Are visits to massage parlors and bars impacting your credit?

Tech blogs are quick to point out when things appear to be a bit too big-brotherish for our comfort levels - cookies, deep packet inspection, Gmail ads. Now, it appears that the one to watch out for is the credit card companies.

Money Magazine, in its December print edition, reports that some major credit card issuers, including American Express, are taking into consideration where people use their credit cards when deciding whether to cancel credit lines or cut spending limits. "Studies have found that consumers who frequent certain types of businesses pose an increased credit risk," an Amex spokeswoman told the magazine. (Sorry, no link available. The piece appeared in the print version only.)

Hmmm. Which types of businesses will prompt creditors to throw a red flag? American Express won't say, according to the magazine, which also did some digging to come up with some ideas. The magazine reports:

A lawsuit over a similar scoring model, filed by the Federal Trade Commission against subprime issuer CompuCredit earlier this year, may offer some clues. The suit claims that CompuCredit dinged cardholders for using eight kinds of vendors, among them bars, massage parlors, billiard halls, nightclubs and marriage counselors.

If bars and massage parlors lead to marriage counselors and eventually credit problems, maybe it's time to either start spending more time at home - or hitting the ATM before you hit the town.