this is a new twist

[GMN]

I have a friend who has a small business in WI, she has a business charge card she uses for emergencies, and pays it off at the end of each month. The other day she went to a work luncheon and went to pay with her charge card and had it denied. She thought it was a glich, so she called, only to be told that the credit card company had decreased her credit limit from $8,000 to $1,000. She has never missed or had a late payment and has excellent credit. They said beyond this reason they could not divulge any other reasons for doing this. Seems strange that they would decrease a credit lmit, has anyone ever heard of anything like this?

GMN

 

[Frankie]

I have a friend who has a small business in WI, she has a business charge card she uses for emergencies, and pays it off at the end of each month. The other day she went to a work luncheon and went to pay with her charge card and had it denied. She thought it was a glich, so she called, only to be told that the credit card company had decreased her credit limit from $8,000 to $1,000. She has never missed or had a late payment and has excellent credit. They said beyond this reason they could not divulge any other reasons for doing this. Seems strange that they would decrease a credit lmit, has anyone ever heard of anything like this?

GMN

Yes. It's been happening for several months. Some credit card companies are even paying people to close their accounts if they're not using them. Some people have had their credit limit lowered so much that it put them over their credit limit....then they were charged for being over their credit limit! And, as it stands right now, the card holder's only option is to pay the account in full and close out the account. Many people can't do that. But there are likely to be some new credit card rules put in place by the new Administration/Congress. Soon, I hope.

 

[bigbull338]

yes your hearing that more an more.cc companies are cutting the cerdit lines on the cards way down.an some are doubling their interest rates on their ccs.

 

[1982vett]

Yep, had one cut my limit in half. Rarely use it anyway but if I wanted to get a mortgage it would probably hurt my credit score but not anymore than not having a paycheck. Most likely the reason it was cut. Will be 4 years tomorrow I quit.

 

[Just_a_girl]

had one card done that way, but I did get a polite letter notifing me that they were going to lower my limit. It's had a zero balance for years now, I can't remember the last time I used it. I think I've had that card since middle 1990's.
Last October, I pulled it out of hiding, blew the dust off and used it when I went to visit my daughter in another state. I only used it few times while visiting my daughter, and didn't really spend much. Got the letter telling me that they were going to lower my limit a few days after I got home from visiting my daughter.

Before that, I had customer service calling me asking if there was a problem and why I wasn't using the card. darned if you do, darned it don't..... :nod:

 

[backhoeboogie]

Come to think of it, I am not pulling offers out of the mail box left and right any more.

I don't know of anyone lowering any limit but I never even get close. Generally I use a debit card for everything.

The wife used a card to build credits towards car purchases. She was paying the cell phone bills, electric bills and who knows what else. Just to build credit towards her next car purchase. Something happened and they did not receive payment on time. There's no rational explanation since other bills were paid the same time, payment was posted in the checking account, etc. It almost makes me think they held onto the payment received until it was late or something. Anyway, they took my rate to something like 24%. It doesn't make any difference since it is paid in full each month, but the idea of them doing that to me after all these years of on time payment just didn't set right. We cancelled that card.

 

[1982vett]

Come to think of it, I am not pulling offers out of the mail box left and right any more. quote]

They haven't slowed much here. Usually the same one's over and over.

 

[Jim62]

Don't know if they lowered my limit or not, but I did get a nice letter saying that they were raising my interest rate on unpaid balances from ~9 % to ~29 %, and that I could like it or lump it. Not really a problem since I don't ever carry any balance.

I'm thinking that having OUR money to pay each other bonuses with made them a little frisky. There's a whole lot of people out there that would benefit greatly from a few years in the federal pen.

jmho

 

[TexasBred]

Come to think of it, I am not pulling offers out of the mail box left and right any more. quote]

They haven't slowed much here. Usually the same one's over and over.

With every statement there's 2-3 of those checks wanting you to swallow the bait and take some cheap money "on us". No cut on line of credits yet.

 

[dun]

Come to think of it, I am not pulling offers out of the mail box left and right any more. quote]

They haven't slowed much here. Usually the same one's over and over.

Yeah, CITI and the what's in your wallet one.

 

[larryshoat]

Come to think of it, I am not pulling offers out of the mail box left and right any more.

I don't know of anyone lowering any limit but I never even get close. Generally I use a debit card for everything.

The wife used a card to build credits towards car purchases. She was paying the cell phone bills, electric bills and who knows what else. Just to build credit towards her next car purchase. Something happened and they did not receive payment on time. There's no rational explanation since other bills were paid the same time, payment was posted in the checking account, etc. It almost makes me think they held onto the payment received until it was late or something. Anyway, they took my rate to something like 24%. It doesn't make any difference since it is paid in full each month, but the idea of them doing that to me after all these years of on time payment just didn't set right. We cancelled that card.

Think aboiut how much they could make by just not picking up the mail for a day or two . These people are crooks plain and simple, they try to claim that the higher rates reflect the risk, the higher rates create higher risk . Make me King for a day and the first thing I will do is put a limit on interest rate spreads .

Larry

 

[aussie_cowgirl]

I'm really considering giving the credit the flick for good. The other day I was looking at potential post uni finances and I can afford to buy about 15 acres in about 8-9 years if I just save. If I take credit, I will be paying off my loan like that for about 25-30 years. No thanks...

 

[GMN]

I'm really considering giving the credit the flick for good. The other day I was looking at potential post uni finances and I can afford to buy about 15 acres in about 8-9 years if I just save. If I take credit, I will be paying off my loan like that for about 25-30 years. No thanks...

Well.. now buying land is somewhat different. You can get variable loans on land, up to 15 year, and pay a somewhat larger morgtage to get it paid off sooner, although even with a 30 year morgtage, you can always pay ahead and get it paid down alot sooner too.

Most people cant save for land because its too much money to come up with when the land is available, and establishing good credit is a must for any type of farmer, or any other person. have to have the good credit to get any type of loan, so its not a bad thing to have a morgtage.As long as you manage your credit to your advantage its not a bad thing.

GMN

 

[backhoeboogie]

I'm really considering giving the credit the flick for good. The other day I was looking at potential post uni finances and I can afford to buy about 15 acres in about 8-9 years if I just save. If I take credit, I will be paying off my loan like that for about 25-30 years. No thanks...

Well.. now buying land is somewhat different. You can get variable loans on land, up to 15 year, and pay a somewhat larger morgtage to get it paid off sooner, although even with a 30 year morgtage, you can always pay ahead and get it paid down alot sooner too.

Most people cant save for land because its too much money to come up with when the land is available, and establishing good credit is a must for any type of farmer, or any other person. have to have the good credit to get any type of loan, so its not a bad thing to have a morgtage.As long as you manage your credit to your advantage its not a bad thing.

GMN

And the appreciation in land value too. That 8 acres I bought for $9K was valued at $45K just 6 years later.

If you put money in a new vehicle, you are almost sure to lose unless you park it for 30 years and sell it as a classic. It is hard to lose with land purchases.

 

[TexasBred]

I'm really considering giving the credit the flick for good. The other day I was looking at potential post uni finances and I can afford to buy about 15 acres in about 8-9 years if I just save. If I take credit, I will be paying off my loan like that for about 25-30 years. No thanks...

Well.. now buying land is somewhat different. You can get variable loans on land, up to 15 year, and pay a somewhat larger morgtage to get it paid off sooner, although even with a 30 year morgtage, you can always pay ahead and get it paid down alot sooner too.

Most people cant save for land because its too much money to come up with when the land is available, and establishing good credit is a must for any type of farmer, or any other person. have to have the good credit to get any type of loan, so its not a bad thing to have a morgtage.As long as you manage your credit to your advantage its not a bad thing.

GMN

True...get your loan, make the loan term as long as you can get it (30-35 years) then make a payment each month based on a 10-15 year ammortization if you can handle it. If money gets tight you can always drop back to the 30 year payment until the bad time passes over.

 

[TheBullLady]

One of the cards my husband uses routinely (we pay off monthly) actually cut the credit limit in half about two months ago. Not really a problem, since I don't think it's ever actually been that high. The one we don't use much hasn't changed, but we've had that account for probably 15 years or more, and use it for vacations, so when we do use it, it's a fairly high balance.

I think the biggest reason they are cutting the credit limits is for people without verifiable income... like self employed people.

And you do have to really watch the terms, as they'll change them with little notice in the hopes that you won't notice! My husband keeps tract of that stuff, I don't. We've been charged "late fees", and he can call and complain and they'll remove them. So go figure.

 

[1982vett]

One of the cards my husband uses routinely (we pay off monthly) actually cut the credit limit in half about two months ago. Not really a problem, since I don't think it's ever actually been that high. The one we don't use much hasn't changed, but we've had that account for probably 15 years or more, and use it for vacations, so when we do use it, it's a fairly high balance.

I think the biggest reason they are cutting the credit limits is for people without verifiable income... like self employed people.

And you do have to really watch the terms, as they'll change them with little notice in the hopes that you won't notice! My husband keeps tract of that stuff, I don't. We've been charged "late fees", and he can call and complain and they'll remove them. So go figure.

Even with the limit cut in half it would take a catastrophe to charge that much in a month or run the balance up that high. But it would have tickled me to be able to buy a new truck with a single credit card. Now it will take two cards. :lol2:

 

[Angus Cowman]

about 9 yrs ago the wife and I were applying for a substantial loan and the bank came back and said we had to much credit available to us so we were a risk
I had my business accounts with a line of credit in excess of a million $ so we thought that was what the problem was but when we got to checking we had in excess of $500,000 in credit cards in our names that we had never applied for they had been sent to us and my wife had destroyed them but the credit card companies had opened the accounts and we didn't realize it it took a couple of months before the accounts were actually closed
We have 2 credit cards but the only time we use them is if we are traveling or if we need to order parts from out of state

Credit card companies are crooks