It's not until you start a industry-focused blog like this that you really begin noticing all of the changes taking place in that industry. Well, right now I can plainly see that the credit card and banking industry is really hurting. It's hard to find any bank that isn't in a distressed situation, trying every tactic available to cut costs. It's taking a ton of time just to keep up with the changes that are happening week-to-week!

Along with the usual increased fees, decreased services and rewards programs, and all-around financial over-cautiousness that comes in such times of financial difficulty, I have spotted the following changes take place in the credit card sector:

• Chase & Discover have taken away their cap on balance transfer fees (once $75 and $99, respectively.)

• Chase has discontinued many of it's credit cards, including quite a few business credit cards (e.g. Chase Business Cash Rewards Visa, Chase Business Rebate Card, and the Chase Platinum Visa Business Card). They have also reduced the rewards program on their most popular card, the Chase Freedom Card (from 3% back on your top spending categories every month to 3% back on certain specified categories every quarter).

• American Express has gotten rid of a few credit cards that were previously offered, such as the American Express One card, the Preferred Rewards Gold card, and the American Express Platinum FreedomPass card.

• Introductory cash rewards and 0% balance transfer/purchase offers are way down in number. If you visit the 0% APR Offers page or the Signup Bonuses page you will notice quite a few cards crossed out on the list.

• Chase has completely discontinued doing any kind of affiliate promotions for their credit card lineup through the internet for the time being. American Express has also gotten rid of a few cards on their affiliates list (e.g. their entire OPEN line).

• Wachovia and Washington Mutual (WaMu) were both bought out by larger banks (Citigroup and Chase)…which in turn both needed financial assistance from the government to stay solvent. Great financial planning guys.

 
Unfortunately, we can expect more and more of this type of thing in the foreseeable future as the market continues to worsen.