Your relationship with your credit cards, which might already be testy, may get worse.

The heat’s turning up, both on the industry and on borrowers, says Curtis Arnold, the founder of CardRatings.com, a very consumer friendly site. Arnold is the author of the just-published How You Can Profit from Credit Cards; Using Credit to Improve Your Financial Life and Bottom Line.

The pressure comes from several fronts. There’s the credit crunch. You may have noticed that some lenders are cutting or capping home equity lines of credit. So are credit card companies, Arnold says. If your credit score isn’t the highest, this could happen to you.

There’s the profit crunch, as defaults on credit cards have increased in the weak economy.

And, the industry is facing the possibility of tighter regulation by the Federal Reserve and other financial regulators. The proposed rules call for an end to some very consumer-unfriendly practices, such as cards hiking your interest rate on a balance after you’ve made purchases.

The banking industry opposes the new regulations and Arnold says the card industry has hinted at retaliation. “They say they’re going to have to get less aggressive, that zero percent offers may disappear and that super-low rate offers may disappear,” he said.

Caps, fewer tempting offers. What can you do?

You might want to transfer your balance to the lowest-rate card you can find. But be careful. Check to see if there’s a transfer fee. Arnold says those fees have been going up dramatically.

His best idea: Find a card that charges a low fee and offers a low rate on a transferred balance for as long as that balance exists.

Two he likes: Blue from American Express will charge you a fixed 4.99 percent rate for the life of the balance. The Advanta Life of Balance Platinum Card charges 2.99 percent.

Here’s his full list of low-rate balance cards.