The more credulous you are, either because you’re new to the whole line-of-credit experience or because you’re uneducated, the more likely you are to mistake a high line of credit for an indication of your future earnings potential. You can see how this can lead to bad things, as noted by the researchers who studied this unfortunate problem earlier this decade. Luckily, the savvier you get about credit cards, the less influence your credit limit has on you, which is yet another great reason to make financial literacy education mandatory.
credit cards
Canceling Cards, Raising Interest Rates, Actually Part Of Same Horrible Party
By 3.16.09
That’s why credit-card companies have had to rein in their lending and shed accounts. Since that risks shrinking profits, they’re also trying to get as much as they can out of their existing customers, by doing things like sharply increasing their interest rates.
Your Credit Card Limit Can Be Reduced Below Your Current Balance
By 3.16.09
We’ve seen how available balances can disappear when lenders cut credit card limits, but SmartMoney points out that lenders can cut your limit below your current balance, causing all sorts of problems. They’ll send you a notice, of course, but you may not receive it for several weeks. Your best bet is to set up your own alert system. A web-based financial service (like Mint) will send you an email or SMS alert if your available balance drops below a specified threshold.
Convert And Combine Your WaMu And Chase Cards
By 3.11.09
The handover is complete and Chase now officially runs the WaMu credit card operations. Here’s how to combine your WaMu credit lines with your Chase credit lines. [CreditMattersBlog] (Photo: Ed Yourdon)
Target Employee Incompetence Freezes Nearly $800 Of Customer's Money
By 3.10.09
Erica, who writes Philadelphia Weekly’s Style blog, went to Target this past Saturday to purchase some new tank tops. She and her boyfriend filled their cart with a lot of other stuff too—”Ready to stimulate the economy?” she joked to him on their way to the register—and they agreed to split the cost equally. Now when I worked retail, that was an infrequent but not impossible task. When you ask a Target cashier to do that, get ready to have your debit card debited twice for the full amount of the bill, and then told two days later that the voided transactions will take 72 hours to clear.
Visa And Capcom Announce Street Fighter Hyper Fee Edition Card
By 3.5.09
Video game maker Capcom has partnered with Visa to offer a pre-paid debit card with so many fees that it will shrink your wallet from an E. Honda to a Dhalsim. The hurricane kick of fees, inside.
Watch Out For Payment Date Errors—And Related Finance Charges—From Chase
By 3.4.09
Mike used an Office Depot Visa card issued through Chase to take advantage of a pay-no-interest deal through 2008. He paid off the remaining balance a couple of days before the offer period ended, but Chase still slapped him with a nearly $40 interest charge. Why? Because they’ve been “having problems like that” with Office Depot cards.
Citibank Reinstates Credit Limits If You Ask
By 3.3.09
Like many credit cards, Citibank is cutting people’s credit limits left and right but apparently if you call up and ask to get your credit limit back to where it was, they’ll do it for you. Classic tactic: Conduct adverse action, easily fix it for the small amount of people who complain, profit from the difference. As ever, squeaky wheel gets the grease.
Why Can Capital One Raise My Rates Just Because The Economy Is Bad?
By 3.3.09
We’ve been getting a lot of shocked letters from Capital One customers asking how the company can get away with raising their interest rates on their cards when they “haven’t even been late with a payment.” There is, in fact, no such thing as a fixed rate card and credit card companies don’t need a “reason” to raise your rates. They can do it whenever they like.
So Many Fees I Couldn't Get Ahead On The Balance
By 3.2.09
R wanted to get started paying off her Capital One credit card but after missing one month’s payment she started a fee pigpile. She got overlimit fees, and then so many extra fees started piling on that she wasn’t ever able to pay them off enough to bring her balance back under her credit limit. R wanted to get started on debt reduction snowball method but could never get that first ball started because the fees were too high. Tugs at the regular customer service line to try to get some fees waived were fruitless. To untangle this Gordian Knot R had to pull out her mighty sword of executive customer service. Her story, inside…
American Express Cancels Your Card Right Before You Were Supposed To Get Your $500 Rebate
By 2.27.09
Andrea, an American Express member for over 20 years, is upset because AmEx canceled her cash-back card two weeks before her $500 rebate check was supposed to arrive, and declared the rebate forfeit.
Internal AmEx Doc On $300 Bribe To Zero Account And Leave Program
By 2.25.09
Here’s an internal AmEx doc with what customer service reps should say when people call up asking about the $300 to pay off and close your account program, or, as they term it, the “Balance Down Initiative.” The sheet was obtained exclusively by creditcarforum.com. My favorite part is the answer for if people who weren’t chosen to participate ask if they can join. The correct response is, “We apologize, but we can only honor this offer for selected cardmembers. However, if you’re interested in paying down your balance, I can help you with that.” Full doc inside…
3 Steps To Protect Yourself When Making Major Electronics Purchases
By 2.24.09
Stores like Best Buy like to take advantage of your natural fear that a piece of electronic equipment that you just spent a bunch of money on is going to break. And, let’s face it, it might — but that’s no reason to rely on an expensive extended warranty from the retailer.
Is Target Too Expensive? Profit Down 41%
By 2.24.09
Consumers are cutting back — and the AP says that shoppers are abandoning Target for even cheaper stores. In addition, Target’s credit card division is running into trouble as shell-shocked shoppers aren’t able to pay their bills.
Dell Hasn't Refunded Money For 45 Days
By 2.23.09
Rob bought a monitor from Dell. Not just any monitor, a defective one. Ok, he didn’t specifically request it to come defective, but that’s how it did. So did its replacement. “The backlight was flickering constantly and it made me feel nauseous just looking at it,” writes Rob. He’s returned the monitors but Dell has yet to give him back his money. Every time he calls, they tell him it will be just 7-10 days more and that he paid with two credit cards is complicating things. So far it’s been 45 days.
Another Month, Another Massive Credit Card Data Breach
By 2.23.09
Don’t be too surprised if you get a letter from your bank or credit union in the next few weeks telling you it’s replacing your credit card. If your data was among the latest set compromised, Visa and Mastercard are already alerting financial institutions so they can cancel the account number.
AmEx Pays Some $300 To Zero Their Balance And Leave
By 2.23.09
American Express is so desperate to clean liabilities off its balance sheet that it’s paying some customer $300 if they will pay off their balance in full and close their credit card. The offer is only good if you get a card in the mail from them about it with a 14-digit RSVP code. Thanks for playing, don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out.
