About my Bloomingdale’s card…

[nmac]

In 2004-06 I was employee of Bloomingdales and I signed up for their credit card which was required to receive the employee discount. Since I had no credit history at the time I was only given a $100 limit. I don’t even think they would give a limit this low to a customer. Over the next two years the limit was raised to $700. After I quit Bloomingdales my financial life fell apart and all of my other credit cards eventually went to collections and now have aged off my credit report. As you can imagine the Bloomingdale’s credit people saw what was happening on my credit report and dropped my limit back down to $100.

In 2009 I made a small purchase on the card just to keep it active and paid off the balance in full. I recently called their credit department to see if I could get a credit limit increase now that my credit report is nearly spotless. It turns out that my card was closed in 2012 and they told me that if I wanted an account I would have to apply again and that they couldn’t reopen my account. I don’t really need a Bloomingdale’s card so I declined this offer.

On my credit reports (all three of them) the account is still listed as open and in good standing. It shows almost 10 years of on time payments. Every month the account is updated to the CRA’s . It shows a high balance of $498 but is reporting a credit limit of only $100. This account is great for my AAoA but I can’t help thinking that at some point it could start hurting me more than helping due to the permanently low limit. I think since I used to be an employee the card is for some reason reporting differently or it has slipped through the cracks rather than eventually being purged from their system.

Should I do anything about this card? If so what? Dispute? Try to get Bloomingdales to stop incorrectly reporting this account? Or should I let it be and let it pad my AAoA despite the small limit? Thoughts? Has anyone else had an inaccurate positive trade line show up on their reports?

[policebox]

The small limit isn't hurting you, so long as it's your only toy limit card and it isn't showing a balance. If it's a positive trade line with a long AAoA, then I wouldn't dispute it. I'd just leave it alone.

[Boonie]

I feel your pain.  I opened a Bloomingdales card in 2010 with an initial limit of $600.  When I activated it, they increased it to $1,200.  Then about 6 months later they took it down to $100 and it never moved from there.  There was no change of my credit, so not sure why ti was dropped other than the economy.  I kept it open and bought a few candles in hope for an auto increase.  I requested a CLI, but they wanted to do a HP.  I did not need anymore inquiries.  Also, I have several other cards with high limits, so this card got closed a couple months ago.