Maxed Out: Inside America's Credit Card Debt Crisis. Credit Card Companies Are SHUTTING DOWN Lending in Less Than A Week

Credit cards have become our emergency funds. About 55% of US citizens live paycheck to paycheck, 36% have more credit card debt than emergency savings and 22% have no emergency savings at all. Many people lean into credit cards not because they want to, but because they have to.

As the economic fallout of the pandemic continues to unfold, banks are rushing to close credit card accounts or slash credit limits to curb their risk.

One in 4 US citizens with credit cards, said they had an account involuntarily shut down from mid-May to mid-July, while 1 in 3 said their credit limit was reduced, according to a new report from CompareCards.com that surveyed 1,003 credit cardholders.

This follows a similar rate of reductions in April and comes as many US citizens battle joblessness and uncertain economic futures, but now with reduced access to credit.

It means that an awful lot of US citizens had one of their financial security nets taken out from under them in one of the most difficult economic times in US history.

In a startling turn of events, credit card companies are facing a crisis as they prepare for a significant policy change that could potentially cripple a substantial portion of their revenue. This impending shift, set to take effect in just a week, revolves around the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's rule proposal aimed at curbing exorbitant credit card late fees, which currently constitute a lucrative 14.5 billion dollar income stream for these financial giants.