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Head’s up to credit card rewards hounds: credit card companies are cracking down on rewards programs in an effort to save money as they grapple with record delinquency and default rates. If you use a credit card for everyday spending in order to earn miles or cash rewards, pay attention to any mail you receive from your credit card company to make sure they don’t change your rewards program on you. More

As Americans are tightening their belts, using credit less, and seeking any way to save a few pennies or get out from under debt faster, credit card companies are listening. Banks and financial institutions are starting to roll out credit cards with rewards programs that help you save or pay down debt.

For example, Wells Fargo has a program called the “Wells Fargo Debt Pay Down Solution” in which the rewards on a Wells Fargo credit card can be automatically applied to the balance or other loan balances at the bank.

Fidelity Investments also introduced the Retirement Rewards Card, a credit card that pays rewards of 2% of all purchases and automatically deposits the rebates into a Fidelity IRA.

Although not new, Discover Card also offers a credit card aimed at customers carrying a balance that will help them get out of debt—the Discover Motiva Card features cash back and a unique perk: For every six months on-time payments, Discover will waive one month of finance charges.

You’ve heard the scare tactics: Use a credit monitoring service or else fall victim to an identity theft, have your credit ruined, and lose your job. Is any of it really true? Do you actually need credit monitoring? Will credit monitoring actually protect you from ID theft? More

So, you have managed one or more credit cards responsibly, have a good credit score, and think you deserve an increase to your credit card credit limit. How can you increase your credit limit? Usually, all you have to do is ask. Here’s how: More

As banks have been cutting Americans’ credit lines on credit cards and refusing to issue cards to new applicants, more and more Americans have turned to another source of short-term emergency cash: Payday loans. Although the payday lending industry is experiencing a boom now, all of that may change when President-Elect Obama takes office. More

There’s a new ultra-exclusive credit card in town, and it’s not from American Express. The Visa Black Card, made of carbon instead of plastic and issued by Barclay’s Bank, provides big spenders with 24/7 concierge service, access to airport lounges worldwide, luxury gifts, and typical credit card cash rewards, all for the pittance of a fee: $495 a year. It’s a pittance, of course, compared to the American Express Black Card fees: $5,000 for initiation and $2,500 every year!

Still interested? Learn more about the Visa Black Card here »

A lot of Americans (including myself) are planning on working on our financial discipline in 2009 to ensure we can weather this rough economy. As the submissions to this carnival show, for many that means making getting out of debt a priority and making efforts to limit or eliminate our use of credit. If you have goals surrounding getting out of debt or managing your use of credit better in the New Year, I’m sure you’ll find something useful in this month’s Carnival of Consumer Credit. More

Good news for U.S. consumers struggling with credit card debt: The Federal Reserve has enacted a new set of rules governing how banks assess interest rates and fees that could save credit card customers a bundle. Now for the bad news: The changes won’t go into effect until June 2010. More

The fourth edition of the Carnival of Consumer Credit is now live over at American Consumer News thanks to Debbie Dragon. Thanks, Debbie!

Be sure to check out the dozens of timely blog posts included in the carnival commenting on everything from what credit cards are doing to customer during these weird economic times to digging out of debt.

Managing your credit cards wisely is one part of being smart financially, but saving money every month is perhaps even more important. Today, a number of online accounts offer high yield savings with rates up to 3.30% and no minimum deposit to open an account. More