Greed

Credit Lender Greed And How To Deal With It

Consider that we have all become credit slaves. 70% in America have at least one credit card and it starts, sometimes, in grade school. The average card holder has 3 cards and $10,000 credit card debt.

Credit cards are the drug of choice for all of us. We have been convinced we cannot live the American Dream without it. Just as with drugs from the street dealer, the first little taste is usually free. We are offered 0% interest for a period of time and no annual fee.

My credit score was 780. Not bad! Then I discovered I needed new tires which cost about $800. I whipped out the old Chase card only to discover it had been closed, and declined. Since the tires were already installed, I was forced to take advantage of the tire store's instant credit offer of only 24.9%. Chase had not bothered to inform me that my card had been cancelled 3 weeks prior.

This started 2 chain reactions. Applying for the new credit lowered my score. The loss of the Chase credit line caused a further decline in my score. Next came a series of credit line reductions and credit rate increases caused by these 2 events. All this together lowered my credit score by over 100 points, allowing lenders to further increase my rates and lower my limits.

I suppose everyone is now seeing that the bailout of lenders, using consumer's tax dollars, has only served to increase the greed of the lenders. Bear in mind that the crisis requiring bailout was caused by lender greed in the first place.

So, a new chain reaction is in progress and this time it is the other way round. People are beginning to see that using credit for purchases is not so smart after all. Black Friday posted lower sales than a year ago, and many consumers (myself included) are paying off their cards in record numbers. Christmas sales are on track to post record lows. Why should we subsidize these greed-pigs with our tax dollars only to be taken advantage of yet again by increased lending rates?

Two of my lenders offered free credit scores monthly up until recently. That was a deciding factor in applying to them in the first place. One of them just said, up front, sorry, there will be no more free credit scores. The other stalled and delayed and lied about it, saying the service was temporarily suspended until such a times as they could 'improve the service'. What a laugh.

So this is what will happen. We will use less credit over time and they will suffer loss of business. At some point they will wake up to realize that less service and poorer service gets less business and therefore lower profits. But, by the time they wake up and try to win us back it will be too little, too late.

I eagerly await that day.

Remember, it is in the credit industry's best interest to keep your credit score low, and any excuse they can find will be used against you. If you have a problem with shady activities by your lender don't bother complaining to them or to the credit bureaus. Instead go straight to the Comptroller of the Currency, document your complaint and submit it. I guarantee best results here: http://www.occ.treas.gov/