NEW YORK — Consumers struggling to keep up with higher gas prices and other rising household expenses have been pulling out their credit cards more often — sometimes too often.

Credit counselors report a sharp rise in the number of families seeking help, many of whom end up on belt-tightening budgets and debt-management programs to pay down their balances.

"People are using their credit cards because they don't have enough money to make it day-to-day," said Howard Dvorkin, president of the nonprofit Consolidated Credit Counseling Service in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. "It's driving the American consumer deeper and deeper into debt."

What happens, he says, is that "eventually they hit a wall — and then they call me."

And they're calling in increasing numbers.

Susan C. Keating, president and chief executive of the National Foundation for Credit Counseling, said the nonprofit counseling agencies in her organization dealt with a million consumers in 2005, 2.2 million in 2006 and are on their way toward seeing a record 2.8 million this year.

Mortgage foreclosure problems as well as pre-bankruptcy counseling have swelled their ranks, Keating said. But credit card debt also continues to trip up consumers.