Comments on: Protect Yourself Against Reduced Credit Limits

By: Michelle

Michelle — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 04:10:13 +0000

Thanks–these are great tips (watch the mail for notices, sign up for emails warning of nearing your limit). I usually ignore any mail from my credit card issuers b/c I do everything online. I don’t even look at the bills b/c I most likely already saw them online first, and the one in the mail isn’t even up to date. Last year, USAA lowered the limit on one of my cards from $14,000 down to $5,000! That’s just over 1/3 of what it used to be. I haven’t used that card in a year or two, so I had no balance. I always paid on time when I did have a balance. Since I don’t use the card anyway, it shouldn’t matter, except that our credit scores are partially based on debt-to-available credit ratio, so this credit decrease has broader implications.

My credit union informed me of a rate increase if I didn’t contact them and decline. This increase would apply to my existing balance. I declined the increase to lock in my current rate on the balance, and they closed my account from further use. However, this was not before they tried to talk me out of it. I told them I didn’t appreciate that they were raising my rates, considering interest rates are at historic lows, so there is no real justification for increasing my rates, since the rate they get is lower than before, and I have an excellent credit rating. She told me some nonsense about how they didn’t have a choice (??) blah blah blah. How insulting. I cashed out my rewards points and told them to go ahead and close it.

I recently canceled my Victoria’s Secret card (WFNNB) b/c they also informed me of a rate increase. That’s fine with me, too, since I never carried over any balance month-to-month. I only used it for the rewards points.

In the end, I am using my credit cards less, and therefore the banks aren’t profiting off me as much as they used to. I can walk away satisfied knowing that I’m not enriching their fat greedy asses the way I used to. The joke’s on them. I only hope everyone else is also at least trying to use their cards less, otherwise the joke’s on you, and you are only rewarding and enriching these fat cats who plunged the world into a great recession (or depression?–real unemployment is much higher than is being reported, since the numbers don’t count those whose entitlements ran out, or are underemployed). Do you really need that Louis Vuitton bag? Plus, with the tacky LV intials all over your bag, you’re nothing but a pathetic fool who paid a lot of money to be a walking billboard. If you can help it, say “no” to credit cards!

By: Daily-Protest

Daily-Protest — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 23:45:27 +0000

Excellent analysis Wade. I would suggest not to take the suffocating effect your credit card balance limits are taking, personally. I’ve think your analysis of what is happening to your credit limits is spot on, and it is somewhat dysfunctional.

Just be grateful that as you pay down your debt less and less of your income is stolen by the usurious interest rates that you are being charged every month.

In the end, having 10,000 dollars in savings is far better than owing 10,000 dollars so keep going down that road and don’t look back. Plus, as you pay for things immediately, and pay for things from your own economy, you become the best stimulus package of all.

By: Wade

Wade — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:00:12 +0000

After years of having credit pretty close to maxed out, a good payment history (I even miss a payment every two years or so so they can charge me 29.99), my wife and I have made it through our advanced degrees, raised a kid to his teens, and have finally got the income to pay down our debt. My plan has us consumer debt-free in two years, even with the car payments!

I just started paying cards waaay down last month, and some totally off.

My first target for total elimination, Citi. I paid it to a zero balance. As a reward, they cut my limit from $2800 to $300 after years of good payment history. I paid several others down to about half their balances.

Then, I learned that BOA lowered a loan I have with them to just over the limit. I didn’t notice because I am not really using credit, just paying it down. Other creditors are following suit – it’s a domino effect caused by an arbitrary decision against a good customer.

I learned that now Citi thinks I have five cards “maxed out,” thanks to these lowered limits, even though my consumer debt is lower than it has been in two years and is steadily decreasing every month. I pay off, they lower rates, credit takes a hit. Thanks, jerks!

You know what, this credit market deserves to be cut back. I don’t care about any unintended consequences, I want revenge. I don’t care if Sioux Falls (credit card capital of the world) is swallowed up by the earth. I am tired of hearing of these companies, who were rolling in money, and then ruined the economy, crying about “protecting profits.” Learn to live with less, you bastards! Don’t screw over the people making you money.

The government tries to reign in these scum and they respond by hitting the consumer. Totally pennywise. Time for a federal usury law, I think.

I recommend against citibank as a lender.

Prof. ELIZABETH WARREN, Harvard Law School: “I don’t know any merchant in America who can change the price after you’ve bought the item, except a credit card company.”

By: PM

PM — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 01:40:57 +0000

Just last week Capital One decreased my credit line to a hair above the money I owed. So basically this means I cannot buy anything at all since I’m at the max.

Joke’s on them: I had just finished paying off the card the day before I got the call about the decrease in credit.

Same thing happened to my husband and his Discover Card. I am so relieved to hear it is happening to a lot of people. We have excellent credit scores according to all credit reports.

By: JG

JG — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:40:07 +0000

Just happened to me. BOA sent me a balance transfer e-mail. I went to their site and asked for a transfer to pay off another card. Their response was to reduce my credit to only $250 over what I owe and refuse a transfer. My credit limit was reduced by $9000 only 7 days after I received a statement showing I still had that credit.

By: new world order

new world order — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 18:50:30 +0000

You are not alone. American Express and other large banks are performing these acts on thousands if not millions of perfect payment consumers, and the scope covers all areas of credit from personal cards to HELOCS. The media, as driven and owned by the banks would have ‘us’ believe that this act is a mandatory lifeboat response having to do with managing risk and loss precipitated by natural disaster credit-card reliance (since our government was out partying during these events and cutting birthday cake) and the mortgage fiasco which in fact was created by the banks themselves when they threw billions of dollars at unqualified consumers around 2001 with knowledge of their poor risk and just to make a buck. The truth is that the main banks, thanks to affiliations with the Federal Reserve, will always ‘win’. For the past 8 years of this crony administration the banks have not only made huge buckets of cash via the standard interest-rate way on cards but in addition, have been gloried by…(Read more of this comment) corporate tax breaks. Now the tide is turning and the current thieves will be driven from office in November via the peoples’ elections. Without the padding of corporate tax cuts many of the ‘medium’ banks are stressed and many are inventing new strategies of a final ‘cash-out’ before the next step is implemented in the New World Order when a global currency will eventually become the standard and the only ‘class’ will be high class with all others consigned to serfdom. How does this affect your standard consumer middle to upper class that historically pays their bills perfectly and is never late? Why they’re being squeezed out of the club, of course. Credit is not liquidity. Make no mistake. So with greed at the forefront, as always, driving the corporate bottom line, and especially with banks, they are sticking it to large group of long standing good faith customers without the slightest regard for damaging their credit. This becomes a temporary double-win for the banks as they incrementally raise interest rates to squeeze the last drop and chase the balance to unconscionably wreck the credit of good faith customers like yourself and drive you from the club. In order to understand why this happening, you should distance yourself from your personal picture and examine the larger picture objectively. The fact of the matter is that this is a planned operation by the main banks in conjunction with the Federal Reserve to gain substantial control over the populace, whittle down all but the highest class and proceed with the next step in the New World Order. What can you do in response? Well, you can quit spending on your cards and rip them up. Also, like the former poster stated, realize that any credit is a luxury and not a right and the credit card companies are within their rights to reduce your lines, even if the result is damage to your credit rating. Purchasing on credit can be addictive and destructive as it garners the illusion that one is wealthier than one truly is. Also, take time to do the math to find out just how much a gadget or gallon of gas will end up costing you if you put it on a charge card at 25% interest and never pay it off. We can be talking $12.00-$20.00 for a gallon of gas simply because only the minimum due was paid which, with the current exorbitant and rising rates, is 80% interest. Also, I know this sounds old-shoe to some, but when you put certain politicians in office, by virtue of commission (voting for them) or omission (not voting at all) and you go to sleep at the same time and delude yourself into thinking nothing will change, you’ll wake up with everything changed and you’ll pay for the party. Also it is important to realize that this effect of the undoing of America has not occurred overnight nor in a bubble but is a result of good people having done nothing over an extended period of time. Good people complaining yet doing nothing, not voting, living off credit, beyond their means and without proper judgment or foresight into the larger picture at hand. Quit living beyond your means if it involves using credit and savor the feeling. You can feed the negativity created by dwelling on their injustice or you can learn new ways of living to free yourself from the clutches of institutionalized banks. Or, you can calculate the damages the banks have in fact caused you by ruining your good credit and might be surprised to find that the amount of those damages just might equal the very amount you owe them. What a coincidence. Wash? Watch Aaron Russo’s movie: Freedom to Fascism. Wake up America. Party’s over

By: Jo

Jo — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 08:21:40 +0000

CITIBANK DID IT TO ME TOO

Have been paying my card down from being close to maxed out last Christmas.

Last week it got slashed from 15700 down to 14000 leaving me with $120 to spend

Reason: Too many accounts near their limit.

Called them up and informed them they had effectively made it worse by reducing my account’s limit. . . This is not business it is politics in our banks. Our govt just bailed out Citibank earlier this year. Other’s have said it buy gold or pay the price.

By: dave

dave — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 18:31:14 +0000

Wells Fargo did it to me i had a 9000 line with them never missed a payment paid like sometimes 2000 a month was never once close to my limit and they droppred me to 3350 what a bunch of crooks i contacted the bbb ftc and i talked to there excutive offices several times and none of them give a crap i hope there is a back class action law suit against wells fargo i have four accounts with them a mortatege and over 50 k in the bank bunch of pansies. i never missed a payment on anything the last six years they can go th HELL.

DAVID

By: disgusted

disgusted — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 14:29:31 +0000

THERE IS NOTHING MORE FRUSTRATING THEN PAYING ON TIME EVERY MONTH, DOING THE RIGHT THING, KEEPING A LOW BALANCE, THEN BANK OF AMERICA TAKES ALL YOUR CREDIT AWAY AND FORCES YOU TO HAVE A MAXED OUT CARD.

I WENT FROM HAVING A 4,000.00 BUFFER FROM MY LIMIT TO MY BALANCE NOW THAT IS ALL GONE

By: Nick

Nick — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 04:09:57 +0000

I have a 800 FICO and am thinking about applying for a home loan in a few weeks. I had a $23.3k limit on a AAA credit card (was MBNA when I got it, now BofA unfortunately). I thought it couldn’t hurt to ask for a credit increase to maybe increase my score just for the fun of it. I usually only charge $150 or so each month and pay in full.

I got a letter stating that sorry, the wouldn’t do it.. then another letter the same day that says they decreased by limit to $15k (from $23.k). I should have never asked! They’re the ones that silently increased limits in years past, now they rip it back and affect your score!?

I’ve always hated BofA and continue to do so now.