Maria Osorio, 62, of Sunrise, never meant to run up her credit cards the way she did. But the companies sent them so freely. And they were so easy to use. First it was gifts and big items. Then it was gasoline, and that tasty baked chicken at the Golden Corral restaurant, then even groceries.

Suddenly the charges on her eight credit cards totaled $14,000. And she couldn't always pay the monthly minimums. ''The interest rates were killing me,'' she said. ``If I sent in $100, only $20 of it was going to the principal. The pressure was building. I started getting the calls.''

She was far from alone. Since 2003, Americans have increased their credit card debt by an astounding $200 billion, to a record total of almost $1 trillion, the Federal Reserve says.

And now there's a financial crisis, and people might be even more inclined to charge up their credit cards with basic necessities. But just as suddenly those cards, those little plastic sugar daddies that for so long let us have just about anything we wanted, are turning against us. Playing hard to get. Credit limits cut. Interest rates raised. Card-balance rollovers discouraged.

''People are overextended, losing jobs, losing homes, losing 401(k)s,'' says Meg Green, a North Miami certified financial planner. ``There's no place to go but credit cards, and they're maxed out.''

Across the nation, credit card debt hit an average $1,717 per card in the second quarter of 2008, up 8.6 percent from the same period in 2007, according to the credit agency TransUnion.

Delinquencies on those cards in the second quarter of 2008 were up 14.3 percent from a year earlier. Overall, the national delinquency rate was 1.04 percent of credit card charges. Nevada was highest with 1.72 percent. Florida was second with 1.34 percent.

Delinquency rates were cushioned by two big factors. First, credit card companies were cutting customer credit lines -- from a $15,000 limit to $5,000, for example. Lower limits meant less owed, and so fewer delinquencies.

Second, the federal government's $170 billion economic stimulus payments started arriving in the second quarter, as taxpayers -- eager for the cash -- filed their returns early in order to get the payments. Some 42 percent of them used the money to pay down credit card debt, according to TransUnion, the credit reporting agency.

What the delinquency rate will be for the third quarter of 2008, with the stimulus money spent and the economic crisis under way, is anybody's guess.

CHARGE-OFFS RISING

But Bank of America, one of the nation's largest credit card issuers, might provide a clue. It reported last week that while still profitable in the third quarter, it was hit with significant losses related to delinquent credit cards. Net charge-offs rose to $1.24 billion, representing a charge-off rate of 6.14 percent.

In a new report, Credit Cards at a Tipping Point, the consulting firm Innovest Strategic Value Advisors predicts industrywide charge-offs will peak at 10 percent in the third quarter and that banks will charge off $18.6 billion in delinquent credit card accounts in the first quarter of 2009. It warned that as banks restrict such credit sources as home-equity loans, often used by consumers to pay credit card debts, it might drive the customers into default, increasing card charge-offs.

Banks also are sharply limiting offers that let credit card customers roll over their debt on one card to another at attractive, introductory teaser rates.

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