Consumer Credit Card Warning – Press Release

The major credit card banks and firms including American Express, Discover Card, Visa Card and Mastercard are currently allegedly doing everything they can which in-effect seriously impacts credit card users and of major detriment to the already poor economy and public interest. They are doing things such as sharply lowering credit limits, restricting and closing accounts sometimes arbitrarily, imposing excessive fees and high interest rates. Much of those customer negatives are being done with flimsy, little or no valid reason.

A major impact of those credit-card issues is not only the significant lowering of consumer spending power and access to credit for emergencies but also reductions in FICO credit scores which occur when your credit card balance becomes a higher ratio vs your credit limit. That severely impacts other loans including car loan and home mortgage interest rates which rates can be significantly higher as a highly related side-effect and end-result of how poorly the large credit card issuers are treating many of their credit-card holders.

Still another serious issue is the fact credit-cards routinely permit you to exceed your assigned card credit limit. For example, we have been told by a Wells Fargo bank card employee they allow credit limits to be automatically exceeded by as much as 20%. At first you may think that is actually a nice benefit from your credit card issuer but unfortunately it may sometimes turn-out to be a nightmare.

The reason it’s really a major negative for you is the fact unless you promptly pay the full over-the-limit amount along with your regular payment there are substantial costs involved, i.e. approx $39 over-limit fee, $35 late-charge and you can also expect a huge increase of your card interest rate to say 24.99% or even more with some credit cards.

Remember, all that severe damage to your finances can happen even if you exceed your credit limit by an insignificant amount, perhaps just a few dollars possibly resulting from you not closely monitoring your credit card account balance on a daily or even a real-time basis, as consumers do not do.

Keep in mind as long as you fail to pay the exact over-limit amount and all the high associated costs they continue to be charged each and every month. Very quickly the monthly fees can easily exceed your minimum payment amount by as much as 150% or more from what we have seen, i.e. minimum payment of about $80 but monthly fees and interest charge of roughly $200 per month.

In-effect that means the credit card account will never be paid off and balance will only increase for years into the future unless you come into lots of money one day to pay the credit card off, or you could easily owe hundreds of thousands of dollars on your original low balance credit card over time!

Capital One Credit Discrimination by Zip Code

There have been ongoing rumors since credit became tough to get that some creditors (American Express in particular) have been rejecting new applications or reducing existing customer credit limits based on where the borrower lives. It was said American Express was doing so on the grounds that home prices and foreclosures were worse depending on your zip code. That’s a reason there are new AmericanExpressSucks and other protest websites appeaing on the internet.

Now we have first-hand evidence that credit discrimination based on where you live is in fact hapenning.

Here is a letter from CaptalOne (the big credit card firm) I now have in my hand dated April 5 2009 which say’s “Thanks for your recent request for auto financing. After reviewing your application we cannot grant your request for credit because of worsening economic conditions in your area, in addition to the year of your mortgage.”

So basically it means because the applicants geographic area has lots of foreclosures and his/her home may possibly have upside down home equity thay are not able to buy a new car!

It’s interesting to note the Capital One credit turn-down letter does not mention the normal credit rejection reasons such as past due accounts and negative credit issues. I think that’s a real shame and huge consumer letdown issue which can only make the economy worse (not better) due to reduced credit availability, combined with less retail sales as a direct result.

If this discriminatory credit “redlining” was done by home lenders or Realtors® involving real estate sales it’s believed doing so would be illegal and subject to presecution and fines so why is it legal to discriminate by credit card firms and auto lenders?

That kind of blatant credit discrimination and redlining needs to be complained about to the Federal Trade Commission in our opinion. You may file a consumer complaint at this FTC web site http://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov

A good FICO Score is critical

Lenders use your FICO Score more than other factors when considering your home loan, credit cards or other loans and financing. That is why you should try to stay up-to-date on what your Fico score currently is and always be on he lookout for ways to improve your FICO score. There are good ways to make your fico score better. One of them is effective, simple and surprisingly easy to do, which will be discussed in an upcoming post.