Avoid These Sneaky Credit Card Tactics

Sneaky Credit Card Tactics Ken Dolan: The credit cards are at it again. I love credit cards, I love them. I love them. Daria Dolan: Now, in contract you went to room two that they can just change the terms on a whim. Ken Dolan: Guess what’s happening? Because the credit crisis, many although probably eventually all, are changing the credit card limits on how much you can spend. You know what? They’re trying to control people of abusing the fact. Daria Dolan: Well, no, no, no. No, they’re not trying, what turn of frock did you fall off of? They’re not trying to keep people from abusing their credit and getting into trouble. They’re trying to protect the fact that there are payments every month. Ken Dolan: Oh, Daria! I thought they were doing it because they were nice. Oh! What a shock this is. Alright, where do we go from here? Daria Dolan: And they are doing it on criterions such as, who holds your mortgage? Where you live? What kind of stores you charge in? Ken Dolan: This is profiling! Daria Dolan: It is. What they’re doing is they know that how many people that shop at let’s say Wal-Mart for example. I’m not saying Wal-Mart is the one which is being targeted or target and go into default on credit card payments. So if those are higher default ratios than say Macy’s and Saks, then if you have a lot of charges, typically your targeting Wal-Mart and not Macy’s and Saks, you say, “Oops! Strike one”. And then if you're with the bank such as Country Wide Mortgage which had a lot of bum loans and they ended up having to be taken over. Well you could be one of those bum loans too, strike two. Then they locate your neighborhood, they’ll look at foreclosure rates in that neighborhood, strike three. And the next thing you know, your limit has been severely restricted. Ken Dolan: But wait a second, I’ve got good credit. This is guilt by association, why should my arbitrarily micro, I don’t need a lot of credits, I don’t need more credit limit but that’s beside the point. Why should my credit limit be lowered, if you have a 700 plus credit score, and you’re paying an interest rate that’s higher than last year, you should need a change credit companies that will ask for a lower one. I mean they might get some good news here, if you got good credit, if they lower the credit then at least try to get a lower interest rate. Daria Dolan: Exactly, because your high credit numbers, your credit score numbers if they’re high, you should be getting some of the best deals from the credit cards and you should know the difference between what they were charging in interest last year and this year and ask for it. Ken Dolan: Question. Daria Dolan: Yes? Ken Dolan: Could this be from the Dolan’s silver lining department? Lower credit limits from people who have been irresponsible plus spending? Daria Dolan: Yes, but then if you’re taking down credit, millions of people who have been responsible, I think that that’s wrong. Ken Dolan: Check with your credit card company. It may be trying to shop around, don’t be surprised, lowered credit limits. You heard it here first.