Two months ago, in a Suze Scoop I told you that building up a sizable emergency savings account was more important than paying more than the minimum due on your credit card balances. Not everyone agrees with my advice. So be it. But I want to be very clear: I continue to believe that right now stashing cash in an emergency savings fund is more vital than paying more than the minimum due on your credit cards.

As I stated in my March 1 Scoop the credit card industry recently began to change its  rules and the upshot is that relying on your credit cards as a back-up emergency savings fund isn’t practical anymore.

Now I never thought that was a great idea in the first place. For years I have said that everyone should have an emergency savings fund that could cover eight months of living costs. I didn’t need a severe recession to know what it takes to protect you and your family. Even back in the “good old days” (say back in 2006) when most “experts” were telling you all you needed was three months of savings, I was telling everyone that eight months of savings was true protection. And it’s not solely about protecting yourself from a job loss-though with unemployment over 8% it should in fact be a major concern-but also giving yourself an emergency cushion for when any of life’s “what ifs” strike. You never know when there is going to be a serious illness or accident that you have to deal with; or an ailing loved one that you need to care for. The only way to handle those “what ifs” is to have a big emergency savings fund. I have said it for years, and I say it now.

Many of you listened; but some didn’t. And it’s true that in the past you could squeak by with some creative credit card management.  If you needed cash for an emergency, you simply took out an advance, or tapped all your available credit. Then you transferred the balance to a low-rate card, and kept doing balance transfers when the low intro rates (often zero percent) expired. Or you figured your HELOC would bail you out of any financial fix. You worked the system.

But the system has changed. HELOCs don’t work for most of you now as falling home values has dried up your ability to borrow against your home. And credit card companies are making it hard, if not impossible, to use your lines. If you do tap a credit line, the interest rate can be 20% or more. It doesn’t matter what your credit score is, use your credit or take out a cash advance and you will send the credit card company into panic mode. It’s likely your interest rates will skyrocket, or your credit line will be slashed, or your account closed. And I am not talking about what happens to people with low FICO credit scores. I am hearing story after story from my Twitter friends (twitter.com/SuzeOrmanShow) that credit lines are being slashed for people with great scores. I am talking about people with 800 FICO scores who pay their entire bill each month and never charge close to their credit limit, yet they are still having their credit lines slashed. If it can happen to them, it can happen to everyone.

And don’t you dare think you can still get away with the old balance transfer gambit  It’s rare to get a zero percent deal these days, and the likelihood is that even if you manage to qualify for a transfer-and pay a high 4% fee on the amount transferred-you could easily lose the intro rate given how aggressive the card companies are in changing rates whenever they want. (I’ll save this for another Scoop, but did you catch that President Obama last week hauled in reps from the major card companies and told them that he intended to push legislation to stop their abusive practices? That’s how bad this is: the President of the United States has said enough is enough.)

You can’t wait for legislation to protect you. And the simple fact is that there is no way in this environment you can rely on a credit line as an emergency back stop. No way.

So for those of you without a real emergency savings fund at a federally insured bank or credit union, you’ve got yourselves a big problem. No savings, and no dependable credit card lifeline.

It is for people in that situation I changed my credit card advice. Instead of focusing on paying more than the minimum on your highest rate card I am now telling you to pay just the minimum due on that card and use the extra money to put toward your emergency savings fund. Will that hurt your credit score? Maybe. Let me explain.

My strategy for years has been that if you are in credit card debt you are to pay the minimum due each month on every card, and then pay extra on the card with the highest interest rate. So all that has changed is that I am now telling you to not pay more than the minimum on the card with the highest balance. To be honest, in this environment if you were paying only the minimum on all the other cards, you have probably already seen your credit, or your credit score impacted. Paying only the minimum isn’t “good enough” according to the credit card companies right now.

So why am I not telling you to pay more than the minimum on all your cards to preserve your credit score? Well, I seriously doubt you have the money to pay more than the minimum on all your cards; if you did you would have already paid down your debt instead of paying the astronomical interest rates the card companies are levying these days. And even if you could manage to pay down your card debts, we still have the problem of where you will come up with cash in an emergency. A lowered credit score you can recover from, but not being able to handle a financial emergency can lead to horrible consequences. I wish you weren’t in this situation of having to choose the lesser evil, but here you are. I say sacrifice your credit score if necessary, so you can protect yourself and your loved ones from life’s what ifs.

Given what is going on in the credit card industry, your only logical option right now is to build your own real emergency savings fund.

Should you have done that years ago? Well, of course. But now you are paying a huge price for not having your own bank or credit union savings stash; the credit card industry is making it either impossible (lower credit lines or closed accounts) or incredibly expensive (interest rates of 20% to 30% or more for some borrowers) to tap credit. And once you do tap the credit you might find your credit line reduced. I am telling you it is a no-win situation for consumers right now.

That’s why my advice for everyone who has yet to build up a cash stash is that you must make it a priority right now. Seriously, what are you going to do if you get sick, or are laid off or someone needs your financial help? The only solution is to have a sizable cash stash. How can anyone not see the logic of that?

I realize you can’t snap your fingers and have eight months saved up instantly. But you can’t delay starting to build that financial cushion. An emergency fund that can cover one month of living costs is better than no fund. An emergency stash that can keep you afloat for three months is better than having one-month saved up. Building a five-month cushion is better than three months. I think we can all agree that something is better than nothing. And the time to start saving something is NOW.

So how do you pull this off? I am not going to tell you to cut back your spending. Please. I am not going to insult you; I know you have already done that. I know you have scoured every expense to cut out all the “wants.” And I know you are not making matters worse by running up more credit card debt. I get that you “get it.” But you still need a way to start building up real emergency savings. That is why I suggest paying less on your highest-rate credit card (but make sure you pay the minimum due) so you have more cash to put into a savings account.

It is not my favorite advice to give; but it is the most practical and responsible advice to help those of you who didn’t heed my advice through the years to build a big emergency cash stash.