The recession has cooled the American ardor for living on credit. After years of saying "Charge it," consumers are more often paying with their debit cards instead.  Worry about jobs, fear of fluctuating interest rates on credit cards and wariness about spending too much are contributing to the change.  "People are managing their money in a different way," said David Robertson, publisher of the Nilson Report, which tracks the credit card industry.

"You clearly have a situation where those people who have jobs are exhibiting recession anxiety and they are making more debit transactions."  Click to read more.