never materialized--that allowed the the "I buy, therefore I am American" membership dues.

Bleh. Time too google some pictures of kittens.