Despite sending customers letter saying otherwise, American Express now insists that it never blacklisted cardholders based on where they shopped. Those notes explaining that “other customers who have used their card at establishments where you recently shopped have a poor repayment history with American Express?” Whoops! Just a big misunderstanding! Not unlike the comment they gave to ABC explaining that “shopping patterns” were used as a “contributing factor” in slashing credit lines, a statement AmEx later retracted. So what’s really going on? Let’s explore…
credit cards
AmEx Denies Existence Of A Store Blacklist, Will Slash Your Credit Whenever They Want
By 1.31.09 — Updated: 11.1.12
Angry Consumer Slices and Dices Credit Cards To Protest Rate Increase
By 1.29.09
Like many Americans, Christian and his wife got themselves into debt with a car loan and by using credit cards to pay for their wedding. Now they’ve been working on paying off their debt and had gotten it down from $35,000 to $15,000 — when their credit card companies decided to randomly raise their APR. Now they’ve cut up their cards forever in protest.
NewCreditRules Asks, Which Of These Stores Will Get Your AMEX Card Reduced?
By 1.29.09
Last month we posted about Kevin Johnson, a 29-year-old self-employed businessman with excellent credit and an established history with American Express, who had his credit limit cut by 65% because AMEX said he was shopping at the wrong sorts of stores. Johnson has created a website called NewCreditRules.com to try to uncover what, exactly, he did wrong to fall under AMEX’s high risk category.
Buy A Gift Certificate From Restaurant.com, Sign Up For A Recurring $14.95 Monthly 'Service"
By 1.28.09
Note: this post is about restaurant.com, not restaurants.com. The two websites are not related. Tracey emailed us today to let us know that she just found a mysterious $14.95 fee on her credit card. It turns out a company called Shopping Essentials is now billing her as a monthly subscriber, and all because she bought some gift certificates via restaurant.com in December. To make matters even more shady, Shopping Essentials never contacted Tracey to let her know she signed up for anything, or to send her information about their services, or to call attention in any way to the fact that she now pays them a monthly fee.
Save Thousands On Credit Card Debt By Paying Off More Each Month
By 1.27.09
Are you smarter than a credit card? You’re not if you’re not paying off more than what the credit card company requires you to each month.
Increase Your Citibank Grace Period By 5 Days Just By Asking
By 1.26.09
Martin discovered he was able to get Citibank to extend his grace period from 20 to 25 days. It seems all you have to do is ask! Here’s how he found out.
Chase Eats All WaMu Credit Cards In March, What Happens?
By 1.26.09
When Chase completely takes over the old WaMu credit card division in March, a new super-power will be granted to WaMu credit card customers who also have a Chase credit card, reports CreditMattersBlog. As long as you have a zero balance on one of the cards, the two cards will be combined and your Chase’s credit limit will now be the sum of the two credit limits. WaMu cardholders without a Chase card will get to convert their cards into Chase cards.
Can Canceling A Credit Card Really Hurt My Score, Or Did Discover Card Lie?
By 1.26.09
Reader David said he called Discover Card to cancel his account — but was advised against it because canceling credit cards can hurt your credit score. He wants to know if it’s true.
Corporate Infighting To Keep Americans From Paying With Their Cellphones For The Next Few Years
By 1.25.09
Don’t expect your cellphone to replace your credit card anytime soon. The New York Times reports that banks and telecoms still can’t agree on the basics needed to develop such a payment system, even though similar systems have been available in Japan for the past five years.
SS Id's Heartland Credit Card Breach Suspect
By 1.23.09
The Secret Service has apparently “pinpointed” the location of a suspect in the massive Heartland credit card database breach. No surprise, it’s international. [Storefrontbacktalk]
Police Make You Give Your iPod To A Cab Driver As Payment
By 1.23.09
We’re not like, positive or anything, but we doubt there’s a law that says you have to give your iPod to a cab driver if your credit card is declined. The New York Post says that a woman was forced, by JFK Airport Police, to hand over her iPod or be “taken downtown.”
Sorry About That Data Breach, Here's 15% Off!
By 1.22.09
As an apology to the millions of consumers who had their credit card info stolen, TJX (that’s T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods, and A.J. Wright) is offering fifteen percent off all purchases in stores today only. We suggest that you pay with cash.
Nice Letter Gets Chase To Reinstate Man's Promotional APR
By 1.22.09
Stop the presses! Brian was able to get Chase to reinstate his promotional APR even though he accidentally set up in the auto-payment system in a way that incurred late fees. His secret? Asking politely and making a cogent argument that positioned his request in a manner any business would understand. His strange-but-true tale, inside.
AMEX Surprises Traveler By Canceling Card Without Warning
By 1.21.09
It looks like American Express is still in the throes of its “risk management” craziness and closing accounts without visible reason. Did Chris, who was just left stranded while on a business trip, shop at the wrong store? Did he fail an internal financial review that nobody told him about? Whatever the reason, it’s a good example of why you should have more than one credit account when traveling, so you don’t have to rely on the whims of any single faceless corporation.
Credit And Debit Card Breach May Affect Over 100 Million
By 1.21.09
The Washington Post has reported that Heartland Payment Systems, a payment processor that services “more than 250,000 businesses,” has had more than 100 million transactions compromised via malicious software that was installed on its network; it will likely turn out to be the largest data breach ever reported. The “good” news is that the criminals were only capturing credit card numbers, the names on the cards, and expiration dates—the info encoded onto the magnetic strip on the card. Because no addresses, SSNs or PINs were stolen, the prospect of full-blown identity theft is pretty small—which must explain why Heartland isn’t offering any sort of credit monitoring package as compensation. Instead, their CFO says, “We recognize and feel badly about the inconvenience this is going to cause consumers.”
4 Ways To Lose Your Rewards Points
By 1.20.09
Part of the new year and the new year is getting rid of unnecessary clutter, like rewards points! Here’s 4 ways to increase your chances of losing your credit card rewards points.
By 1.19.09
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The credit card regulations that the Fed enacted last month won’t take effect until summer of 2010, so Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney is reintroducing the Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights, which offers the same reforms but would come into effect 90 days after the president signs it.
Defending Access To Your Credit Cards & Lines
By 1.17.09
Credit card issuers are panicking, cutting credit lines and entire cards. This can have a negative impact on your credit score, here’s a few ideas on how to defend against it.
