Two stories about recent credit...

[Aaaaah!]

...thought I'd pass these along:

- My mom (credit score 775) was unhappy with the way she was treated by BofA, so she applied for an HSBC card, which she got. Credit limit: $5000 -- not very big, she thought, but enough to fit her needs (her BofA card limit is $35000) -- when she activated the card the woman said to her "wow, you must have great credit to get such a high limit!" My mom said "really? I have a couple of cards that have closer to $40K limits" and the woman said "I haven't seen a limit of $5000 in a while -- they're really being careful these days.

- A good friend of mine has had one credit card her entire life: a gold Amex which she's had since college about 30 years ago. Never been late, she easily makes $200K a year, no debt, owns her house, whole deal. She tried to rent a Ryder truck (to help a friend move) and the $40 charge was rejected. She called Amex and the woman said "you're out of profile but I'll transfer you to a supervisor." Supervisor comes on and starts a long speech about how she's "out of profile". My friend says "of course not, I don't rent a moving truck every other month." Supervisor continues on -- my friend (kind of a direct, salesperson type) says "look, I don't have time for this -- are you going to approve the charge or not?" and the woman says "no" and hangs up.

The times they are a changin'

[cobs]

ya times definitely changin, hearing Amex doing it bit confusing...

[Overmylimit]

I have 100's of thousands in unsecured luckily Am Ex isn't one of them. I do have an Am Ex card and I can tell you these people are dirty. I have always paid on time or paid the whole balance off each month, they have raised and lowered my limit more times than I can think of. Once I was on vacation and I was going to use their card, I had a 10k credit limit and no balance. Halfway thru the vacation I tried to charge about 2k and was rejected, they had lowered my limit to 1500, I was mad of course. I swore I would never use their card again. 2 months later I get a letter saying I had been put back to 11k?? Never, ever late, always paid balance off....Am Ex sucks.....

[JRScott]

The days of easy credit are past.

I'd call back to customer service if I was your friend and complain about how she was treated, giving the date and time she called.

[Flamingo]

Many people are getting letters from their home equity holders and/or credit card holders that the amount of their credit lines are being reduced. They are allowed to do that - it's all listed in that myriad of small print information you state you read and agreed to when you obtained the credit. My daughter, age 21, has a $1,000 limit JCPenney card that she uses for incidentals now and then and we make sure it is paid for in full way prior to the due date of the bill. She received a notification that they were upping her rate from 18.9% to 23.9% and she has never once had a late payment or any other issue. They did, of course, and just prior to holiday shopping time, up her credit limit so one just had to educate themselves as to what credit they have in their pocket because slick things are taking place and you need to start looking at ALL papers inserted in your bills or that come in the mail and stop thinking it may be junk mail. It could be a notice as to a drop in your line of credit or amount of credit which you otherwise may not be aware of.