For more than a week I’ve been planning to write to you about your credit cards.
Now I just read that Changes to credit card rules won’t perfectly protect consumers. The writer makes some of the same points I was planning to make, though mine are based on personal experience and not on research of the new laws.
Another change generally keeps lenders from raising interest rates on existing balances, though you still could see rates go up on new purchases, provided they send a warning of the change.
Consumers received a taste of this desperation in the last few months. Knowing that by Feb. 22 their interest income would be reduced, lenders raised rates, changed credit limits and dropped many customers.
Even people who paid on time were shocked by the changes lenders used to cut their risks and enhance revenue.
Now comes Phase 2. Analysts expect consumers to be hit with new fees, such as annual fees for holding credit cards and penalties for rarely or never using cards.
The law requires that people be notified clearly of changes, but many people ignore their mail.
“…lenders raised rates, changed credit limits and dropped many customers,”” she wrote.
Some of them certainly did for me!
A couple raised their rates.
Another dropped credit limits because of card inactivity. (That reduction was in the range of $10K.)
Yet another simply closed a had-not-been-used-in-a-long-time business card.
And all of the above were utterly unexpected. And none of the actions were because of some recent bad activity of mine. The card holders were just getting ready for the new law to go into effect.
Interestingly, though, Discover Card treated me quite differently on a personal card. First of all, they slashed my interest rate. And did so retroactively by a month or so. (I called them to ask for a reduction.) Thank you, Discover! You guys have been nice to me before; I appreciate that.
