Credit is at once a boon and a disaster. It enables you to live very well and at the same time can curb your life style. A true double edged sword. We have moved from a mailbox full of credit offers and easy mortgages to a severe shortage of either in a very short time. Not only are mortgages much harder to get but EXISTING credit is being taken away. Many homeowners with a home equity line of credit are seeing the credit disappear. Commercial investors are seeing no money available at all and credit card companies have tightened up greatly. It seems some credit card companies are lowering your borrowing limits for such unheard of reasons as where you live, if the housing market is down so is your credit limit, and now they are even considering where you shop as a reason to lower your credit limits!! This is not limited to slow payers but effects even perfect payers! This is not all bad, as we have too easy credit for a long time, but changing the rules in the middle of the game seems, somehow unfair. Just a sign of the times I guess.