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"Ever had a credit card company call and say, &amp;amp;#8220;Hey, someone spent $2,867 at the Piggly Wiggly in Tallapoosa, Georgia&amp;amp;#8212;using your credit card. We&amp;amp;#8217;re calling because we think the charge is fraudulent.&amp;amp;#8221; Sometimes it&amp;amp;#8217;s nice to have the kind folks at AmEx keeping tabs on where we shop and what we spend. And sometimes it&amp;amp;#8217;s not.Hopefully that&amp;amp;#8217;s not your only piggy bank, mister. Because it turns out they can just as easily use that info (say, you shop at second-hand stores) to determine that you&amp;amp;#8217;re a &amp;amp;#8220;credit risk&amp;amp;#8221; (you must be in financial trouble if you&amp;amp;#8217;re buying used clothes), and in turn lower your credit limit or increase your interest rate, which can jack up your credit score. Not nice. But still legal, for now. Over at Savvy Sugar there&amp;amp;#8217;s a list of 10 purchases that could get you labeled as a &amp;amp;#8220;credit risk.&amp;amp;#8221; Under the new Credit Card Act (which we discussed here), Obama has his people investigating the practice, but until they figure out how to fix the problem, you might want to avoid using your credit card for the following: 1. Traffic tickets 2. Retread tires 3. Discount store splurges 4. Adult (ahem) novelty purchases 5. Marriage counseling 6. Lottery tickets (I think you can only use a card to play the lotto in some states.) 7. Cash advances 8. Spa visits 9. Income taxes 10. Booze For the most part, this seems insane to me, but here&amp;amp;#8217;s the reasoning: For numbers 2 and 3, you&amp;amp;#8217;re showing credit card companies that you&amp;amp;#8217;re cutting back, which could mean you&amp;amp;#8217;re struggling financially. (Or it could mean you&amp;amp;#8217;re being responsible! Hello!) For numbers 4, 8, and 10, you&amp;amp;#8217;re indulging in &amp;amp;#8220;escapist&amp;amp;#8221; behaviors; and the credit card companies assume the only thing you could be running from is your money woes. For 1, 6, 7, and 9, you&amp;amp;#8217;re racking up one bill (your credit card bill) to pay off other bills, which shows you&amp;amp;#8217;re feeling strapped. And for number 5, you&amp;amp;#8217;re indicating you might be on the edge of divorce, which might lead you to financial ruin. Since your credit card company can still lower your credit limit or raise your interest&amp;amp;#8212;without giving you notice (at least until next February)&amp;amp;#8212;it makes sense to pay cash for purchases that might raise a red flag. (Even though it seems majorly inconvenient.) Frankly, the whole thing pisses me off. It seems, for the most part, like they&amp;amp;#8217;re taking a bunch of arbitrary data and manipulating it so they can screw people over. I mean, I know I shouldn&amp;amp;#8217;t take out a cash advance on my credit card. But if that&amp;amp;#8217;s such terrible behavior, why do they even allow it? And if I take my mom for a mani-pedi on her birthday, that means I&amp;amp;#8217;m trying to escape my money woes? What what what? Unfortunately, using your debit card doesn&amp;amp;#8217;t help: I checked with Robert Manning, author of Credit Card Nation, and the guy who helped come up with above list, and he said debit card purchases are monitored the same way. Anyone else find this really upsetting? And will any of you think twice before slapping down your plastic for a round of drinks? After you&amp;amp;#8217;ve told me how you feel, I recommend watching this video of a hamster on a piano to soothe your troubled soul. Turn the volume up! p.s. In less depressing news: In addition to Friday&amp;amp;#8217;s gas card giveaway, there&amp;amp;#8217;s another going on over at Budgets Are $exy. Enter here. Get Glamour Wherever You Go! Follow us on Twitter Friend us on Facebook Add us to your Google homepage Photo: iStock"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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