Credit Card Issuers

[MarvBear]

I'm a reporter for a national newspaper working on a story about credit-card issuers tightening credit. If your credit card company has cut your credit lines, closed your accounts or increased your interest rates, I'd love to know how that has affected you. If the credit tightening has affected you personally, please drop me a private message at JinmeKim.

 

 

This from one of our well known reporters. If you can help with information please contact the member using our boards pm function.

 

PM contact information JinmeKim with our blessings please.

[kn42e]

Hi,

 

I have recently been affected by a rate change to my business account with Chase.

We have had the card 2 years, no lates and the 9.90 fixed rate is going to prime + 12.99% !

 

I will look for another card to transfer the balance to if that's at all possible anymore,

 

Karin

[bdaddymoore]

They all are doing that. http://creditboards.com/forums/style_emoti...default/mad.gif

[thesaintly]

Citi just jacked my rate from 12 percent to 19 overnight. My credit reports had no significant changes and the hike appears to be completely arbitrary.

[gj83]

Citi just jacked my rate from 12 percent to 19 overnight. My credit reports had no significant changes and the hike appears to be completely arbitrary.

Citi just did that to me too. It's a card I've had for 4 years and I use 10% of the credit limit and PIF. The interest rate doesn't affect me, but still bothers me.

[bikrtrsh]

Citi just jacked my rate from 12 percent to 19 overnight. My credit reports had no significant changes and the hike appears to be completely arbitrary.

 

 

They did the same to both DH and me.

 

Several others have gotten us as well. No significant CR / usage changes. To the sock drawer with them.

[southernbg]

Wamu now Chase has decreased my limit and jacked up my interest rate.

I need to transfer the balance to another card asap!

[Curious]

Washington Mutual, since being taken over by Chase has jacked my rate.

[arziodza]

Citi closed my Flex Line of Credit account stating the account has not been used, however I just borrowed against it and paid it off about 6 months ago.

[Pants]

I could of sworn I heard on CNN a few months ago that there was a law being passed that would NOT allow credit card companies from raising your interest rates and something about giving you 60 or 90 days notices if they were going to lower your credit limit???

 

Did this not happen???

[breeze]

I could of sworn I heard on CNN a few months ago that there was a law being passed that would NOT allow credit card companies from raising your interest rates and something about giving you 60 or 90 days notices if they were going to lower your credit limit???

 

Did this not happen???

 

Not yet.

[PlayitAgainSam]

I have 2 Discover Cards and they both raised my rate by 5%

 

1st 9.99 --> 14.99

2nd 14.99 --> 19.99

 

Then without warning dropped CL on 1st from 3300 to 1456 this is just as I used taxes to PIF with a 1300 payment. What a waste of money! To make matters worse I had just purchased a new PC and it was still showing as a authorization and after them dropping the CL it was making my account over the limit.

 

I called an escallated to a supervisor and was basically told they could drop the CL any time they wanted even if it did make me over the limit. That's scary....ruin your utilization and cause you to over the limit, which with the language that all CC have "if you are over the limit with other creditors then we can raise your rate also" I have 4 other CC cards with the servicing bank.

 

What a bunch of horse hockey....It's interesting that all this is happning as FICO'08 goes into effect.

[PlayitAgainSam]

Another horror story....

 

I have a BB Rewards Zone MC and PIF when I use the card. Now the last payment that has cleared my bank on 2/18/09 as an ACH transaction, which as I understand ACH transactions are irreversable since it was electronically presented as payment, is still being held as a pending transaction againest my CL, that is, HCS the credit card issuer placed a fake hold for a dollar less then my payment againest my account for a payment that cleared as an ACH tranaction last week.

 

I called, escalated and was told that they could place a pending transaction againest the account any time they wanted to for up to 14 days....

 

What a bunch of crooks....

[amish]

Been gone a while (credit got good).

 

Paid off my AmEx in full on the 21st of Feb., purchased a home theater system on same card on the 23rd (for the warranty extension), paid that off on the 24th of Feb. On the 25th of Feb they close my account w/o warning.

 

Paid off my Best Buy card, they lowered the limit by about 75%. That cause me to call HSBC and cancel another card with them for fear of them closing it on their own.

 

Why am I punished for carrying no balance now?

[Cactus Flower]

Been gone a while (credit got good).

 

Paid off my AmEx in full on the 21st of Feb., purchased a home theater system on same card on the 23rd (for the warranty extension), paid that off on the 24th of Feb. On the 25th of Feb they close my account w/o warning.

 

Paid off my Best Buy card, they lowered the limit by about 75%. That cause me to call HSBC and cancel another card with them for fear of them closing it on their own.

 

Why am I punished for carrying no balance now?

 

 

Yes - places are closing cards for inactivity as well .. and that can be as little as 3 months of inactivity.

 

I had several of my GEMB (store) cards lowered to $124...

 

sorry, but I just don't want to be going into GAP or Dillards every month buying stuff I don't need. I mass closed a bunch of GEMB cards in the past 2 months.. I was terrifed that I would have all of these cards on my credit report marked "Closed by Credit Grantor" when I'm applying for a mortgage :-\

[chemist562]

I visited a friend yesterday. One of his credit cards (B of A) went from 15K down to $500. He has a 840 FICO, very old, thick credit file, alot of assets, 6 figure income, etc. His utilization on cards is <2%, most of time <1%.

 

Tomorrow, he will pull out >100K from B of A and put it in his credit union.

[persistence]

Generally, they did not raise the percentage of credit cards but due to the current economic situation, the banks seems to be more hesitant to lend out cash to companies.

[Faelynn V]

AMEX reduced my TrueEarnings (Costco Card) credit limit from $4500 to $2500... irritating.

[Starfish106]

We just got rate jacked by BofA. Their lovely letter came yesterday raising my 9.99 fixed to 15.74 variable. We hardly ever keep a balance on the card and always send in more than the minimum. They said it had nothing to do with your credit worthiness/score it was about being competitive. They had so many folks that had $10-20K balances that were barely paying if at all so this is the new cost of doing business. So i asked do you penalize those that you get your money from in full every month vs. those that barely pay anything. Why bother even trying to pay your bill ontime and keeping good credit if you are going to arbitrarily rate jack? They said they also had tons of folks with 5%-7% APR's and some of them had the higher balances. Our credit scores has never been under 700, we have low utilization on the few cards we have but we never were offered a lower rate, they just kept giving us CLI. I did ask for a lower rate but they said no. Sigh...this is BS.

Edited April 9, 2009 by Starfish106

[breeze]

You can opt out, but they may close the card.

[mnl]

I got a letter today from Discover stating they were changing from a fixed rate to a variable rate on or after May 2,2009 and the rate will be the Prime rate + 16.74%. I have a large balance on my card that I have been trying to pay off in the recent months but its going to take a while so now I'm not sure what to do. Do I write them and cancel my account and hurt my credit or keep it and continue to pay off my balance, but I'm not sure how this change will affect me, any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[andystead]

I have an emergency situation where i need to get $1000 fast for my car to

be repaired. I need the money fast but I still want to not get screwed over.

My friend suggested an online site that he used before called

link removed. I looked it over and it looks ok, but I am not sure

what is a reasonable rate for a payday loan. Is there a standard for this

type of loan? Also does a payday loan effect your credit?

Edited April 22, 2009 by Stryker

[ajcstr]

I got a letter today from Discover stating they were changing from a fixed rate to a variable rate on or after May 2,2009 and the rate will be the Prime rate + 16.74%. I have a large balance on my card that I have been trying to pay off in the recent months but its going to take a while so now I'm not sure what to do. Do I write them and cancel my account and hurt my credit or keep it and continue to pay off my balance, but I'm not sure how this change will affect me, any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

Got the same letter from Discover, Rate went from 13.99 fixed to 17.99 variable.

 

Also got one from Shell (Citibank) - rate went from 10.24 to 23 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

This is just out of control.

[rs3rs]

Limit decreases and massive rate increases. About what everyone expected I guess

[deniserichardson]

If your credit card interest rates have been jacked or your credit limit sliced, please email me and share your story. Various reporters are interested in hearing about your circumstances.

 

Thanks!

Denise

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