Credit card advertisements posted at a bowling alley in Palo Alto, Calif., July 2008. (AP)

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Americans and their credit cards have always been a saga. In the economic meltdown, it’s been a bloodbath, too.

Fifty-five billion dollars in credit card defaults last year. But top banks still made $27 billion off plastic and you. They did it with some pretty hardball tactics. Tricks and traps, critics say. Rough fees, fine print, jacked up rates.

Banks say they need the rough stuff to make it work. Consumers are crying foul. Now Congress is weighing in with a Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rghts. The White House is on board. Banks are fighting back.

This hour, On Point: The battle over credit card reform.

Have American credit card lenders gone too far with the rough stuff? The squeeze? Has American borrowing gone too far, on plastic? Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from Washington are:

Sudeep Reddy, reporter for The Wall Street Journal.

Nessa Feddis, vice president and senior counsel for the American Bankers Association, the financial services industry’s largest advocacy group, representing the majority of credit card companies.

Travis Plunkett, legislative director for the Consumer Federation of America, which represents hundreds of consumer advocacy groups.

(AP Photo)

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Easy consumer credit is nothing new, but Americans are turning to their credit cards as never before — and racking up debt at unprecedented rates.

Never before, we’re told, have so many Americans owed so much at such high interest rates. And with mortgage troubles deepening, and the economy struggling, some fear personal debt could be the next shoe to drop.

Last week, the House Judiciary Committee voted to move forward with a bill that would rein in the American credit card industry, but consumer advocates say Washington isn’t going far enough to tame an unruly credit-card industry. What can consumers, lenders, and the government do to avert a crisis?

This hour, On Point: You’re pre-approved! Credit cards, consumers, and a nation in debt.

You can join the conversation. Are you in debt on your credit cards yourself? If so, have you been splurging, or are you using your credit cards just to survive?

-Jane Clayson, guest host

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Guests:

Joining us from Cambridge, Mass., is Elizabeth Warren. She’s the Leo Gottlieb professor of law at Harvard Law School, and an expert on credit card debt and bankruptcy. She’s written several books, most recently “All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan” which she co-authored with her daughter Amelia Warren Tyagi.

Joining us from Portland, Oregon, is J.D. Roth. He’s the man behind the well-known personal finance blog “Get Rich Slowly.” The blog started out as a chronicle of how he himself overcame $35,000 of personal debt, including about $20,000 in credit card debt.