(MONEY Magazine) – Since 1988, credit-card issuers have been required by law to show their cash advance fees in the card application. But a study by Robert McKinley of RAM Research in Frederick, Md. finds they are increasingly keeping mum about how much interest they charge on advances. Some 46% of the 175 issuers McKinley surveyed displayed the rate before '88; only 23% do today. That's troubling, * since bank-card cash advances are at an all-time high of $7 billion this year -- up 13% over the same period in 1989 -- thanks in part to aggressive marketing like that of First Deposit National Bank of Tilton, N.H., which makes you take a $2,000 advance in order to get a gold Visa. Warns Elgie Holstein of the Bankcard Holders of America: ''Watch out for cash-advance offers that focus on anything besides terms.''

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