OpenMarket.org - Latest Comments in Credit Spiral

Re: Credit Spiral

Avitar — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 15:04:49 -0000

AMEX is hurting right now. They are very close to going under; this is why they restructured themselves as a bank. Without the restructuring, they would not qualify for Government Bailout money. Drowning men often strike out. One should always view corporations huge stupid beasts.

As for your problem, try approaching a local bank or credit union for a rolling 90-day loan. You have to make the payments and at the end of each 90 day, the new loan has to be less than the previous loan but it is well-structured traditional financial instrument, the interest should be rational and the rules do not change on you in the middle of a month. The current crop of “Investment Banks” is pulling things the loan sharks would not dream of doing fifty years ago.

Re: Credit Spiral

Nancyf — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 15:54:01 -0000

Yes; 'cause some people are irresponsible when they get ahold of a credit card and some end up getting themselves into debt for ten years or more just from one Christmas shopping spree.

Re: Credit Spiral

Harry — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 22:52:55 -0000

You betcha AMEX. Same thing happened to me, but I bet the fellow who mentioned home values is on to something, ours is down $400,000, still not underwater but but I can see the shoreline from here. My wife loves AE, I don't have much use for them myself. She has some kind of points deal with Saks. Anyhow when they dropped our credit line I immediately made a jumbo payment., so my wife could do her thing. Yep, as soon as I paid, they dropped it again. I have never missed, been late on a payment, and back in the day working overseas would do 10-12K a month with them. No more. Plus I didn't get the notice on the first drop until 4 days after they made the change and just founf out when I went online to pay. Class Act.

Re: Credit Spiral

Douglas — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 22:51:07 -0000

Ha ha ha, and I thought it was just me. But it seems Amex hates everyone else too. My wife was embarrassed when she took my card to fill up her minivan, and then it was rejected at the register, with not enough cash to spare. She called me in shock, and I went online to check my account... yup, payment received, account in good standing, no notice of anything amiss. So I call them and get told that they suddenly don't like my debt to income ratio. What the hell?

Got a MasterCard from my local credit union. Bye bye, Amex.

Re: Credit Spiral

Bob Davis — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:51:52 -0000

Yes, sir, AMEX strikes again. It happened to me 3 weeks ago. The most ironic thing is -- when I called AMEX back the day after I received their call, the first thing the rep said to me was, "We see that this year marks your 25th year as a customer with American Express. We'd like to thank you for your business." I told him to stow his thanks, as I was leaving.

This is EXACTLY the type of thing that will make a downturn into a large recession. If AMEX get's one dollar of government bailout money, one of the conditions should be that they may NOT do this to those of us who have NEVER had a late payment with them. The rep confirmed that we had a spotless record with AMEX.

Un-freaking-believable.

Re: Credit Spiral

Kent — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:49:20 -0000

Actually just about any local credit union will do business on a more personal basis than the credit companies or big banks.

but if you've paid off your other cards, why not just zero this one out and go cold turkey on credit period. just get a debit card, perhaps on a segregated account, and use it like a credit card up to the limit you yourself set.

Re: Credit Spiral

Alex — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 16:54:57 -0000

AMEX here as well. I have paid my balance off almost every month, And I think I have had 1 or 2 payments late by a day or two.

You can get as technical as you want about the late payments, but I obviously have been attentive of my payments.

I am canceling my account.

Ridiculous.

Re: Credit Spiral

Steven — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 16:22:34 -0000

"I shall be looking around for someone else to replace this particular line of credit (still quite substantial) who has better risk management techniques, preferably ones based on an individual relationship."

Good luck with that. Maybe you could try George Bailey down at the Building and Loan Society.

I mean, really. What year do you think you're living in?

Re: Credit Spiral

John (of Argghhh!) — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 15:30:31 -0000

Well done, sir. I had a similar event happen to me last year, after paying off revolving debt, eliminating unused accounts (to reduce the amount of credit on offer) and having nicely fattened up the brokerage accounts (all moved into bonds and similiar instruments, so still growing, albeit slowly and not contracting) to get a missive from a Famous Company saying they were reducing my credit line as I was riskier.

Reeely. I still have a credit score in the 700s and I'm riskier.

Heh.

So, I don't do business with them anymore, either. And it wasn't AMEX. They're still happy with me.

Re: Credit Spiral

Jon — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 15:15:17 -0000

I can almost guarantee it was American Express. The same thing happened to me last week. I've always been good about paying and nothing has changed in my income or debt in a long time, yet they still lowered my limit. Not too long ago, they were only too happy to keep raising the limit--until we asked them to stop.

My boss got the same notice the other day from American Express and he also says he hasn't added to his debt and has been great with his payments. This must be happening to a lot of folks.