Bad Credit Blues

OK, so I am just another ticked off  consumer some days. I can’t imagine that it is any fun to work for a credit card company these days. I mean, I do feel some sympathy for the people who are having to talk to the public every day and explain that while the federal government keeps slashing interest rates, credit card interest rates keep going up.

But here is another thing that credit card companies do that isn’t exactly consumer friendly. They just lower your credit limit for no good reason. I had heard about this practice, but it hadn’t happenned to me, or so I thought. But then I logged into a credit card system I had not checked for awhile. I hadn’t checked it because my balance was $0, so no payments were due. But since another credit card decided to raise my interest rate I wanted to see if they ran an offer to transfer my balance for less.

Well, imagine my surprise when my credit limit was down to $305! Besides the odd amount…. I mean, why not just plain $300? …. why did they decide to lower my credit limit. See I am interested in having the highest possible credit score, and one factor is the amount of available credit vs. the amount of used credit. I paid off the debt to have a clean balance, and the credit card company lowered my limit!

I contacted the company and got some response like… we review credit cards from time to time and decide if a credit card balance is appropriate for a borrower…. Well, what does that mean? My credit score had risen over the last few months, and I owed them $0, and had never had a late payment on that card, and none at all in recent history.

Well, the point is, you should check all of your credit card balances these days. You may have a $600 balance on a card, and think that you have a $4000 balance, so you have no problem whipping the card out to charge a new big screen tv for $2496. The charge goe through, but when you get online to check your balance you see that your limit was lowered to $3,000 a few weeks ago. Now you are $96 over the limit, subject to fees and a certain reduction in credit scores, at least for awhile. Hey, enjoy the new TV!

I just don’t understand how the laws keep changing to make it harder for consumers, for instance the new bankruptcy laws, and how credit card companies are allowed to run their own game. The game, by the way, seems rigged against the consumer.