One day I went to the mail to discover that they lowered the limit to $700. I sent 2 checks to pay off my account of $350 in less than 2 months just to get rid of charging to them. They promised we’d be increasing our credit limit amount but no explanation of why they decreased it last year (August 2007). The next month’s statement and my online e-mail correspondence to American Express said for months on their bill paying page we did NOT pay! My telephone calls and e-mails had people with poor American dialects who were obviously not from this country and not had the command of the English language to understand people. They still wouldn’t listen to our not doing anything wrong. Then they cancelled the card! They still kept that on and shut down the login to their website after 6 months!!! It probably still said the same thing that we owe $700 though they were paid in full! I obtained our joint credit card reports making sure I had FICO scores from all 3 rteporting agencies. The scores were lowered from 840 and 843 to 640 and lower! It stated on the report the usual that “the lender shut down the accounts and the original credit limit was $3000 but lowered to $700 and not paid.” I wrote them and placed my own report on the reporting agencies complaint record to be left there for anyone else to see to protect myself and spouse. I was able to get American Express to just say I was an “authorized user” to not hold me accountable though I always paid them from my checking account. But they left on the “closed by lender and limit lowered from a certain amount to a much lower amount” on it anyway. It looked to me they did it out of spite because the 3 credit reporting agencies contacted them because I wrote on my report the truth.

Then I had a CitiMastercard with a $6000 limit. I used that card after having it for several months not utilizing it paying it down to $1500 from $2000 quickly as we had a mandatory move for a year needing to cover moving costs. When I pay on cards, I never pay just the minimum, add the finance charges if any, and add $50-75 more to the minimum payment of $15-35 a month they ask for. This summer, they took it down to my $1500 limit which is what I owed! Again, I paid for my 3 credit reports with FICO scores. This said the same thing that “the lender lowered the credit limit” and “listed what it once was” “to the lesser current amount” with no way to charge anything in case I need it for dire emergencies. Calling them gave me no satisfaction as well as e-mailing them many times.

The latest came this past month (11/2008) when my Target VISA I’ve been with them for 10 years, had a credit limit of $5300 dollars. They were always raising my credit limit for good paying customers as they would say with their congratulations. Due to a credit reporting company I did not know but saw on the internet, I used a different one from my other credit card reporting agencies and FICO scores I would use in the past, they were using 2 different names from the state of California signing me up twice for $30 each for 3 months that I didn’t catch right away. I assumed they cancelled me after I told them with my free trial period, I was not satisfied after looking at it once. I saw my Target VISA credit line go from $5300 down to the limit of $2600 on my November statement! I couldn’t get anywhere online with an e-mail or telephone from that “scam” credit checking company (ies). Fortunately, I had a dispute person from my VISA who did a 3 way conference to ask the right questions and to get their charges of $90 removed immediately. But I am wondering will I be re-instated back to my $5300 credit limit without that commonly used statement from the lender that states “the customer had such and such credit limit”, was now “down to a lower limit”, and making my credit to debt ratio look bad?

On the talk shows, people call in to complain how could good paying citizens of the United States who are paying their bills and paying much more than asked including adding finance charges (if any) only to see their credit card cancelled or lowered to what they owe! How can these people in the financial world get away with this? Look at all the bailouts and more coming with AIG Wall Street and banks and the 3 vehicle manufacturers just to name a few.

States are cutting back, also, some asking for bailouts due to getting close to bankrupting their states (California, Florida, Texas, Michigan, and states in the Northeast). On C-span 12/03 or 12/04/2008 were 2 governors; one from South Carolina was saying he is forcing ALL state employees to cut jobs and trying to save jobs by asking everyone in the state system to take off 5-6 days without pay before the end of the business fiscal year the end of June 2009; Governor Sanford of SC said he just made the same mandate with college professors to save jobs from bleeding more and the unemployment rate from going up.

With return bailouts being asked for from the BIG 3 auto manufactureers stating they will probably come back for more at the hearing this time with the Senate and then the House the next day, and others waiting in line for theirs, they are destroying the borrowing power of we Americans! So how are people going to buy their products? Shouldn’t these companies and corporations shut down their operations or reduce them overseas to keep our jobs from being leeched and outsourced out of the country? We are lending Mexico money. We owe other countries, such as our enemies in China and others while they send poisoned food to our pets, poisoned powder fomula with a cement product in their milk killing or making many thousands sick in their own country, and toys hurting or killing children here!

Where is our bailout from congress and the treasury department and others in restoring our credit and FICO scores? If the BIG 3 get bailouts, again, asking for more than they asked for 10 days ago, and needing another or 2 more in the next few months to keep people working and others who earn a living from off-shoot businesses, how can people buy their products? One of several dealers was in the Senate yesterday saying he had 30 good customers who were ALL turned down for car loans last week!

They talk about a 30 year fixed mortgage at 4.5%, but who can buy a home when the credit FICO score drops, and it looks like you are in debt to the maximum of your cards?! Look at those people in foreclosure and were foreclosured a long time ago. When they try to rent a house or apartment, their application is denied due to their foreclosure destroying their credit rating. They have a hard time getting car insurance due to a lowered FICO score and credit report. They can’t get jobs as many employers do a credit check. These people losing homes and going to lose homes have had job losses, major illnesses and/or death from health problems leaving their family in dire consequences, cut backs in pay that seriously affect their making a decent living, and whole families with children living in shelters.

I said it to many people many months ago we were in a recession and was called an alarmist. Henry (Hank) Paulson just admitted this week that we have been in a recession since 12/2007!!! I say we are entering a depression. I wonder when they are going to admit this to the American people.

Any comments?

On the other hand, if you don’t spend enough, the strategy seems to be to raise your limit to encourage you to spend more. If that doesn’t work I guess some issuers will cancel your account all together.

All you need to do to keep the card is to charge at least $1 of anything on it, period.