Just got a notice from Bank of America - they are adding a $49 yearly fee. I promptly canceled.

I figure this is a business decision on their part. I pay my balance off each month and don't use the card very much so they just aren't making enough money to leave me with an open line of credit??

Several months ago one of my cards lowered my available credit. Not sure which card it was, may have been this one.  In any case I do notice this tightening and wonder about others.

Have you heard from your credit card company lately?

I only have two, one technically being a charge card. I pay them off every month, or don't use them at all. They call people like you and me "freeloaders" because they're not making (enough) money off of us in interest. 

Having been in debt by about 12K not once but twice, and gotten out of it twice, I refuse to carry a balance. I refuse to carry consumer debt if I can possibly avoid it. 

They say that the unsecured loan industry -- credit cards -- is the next one to crash. I would believe it. 

There is an EXCELLENT program about this made by Frontline which you can watch in its entirety on pbs.org. I heartily recommend it.

I don't carry a balance either. I did at one time in my life when I was really up shit's creek and couldn't pay my rent without doing so. I hated it. As soon as I could, I paid it down in  1K to 3K increments.

I'm surprised BoM didn't tell you they'd waive the fee for you after you threatened to cancel. My parents have been pulling the old "Cancel my card" trick for years and they never have to pay any fees. 

Damn, now I have to make another friggin' phone call? I hate being on hold with stupid customer service. Maybe from now on I will purposely have sex while waiting on hold. HA!  Imagine?

Yep, one after the other, raising rate/interest, etc

Bananas it was automated. And when you opted to cancel they read off a litany of scary reasons why you better not. I think it's a mistake on their part to get rid of people who pay their bills. Some money is better than no money. Smarter to lower my credit limit so they don't have exposure but still keep the customer and whatever income I bring them understanding at some point I man bring them more. Had the card since 1996...

They also have new competition in the form of paypal which is pulling what seem to be some pretty nifty tricks with cards that access your balance. Not sure the details because paypal is not someone I want to play with.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/10/09/credit.card.outrage/index.html

Don't have a Bank of America card but just read this a couple of hours ago.  They raised this couples minimum payment like $600.00 more than they were paying, and they never missed a monthly payment, were good customers, etc.  I don't know I think the credit card companies are worse than loan sharks.

Sorry, just realized bank of america not the culprit here, was Chase bank.

I live in Canada. I have 2 credit cards and in the last 2 years I asked them both for a lower interest rate and it was dropped on both from %18.5 to %11.4. One of them began charging me $25 a year because of the lower rate, but they informed me as part of negotiation. (I do carry a balance, I'm a full-time university student.)

I have a fixed low interest rate with Chase, I forget the precise amount, but the minimum payment is like double what it was.

I've been saving up some air miles on my card, but I just cashed them out last week for gift cards because I think they're going to change the terms soon. I don't carry a balance, they haven't asked me for a yearly fee yet. I know some cards are cancelling people who don't use it for at least one purchase every month.

I have noticed that my statements are posting much later than they used to. So that I have three weeks instead of four to pay. It doesn't affect me, but I wonder if it affects anyone else.

They added a 7,50 euro fee for all my bank cards (one fee). Hope it stays at that.

I could go on and on about credit cards.

Earlier this year, I paid off a $1299 and change balance, on time, and they tacked on late fees that I didn't know about.  They (Chase, btw) never sent me a paper statement, and the online statements they were supposedly sending me must have gone straight into the spam bin.

About six months after I thought this bill was gone, I received A BILL for $150, all late fees!

I was outraged and tried to get it taken off, but their customer service department would only take off part of it.  That left me with $91.

What I finally did was write to the Better Business Bureau.  This is the second time I contacted them when companies were trying to get money out of me that they weren't owed.  I got an apology letter, all the late fees were wiped off, and the card was cancelled with a $0 balance.

I only have one credit line open now, a JCPenney account.  And get this:  One of the bet ways to jack up your credit score is to open a new credit line with a major credit company.  Are they kidding?!?  I'm not feeding the credit card monster any more.

Here's one more quick story:  A year or two ago, Macy's canceled all of their credit accounts.  I had a Macy's card for 15+ years and rarely used it.  Some major credit company, I forget which one, bought all the accounts.  This wasn't widely publicized, btw.  They sent me a brand new credit card!  It could be used for anything, not just restricted to Macy's purchases.

I took one look at the thing and thought, "Now they're going to rope in who knows how many more people who are going to go crazy with this card and have huge balances?"  I shredded that card right away.

Neva: There is an EXCELLENT program about this made by Frontline which you can watch in its entirety on pbs.org. I heartily recommend it.

Here is a link to the transcript:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/credit/etc/script.html

The most chilling part of that show was the interview with Andrew Kahr, the guy who thought up the 2% minimum payment scheme that sucked so many into credit card bondage.

ANDREW KAHR, Credit Card Industry Consultant: Well, I convinced the client that instead of having 5 percent of the balance as a minimum payment, we should reduce that to 2 percent. It's a very dramatic change, less than half.

NARRATOR: Before Andrew Kahr got involved in the industry, most bankers required that customers pay 5 percent of their credit card balance every month. Kahr realized that if customers were able to pay less, they would borrow more.

LOWELL BERGMAN: You were able to explain that it was people making low payments who were the most profitable.

ANDREW KAHR: Having a lower minimum payment allows you to offer higher credit lines, which, first of all, makes your card product more attractive because people judge, even if they don't intend to use the whole line, they would rather have a higher line. The high-balance accounts will be much more profitable than the low-balance accounts.

LOWELL BERGMAN: Because they're paying interest?

ANDREW KAHR: Because they're paying interest on a higher balance.

i haven't had any credit cards for at least a couple years now. it's just easier that way.

goddess - the soldier got rid of his too and was happy when I nuked one of mine.

I use them all the time for convenience. I like having a record of things that I don't have to keep. But fact is you can one of those other non-credit cards in the same manner. I am such a dip I can't think what they are called but you know what I mean. Straight from your checking. I don't even have one of those cards... or an ATM card for the last 15 years.

I have never needed one but if the credit card companies are going to charge people to like me to offset losses for the bad loans they made, well it's a exodus of people who pay I am sure. The float you get on the so-called free loan is just not enough to be fucked with, that's for sure.

last month one of y cards doubled it's rate.

i called them up and they wouldn't drop it back, so instead i cancelled it.  which means it turns to a loan i pay back at my original rate.  not fun, but i'm not interested in working with that company any longer than i have to.

yeah, they call them debit cards, and that's exactly what i use. most banks use the same one for both atm and debit and i tell you, since i stopped using credit cards, it's been a perfect replacement.

Me too, I have´t used it at all for several yers now.  It´s so much easier.  After  I cancelled them I realized how it sounds odd for me, who am always on a tight budget, to pay for something that will make you only buy more. 

F.

Got Perfect Credit? You Could Be Charged For It!

Loraine Mullen-Kress carries a Bank of America credit card and religiously pays off her balance.

Yet now, her good credit habits could cost her. Earlier this month Bank of America started notifying customers like Mullen-Kress that they will be charged a new annual fee of $29 to $99.

It's made the news now. They say they are testing a small number of customers.... I was one of them and canceled

Elsa, I've been having a terrible problem with Citi and B of A all year.   In March I paid off my *full balance* to Citi, and at the end of the month they sold the account to B of A and lost my payment.  I spent 6 months this year tracking that payment between the two banks, neither of which wanted to take responsibility (can't afford for them to just lose $2400).  I finally got the payment resolved in September after much hassle, but I still have interest and fees on my balance that I shouldn't have been charged that I haven't resolved yet.  And every hour I spend on the phone with them costs me $ in other things I could be doing, right???

Afterwards, they reduced my credit line from $20K to $7500K (again - I have paid them in full each month and make 50% more than I did when I first received the credit line).

Well I am against regulation and think the consumer should vote with their feet. I did not use my card much which explains why I was chosen for the experiment. I really was a customer they could afford to lose but fact is a lot of these credit card cos will probably go out of business in the next few years regardless. 

They made money because people over spent all the time and people aren't doing that anymore.  When millions of people change their habits well...

the business model will change. Someone like me who pays in full every month is called a "deadbeat" but fact is I do provide a steady stream of income (on cards I use all the time) with virtually no risk and someone will surely step in to swoop up customers like me. I mean, they are paid a percentage by the merchant and in the old days this WAS the business model. 

They are trying to get people like me to cover losses incurred by their giving credit to REAL deadbeats and also the new regulations which will definitely cut into their profits... It's not going to work.

First - the credit card companies make boatloads off of your using the card even if you pay it off at the end of every month.  See merchants that take credit cards but not checks?  It's not because checks bounce that often.  It's because it's part of the requirements of them being able to offer credit card payment to their customers.  Often seen in lower volume merchants who don't have negotiating power.  But boy do they charge merchants on top of every transaction that is CC.  Try being a small business owner that needs to take credit cards for 5-10 transactions a week totalling 100 dollars or less per transaction.  You're screwed.

Second, closing a credit card will negatively impact your credit score.

My credit card of 15 years is going from something around 9-11% up to 18+% and I am pretty careful to carry a balance for a couple of months every year and then the rest of the year pay it off in full.  Keeps me away from those yearly fees. I am, not pleased.  Just got the notice last week.

But then there is my SO who has never had a credit card.  He can barely keep the bank statements straight so a CC would be bad for him. (ADD) He had trouble refinancing his house because he had paid for everything, car, etc. in cash for 20+ years.

Just got notice from Citibank my interest rate will be raised to 23.99% starting December this year. This is irrelevant to me since I don't carry a  balance but also insures I never will.

I don't have credit cards. I'm not good at paying off debt, so I'm super careful about making sure I don't accrue any.

just got my statement for MC--they upped my limit by another $3,500 even tho i have specifically asked for no more increases, and on the statement 'you are a preferred customer and don't have to pay this month's payment if you don't feel like it'

they want my $ for Xmas but I'm not spending a dime until it's totally paid off.