by Joseph Kenny | 10/19/09

While in the past, the credit card industry urged consumers to make generous use of credit, which led to more debt, now they've changed their tune. Today, you may be more likely to find card companies helping borrowers manage their debt.

According to a recent report, JPMorgan Chase is offering new credit card features that are getting praise even from staunch critics. The new features would provide better systems for tracking and managing their purchase, and of course, pay off their debt.

The feature, which is being offered free of charge, is called Blueprint. Basically, it would allow consumers to avoid interest on their common purchase like groceries, while accumulating interest on other purchases. Additionally, there are new methods for creating spending plans that will cut through debt and provide updated spending records.

Other card issuers have followed suit and launched their own versions of JPMorgan's products. For instance, Discover and Wells Fargo are now offering debt-management tools as part of their online budgeting initiatives.

Obviously, companies like Chase are concerned about the affects of the recession on consumer debt load. With credit card delinquencies and defaults hitting new highs, the odds are that more consumers will not be able to pay. This means fewer profits for issuers.

Chase's Blueprint feature would allow customers to maintain an interest-free grace period provided that they choose the categories in advance and pay them in full every month. This is certainly a departure from traditional credit card policies that accumulated interest on the entire balance of the card from the original purchase date if a cardholder did not repay the balance in full.

A number of card issuers are hopeful that their new campaigns will help them keep current customers and entice new ones to join. There are some questions among various analysts about whether customers will accept the new features offered by issuers. This may come down to a matter of trust between the customer and the credit card issuer. It could affect how the new offers are received.