Have Your Say About Credit Card Reform
We've been keeping you posted about the progress of credit card reform, and sharing stories of readers who have already been affected by credit card companies' policy changes. Now the nice folks at Consumers Union want to hear about what kinds of stunts credit card companies are trying to pull on their customers. Won't you share your stories with them?
Here's what they're looking for:
Has your credit card company made any of the following changes to your account since May 2009?
Added a new fee or raised an old fee. Increased your interest rate. Closed your account. Lowered your credit limit. Took away rewards.
If you've experienced any new issues with your credit card company, they'd love to hear about that, too. You can also e-mail the campaign organizer directly about your experiences.
What's been happening with your credit card account? [Consumers Union]
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Comments:
*Tales from the land of CHASE*
Chase decided to cut my limit in half once I decided that their "Credit Protector" subscription was not worth it. I canceled the subscription and less than a week later, they cut my limit by more than half (without bothering to tell me I might add).
My payments were always on time and always much higher than the minimum. Thanks to their great customer service, I am probably taking a hit on my credit score because I am now leveraged at about 95% of the card (meaning I am now using 95% of the credit limit).
I guess I should just be glad they didn't cut my limit to lower than than balance I had on the card. Then they would have charged me over the limit fees, raised my interest rates, and blamed the entire dilemma on me.
Oh, the "official" reason they lowered my credit when I called, they like the amounts I was paying them. Apparently its bad to pay a lot more than the minimum and on time. We're not even talking about thousands and thousands of dollars here either...
My AmexBlue Card was canceled last week, because I haven't used it in 38 months.
I recently got a letter from Chase Rewards saying I will no longer receive 3% back on gasoline purchases.
They increased my credit limit by nearly 50% just before the bill went for vote. Does that count?
The limit on my GM card got lowered from $1500 to $300 in May. Probably because I haven't used it since October 2008. Not a big deal except that they STILL haven't bothered to notify me of this. (Found out on my own by checking my account online.) There wasn't even a notification on the web site or anything. Now it's just a waiting game. Will they close the card first, or will I finally get around to doing it? Tick tock, tick tock.
We rejected a Capital One rate increase and are paying off that card.
We're also getting our credit limit reduced frequently by Chase as we pay down a Disney card we have through them. We paid a lot on the card last month and then received a letter from them after those payments had posted reducing our credit limit. This month, we get slapped with an over limit fee because the finance charge took the balance to $2.52 over the credit limit. I'm going to try to have them refund the overlimit fee since it was due to their own actions and not because of anything I did.
Once these cards are paid off, I'm done with credit cards for ever.
Amex cut my credit limit in half, then after I made a big payment to give myself some breathing room (about half my balance so I wouldn't be at 95% usage), they cut my limit to 100 over my new balance. How nice that one of my other cards just sent me a 2% interest rate for a year offer, so I can transfer the rest of my Amex balance (which will likely result in another credit limit cut, but won't matter if I don't use the card anymore).
Got a letter from Bank of America saying my interest rate is going up. Since I don't use the card or carry a balance I really don't care.
PLEASE, these changes had been happening long before this bill was made law.
HSBC cut my limit by $1550 to $2030... Taking current balances into account leaving me with very little available credit.
I had carried a balance for 2 months after not carrying a balance for 2 years, so I could attribute it to that.
newegg (CIT bank) halved my limit. sears (citi) cut my limit by 2/3. that second one is actually funny to me b/c i have another store card thru citi that received a limit increase about 3 months prior. ???
haven't seen any major changes with the big'uns, though i can't say for certain what BoA is doing - they send me updates to my terms more often then they send me bills. it's gotten to the point that i just file them & look at them later if i notice something different.
Myself I process 1-2 transactions on every card every 3-6 months to make sure they stay open. I lapsed over 12 months not 38 and mine was can celled but I got it back. Take all of your cards and charge a few normal daily things and pay right away. I'm taking a few dollars.
My Victoria's Secret charge card keeps going up and up and up. I swear they up the limit just before the semi annual sales. I really only use it so I can get the 10 dollar off coupon that comes once every other month or so...
I've been waiting, and waiting, and waiting for something to happen with one of my cards. I have three. BoA Visa which is paid off, BoA Mastercard also paid off. Has not been used since early 2007 (I've been waiting for BoA to close it on their own. They've yet to do so, so I'll let it sit until they do. I'm too chicken to call in & cancel for fear BoA will cancel both cards, or will jack up the APR of the one I want to keep open) I also have an American Express Blue (has a transfer balance of $1200 which has an APR of 4.99% on it. Almost paid off. Yay!). Finally, last week I got notice from AmEx that my APR on purchases will go from 10.24% to 13.24% in July. I verified with two different reps at AmEx that my transfer balance APR will remain exactly the same, and it will. And it's in writing through emails. So, once this is paid off, the card is a goner.
@carolynkline: NOO!
Canceling cards or letting the issuer cancel them is really bad news for your credit!
Please buy something with the Bank of America card to keep them active and open. Even a .30 pack of gum will keep them from being closed due to inactivity.
@wcnghj: Hubby's limit on his BoA Visa was over $50K. Was like that for 15 years. Two months ago he received a letter that they were slashing it to $17K.
Luckily, he's never gone more than $2K over the card, and it was paid off.
He still was pissed since it would ding his credit score, and also pissed because he'd been a good customer all these years that they'd go and do something like this.
@wcnghj: Yeah, I know, but my credit score is almost 800, so if I have two cards are canceled and I take a hit, I have some wiggle room.
Personal: Capital One increased rate from 13.90% to, I think, around 17% or so. No matter, I pay in full each month.
Business: Amex Blue: Over the course of the past 18 months, lowered limit from $7,400 to $1,000.
Capitol One: Raised my rate to 17.99---BUT is leaving my current 8.9% effective as a "promotional" rate until April, 2010 on the day the new legislation takes effect.
Chase -the infamous min payment scam---from 2% to 5% in June 2009. There should be emergency legislation forcing them to allow opt outs on this--due to the number of those effected this will have huge impact. Should be investigated and acted upon by Homeland Security as a terroristic act!
My rewards program got lowered. My Chase card went from 3% cash back to only 1%. Now that blows.
I know they increased the APR also, from 9.24 to 13.24, but I dont care, I'm a pay my bill in full every month type of guy. Chase has given me over $500 in cash back in the last year alone, so I cant complain too much.
@henwy: What? What happens when you need a mortgage down the road and you don't have any open credit lines?
@TheFlamingoKing: The MC & the AmEx are less than 5 years old, so I don't really care one way or another about them.
My BoA Visa is close to 15 yrs old, and I do not want them to ever cancel this card, which is why I'm chicken to call them about the MasterCard.
Obviously this is a sounding board for those negatively affected by the changes from the CC companies, who would probably argue the changes are a response to the new law or so it seems. I wonder if we had a vote put up, would people say they were a. happy the bill passed because now they fele more protected or b. they aren't happy for onbe of the many reasons above.
In no concise way, I am asking if the consumerist reading population feels they are better of because of the changes or no?
My personal opinion, im not surprised the CC companies are behaving this way, I think many people figured they would, regardless of whether we think it is fair or not
@wcnghj: too much available credit can also hurt your chances to get a mortgage. one thing underwriters - especially mortgage underwriters - look at is potential future risk.
yes, loads of available credit is good for your credit score, but bad in terms of calculating risk.
@wcnghj: Thank you. This is why he's not happy. We'll be looking at houses in the next year or so, and want good credit for a mortgage. If they are raising our rates, or slashing our credit, it'll look bad.
@Beki: I wonder which would have a worse affect on your credit score: Canceling the card yourself, or having the bank close the account.
@carolynkline: Just thought I'd let you know if you have little or no revolving debt, your score won't be affected by utilization. Also, APR does not show on your credit report.
@mac-phisto: Not a problem for me, I closed on a mortgage May 25th. I had the same amount of available credit as my income. (lets say I make 75k, I had 75k in available credit).
@wcnghj: Bullshit. My credit union, who financed our last new car, would beg to differ. My 830 barely moved, if at all, by telling Capital One to GFY when they wanted to raise my rates.
We built our credit rating the old fashioned way, by paying our bills on time, not by playing silly games with credit cards.
Fixed Maximum APR of 13%.< Period
Citibank just cut my limit by half last week, leaving it a few hundred dollars over the balance. No change to the interest rate though, yet.
Cancelled all my cards en masse. No more credit for me in this life. I decided to do what everyone is always preaching: "Don't like it, say it with your wallet and don't use it."
Well,... I don't like it. So the banks can all go f*ck themselves with their plastic. Credit score be damned.
@wcnghj: congratulations!
having a large amount of available credit by itself usually won't kill your chances for a mortgage - it all depends on the strength of your application. the weaker your application is, the more it will hurt you.
it certain circumstances, it will be a dealbreaker. it's not uncommon to have credit lines = your income. what is unusual is credit lines 4x your income. that would be a definite red flag for an underwriter. still, they may write the loan if overall you're touting a strong package (good credit, sufficient income, healthy assets, etc.).
Discover Card changed my due date without notice to be 5 days earlier. (they did change it back when I requested)
Chase and Bank of America lowered my limits. They only sent notice after the limit was changed.
AmEx cancelled my blue skies card, then shortly later lowered the limit to *just* above my balance. Pissed me off, because they never notified me. If I weren't in the habit of paying my bills early, my next finance charge would have put me over the limit, letting them slap me with an over-the-limit fee.
Seriously, lowing your limit down to your balance and then not notifying you should be illegal, because it just lets them slap you with over-the-limit fees once your finance charge hits or you make any purchases.
No changes in the limits, at least none that they bothered to notify me about. I didn't pay attention to the interest rates because I pay in full each month. None has suggested a fee except American Express which always charges an annual fee.
I have a Capital One account, which went from 9.9% to 17.9% in one swoop. I can of course decline, and have my account cancelled. Luckily I don't carry a balance, or if I do it's a small one since I use it for all my online purchases.
Nobody's lowered my limits, Bank of America is always trying to get me to transfer my meager balances to them, and my rates went up on cards I don't use (Discover). And Chase pulled their 5% minimum payment ploy on me, but I am able to laugh that off. LAUGH, I tell you!
Other than being employed and paying my car and mortgage on time, and carrying trivial balances, I don't know what makes me such a special customer.
Also Bank of America just switched my Visa from Platinum to Signature (black), and I guess that's good but to be honest I'm not sure.
@HurtsSoGood:
Interesting. I just got a new card from Discover in the mail two days ago. I didn't activate the new one they gave me last fall after a fraud on the account. Anyway, they're offering me an additional $1 back per purchase on up to 20 purchases in the next 2 months to get me to activate it (so I did), plus the letter they sent says unlimited cash back on purchases, no exceptions (and there was no fine print).
@HurtsSoGood: MHM, you know why? you probably a) had enough revolving credit it didn't matter and b) had more than a few cards(not a bad thing).
It isn't BS at all, for most people getting rid of a credit line will hurt their score either because they revolve debt or because they don't have many open credit lines.
____
The old fashion way, eh? How is keeping open lots of credit lines and having low utilization a bad thing? Doesn't sound silly to me.
@BZMedia: HUH?? Canceling ALL of your credit cards is the one of the worst things you can do to your otherwise good credit.
What happens when you need a mortgage or car loan? Or will you be doing without those as well?
Yeah it sucks they only want post-bill info, nearly every one of my cards upped their rate prior to the bill passing, and I've never, ever, been late on a payment on anything.
@HurtsSoGood: Definitely wait until they try to screw you, then threaten to leave and extort them for a bunch of rewards points to keep you as a customer. Collect rewards points, redeem, then cancel the card anyway.
@AcceleratedDragon: You're crazy! The AMEX Blue is the best card ever. Not to mention you get 5% cashback on gas purchases through AMEX Blue, so why were you concerned about not getting 3% back through Chase?
We should all just stop using credit cards. I include debit cards in that too. Unless you're trying to buy a house or some such thing...
Remember folks, we put the credit card companies in business, we can take them out.
@metsarethe...: Yes, I feel the changes made to my card & my husband's was directly in relation to the bill. I am glad the bill passed, but it should have been enacted this year instead of waiting till next year so the CC companies can screw over its customers.
Discover quietly slapped monthly limits on its rewards. That's common knowledge, and effective for ALL Discover card holders, as far as I know.
Capital One hiked my rate from 11.9 to 17.9, which I declined simply because I could. Zero balance means no credit score hit, for those of you who care.
I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. "Uh, you're paying your balance in full every month, so we're gonna have to go ahead and start charging you an annual fee. Yeah." That's when I tell 'em all to GFY as I whip out my credit union VISA that I just put in for. Hell, I might not even wait until they try to screw me.