I use credit card rewards as a second currency, stashing gift cards in a drawer at my house for when we go out to eat or Mr. Kablog needs a new pair of pants.   I used to charge on an airline miles card but as rewards seats became scarce and more expensive, I made the switch to points for purchases and cash-back cards.

But a story in the WSJ says I may find my reward programs will give me less bang for my buck this year as creditors try to save money.

Have you noticed any changes to your rewards programs?

As I’ve written before, Mr. Kablog and I have an absurd amount of credit credit cards with credit limits that far exceed our gross income. They were collected over several years.

I opened the cards, which have actually improved our credit score, because I’ve been tempted by juicy rewards, or transferred balances to take advantage of 0 percent interest rate offers. We always had the money to pay off the zero percent cards, but figured if Chase wants to give us free money, we might as well save ours and earn 5 percent interest in a savings account.

But after yet another stupid mistake, I’m throwing in the credit card arbitrage towel.

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The idea of a reward credit card that puts a percentage of your spending into a savings account has received a lot of criticism. “Spending to save?” goes the complaint. “How could anyone think of anything so stupid?”

But I’ve warmed up to the idea, especially in an economy like this, where people are finding it tougher to squeeze money out of their budget for savings.

Today, Fidelity launched a new American Express card with a savings component. Spend $2,500 on the card and it will automatically put $50 in a Fidelity brokerage account, IRA, or 529 plan.That’s a 2 percent reward compared to 1.5 percent for Fidelity’s other cards.

The nice and unusual thing is that there is no cap to this reward. So if you are a convenience charger like me who charges thousands of dollars onto your card each year but pays your bill in full, this could be an attractive card.

Schwab launched a similar card earlier this month.

The other notable thing about both of these cards is that the 2 percent reward is offered in all purchase categories. Many cards only offer 2 percent rewards on certain transactions such as gas or restaurant or travel purchases.

I have to admit I’ve yet to see any reduction in credit card limits or credit card offers. But new data from the Federal Reserve shows that banks are indeed tightening their lending standards.

Here’s a summary courtesy of Bill Hardekopf at www.lowcards.com.

The Federal Reserve October 2008 Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Bank Lending Practices found:

* About 50% of domestic banks reported that they increased the minimum required credit scores on credit card accounts over the past three months. 60% reported that they raised minimum scores on other consumer loans over the same period (this is about the same as the July survey).

* A majority of respondents, about 60%, reported that they reduced the extent to which credit card accounts were granted to customers who did not meet their bank’s credit-scoring thresholds. A similar percentage of respondents reported a reduction in granting other kinds of consumer loans for that reason.

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Standard and Poor’s released a new survey on how the economy is affecting credit card payments. Thanks to Bill Hardekopf at lowcards.com for bringing it to my attention. The findings:

• One in five of those surveyed indicated that they are sometimes (14%) or always (6%) unable to pay their credit card and/or loan balances each month. 8% make only their minimum payment and 8% always or sometimes pay less than the minimum payment.

• One in ten Americans are taking out more cash advances on their credit cards.

• One in four consumers that carry a balance are at or near the limit with their primary card. One in five are at or near the limit with their secondary card.

Here’s a stat that confirms a trend I wrote about earlier this year– the number of consumers who value the use of a credit card over keeping a house out of foreclosure:

• Roughly one-third said their mortgage was the bill they would pay first while one-quarter said their credit card is the bill they would pay before all others. My answer today is that I’d pay the house first, although if I knew the only way to put food on the table was a credit card, I might behave differently. How about you?