topic Re: Another CL Decrease in Credit Cards

Another CL Decrease

Reighn9 — Fri, 11 Dec 2015 21:28:28 GMT

Why does the letter alway start off with "We value your business" when the company is dropping your credit limit or decling an application? Some even say early in the letter they used information from credit reports in their decision, then later there is a statement about the credit report not having a part in their decision. I've had 3 cards drop CLs, 2 didn't have a balance. I didn't get notification from one of them. I do have high utilization as of recently due to a serious emergency within the past year. The reasons given are usually account balances rose too fast in the past year, monthly payments aren't high enough, loan amounts too high to balances. When I call I always get different answers than is put on the paper. Chase just declined a card that showed up pre-approved on my account page. The letter said more than one account over limit, higher balances compared tolast year, too many cards with balances over $1000.When I caled the agent told me those offers "just pop up, they're not indvidualized" This was a military themed card near Vetran's Day and I have a Chase military account. He checked for the over limit accounts and could find nothing, but all he could say was "sorry about that" and he wouldn't anything else. I pulled Experian and all I can find is high utilization and a lot of accounts in good standing. No lates, no derogs. I make more than the minimum payments, a lot more depending on the minimum. Why do these companies want to make things worse when you have outside problems but you are still paying your bills? These lower limits don't help my utilization any either.

Re: Another CL Decrease

baller4life — Fri, 11 Dec 2015 21:40:09 GMT

Really sorry to hear you are dealing with this on top of everything else. Who cld you and how much?

Re: Another CL Decrease

Anonymous — Fri, 11 Dec 2015 21:43:30 GMT

@baller4life wrote:
Really sorry to hear you are dealing with this on top of everything else. Who cld you and how much?

+1 So sorry to hear of your cld.

Re: Another CL Decrease

Reighn9 — Sat, 12 Dec 2015 01:12:03 GMT

@baller4life wrote:
Really sorry to hear you are dealing with this on top of everything else. Who cld you and how much?

First in August it was Target Visa from $5000 to $3500 with no letter of explanation before or after I talked to a representative who couldn't find any problem and said the limit would be restored on the next review at the end of the month-15 year account no lates. zero balance. Limit not retored I sent complaint to cfpb and basically Target said they can change the terms & conditions anyway they want without notification for any reason and it's ok for their employees to lie to the customers because it was only a miscommunication on my part. I'm still disputing this one. 2nd one last month AMEX traditional green card, again 15 years no lates, zero balance, decided to impose a credit limit of $1400 on a previously NPSL card. Reasons listed as payments not large enough on accounts, too many creditors reviewed my report, too mant accounts with balances. As far as payment I noticed on my report that most creditors did not list my actual amount paid, only minimum payment due and my inquiries from this year are all from the same bank except one. The latest is just a $300 Drop from $5000 on Arrival and I've had it a little over a year and I do have a balance. I use this card quite a bit a make much mor than minimum payment. But one of the complaints was payments on accounts too small. Last month when Barclay denied the Barnes & Noble card I called and was told my payments were fine but wouldn't approve or give reason. I got the letter which said I had sufficient credit on another Barclay's card.

Re: Another CL Decrease

baller4life — Sat, 12 Dec 2015 01:17:21 GMT

Ok so apparently your creditors are getting nervous about the amount of debt you are carrying and taking action. All you can do at this point is sit down and devise a plan to pay off your debt. Don't app for any new cards or charge any thing else. Just throw all you can at your cards.

Re: Another CL Decrease

Anonymous — Sat, 12 Dec 2015 01:21:23 GMT

@baller4life wrote:
Ok so apparently your creditors are getting nervous about the amount of debt you are carrying and taking action. All you can do at this point is sit down and devise a plan to pay off your debt. Don't app for any new cards or charge any thing else. Just throw all you can at your cards.

Re: Another CL Decrease

CreditMagic7 — Sat, 12 Dec 2015 01:30:49 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@baller4life wrote:
Ok so apparently your creditors are getting nervous about the amount of debt you are carrying and taking action. All you can do at this point is sit down and devise a plan to pay off your debt. Don't app for any new cards or charge any thing else. Just throw all you can at your cards.
+2

The reasons given are usually account balances rose too fast in the past year, monthly payments aren't high enough, loan amounts too high to balances.

Since you can't go back in time to change the past year YOU CAN however try to address those other ones to show them EFFORT.

Lay some strong payment history on them where you can, they MONITOR payments and surpassing your previous payment amounts will make a difference. As mentioned it's a matter of damage control for you now but it's DOABLE and you can regain momentum again after a time. The hell of it is that it can seem like forever but STEADY AHEAD is the KEY to recover from it completely.

All The Best.

Re: Another CL Decrease

Reighn9 — Sat, 12 Dec 2015 01:42:32 GMT

@baller4life wrote:
Ok so apparently your creditors are getting nervous about the amount of debt you are carrying and taking action. All you can do at this point is sit down and devise a plan to pay off your debt. Don't app for any new cards or charge any thing else. Just throw all you can at your cards.

I've already been putting everything I can on the cards,but I keep getting extra unavoidable expenses caused by others. As soon as I get one situatuation under control another pops ups. I can't seem to get ahead. Iwould like to devise a plan that would work.

Re: Another CL Decrease

CreditMagic7 — Sat, 12 Dec 2015 01:51:12 GMT

@Reighn9 wrote:
@baller4life wrote:
Ok so apparently your creditors are getting nervous about the amount of debt you are carrying and taking action. All you can do at this point is sit down and devise a plan to pay off your debt. Don't app for any new cards or charge any thing else. Just throw all you can at your cards.
I've already been putting everything I can on the cards,but I keep getting extra unavoidable expenses caused by others. As soon as I get one situatuation under control another pops ups. I can't seem to get ahead. Iwould like to devise a plan that would work.

You answered your own question.

I can't count the times i run into "how can i get this or that account under a certain figure that i am confident with" laying in bed at night. I then get right up and start writing on a white board on my wall (several times over) and i keep devising many different scenarios before deciding on one plan, and that might change tomorrow but eventually you see one that helps your confidence to tackle what you feel that you need to do in order to get the solid handle on at least one or two of them that works for you then later sometime go right back at it again over your entire plan and draw up some more approaches that you can see with your own eyes that will better turn out to your favor next week, next month, so on and so forth.

Sometimes matters work against us to try and trip things up but you just have to attack right back with your own PLAN to address it in your way.

Hope some of that helps in some small way for you.

Re: Another CL Decrease

NRB525 — Sat, 12 Dec 2015 02:38:43 GMT

@Reighn9 wrote:
@baller4life wrote:
Ok so apparently your creditors are getting nervous about the amount of debt you are carrying and taking action. All you can do at this point is sit down and devise a plan to pay off your debt. Don't app for any new cards or charge any thing else. Just throw all you can at your cards.
I've already been putting everything I can on the cards,but I keep getting extra unavoidable expenses caused by others. As soon as I get one situatuation under control another pops ups. I can't seem to get ahead. Iwould like to devise a plan that would work.

Sorry to hear about the CLD. I've gone through large CLD on large balances, from 2009 to 2013, now all the banks are happy that I've paid down balances.

Could you list all your cards out, which bank, which card, credit limit, what the open amount is for each card, interest rate you are paying, and typical monthly payment.

You mention you are carrying a balance on the Arrival card, so that's a rather steep APR to be paying each month. There may be some suggestions we can make, based on the cards you actually have, to get ahead of these payments.

Re: Another CL Decrease

gdale6 — Sat, 12 Dec 2015 02:46:15 GMT

Best thing I can tell you OP is to really diversify your portfolio and only maintain a minimum of cards with so called prime or major banks they will be the first to dump you when you are down. You need to deal more with regional banks, local CUs and even some of the National level CUs. A CU is more apt to stick with you as you are an owner member.

Re: Another CL Decrease

CreditMagic7 — Sat, 12 Dec 2015 03:06:12 GMT

@gdale6 wrote:
Best thing I can tell you OP is to really diversify your portfolio and only maintain a minimum of cards with so called prime or major banks they will be the first to dump you when you are down. You need to deal more with regional banks, local CUs and even some of the National level CUs. A CU is more apt to stick with you as you are an owner member.

^Excellent advice going forward.

Re: Another CL Decrease

Anonymous — Sat, 12 Dec 2015 03:10:15 GMT

@Reighn9 wrote:

I've already been putting everything I can on the cards,but I keep getting extra unavoidable expenses caused by others. As soon as I get one situatuation under control another pops ups. I can't seem to get ahead. Iwould like to devise a plan that would work.

Sorry the CLD happened. Since you have experienced 3 CLD's and then the denials you mention, I agree that the plan is not working. There is a loud and clear message there that your creditors are sending. The only thing you can do is pay down the debt and NOT charge anything else until it gets under control. Sounds as if right now you are charging, paying somewhat but then charging more. That will get you into a big hole that it will be difficult to get out of unless you aggressively get the debt under control.

Re: Another CL Decrease

UncleB — Sat, 12 Dec 2015 08:40:40 GMT

@Reighn9 wrote:
@baller4life wrote:
Ok so apparently your creditors are getting nervous about the amount of debt you are carrying and taking action. All you can do at this point is sit down and devise a plan to pay off your debt. Don't app for any new cards or charge any thing else. Just throw all you can at your cards.
I've already been putting everything I can on the cards,but I keep getting extra unavoidable expenses caused by others. As soon as I get one situatuation under control another pops ups. I can't seem to get ahead. Iwould like to devise a plan that would work.

At the risk of derailing this thread, I just want to add that my bankruptcy back in 2000 was for this exact reason.

Lenders don't have a 'crystal ball' to know we're having problems, but they have computer algorithms that generally work pretty well, and right now those formulas are telling them you (possibly) have 'stuff' going on... which happens to be correct. I leveraged my own credit and resources to help others, and in the end I ended up worse off than they were. It was a hard lesson... one that I'm still feeling the repercussions of to this very day.

I know that's not what you came here to hear, but I'm posting in the hope that it will be helpful.

On a positive note, once your personal issues are under control, it's likely you'll see things turn around with your lenders rather quickly.

Re: Another CL Decrease

Imperfectfuture — Sat, 12 Dec 2015 08:47:58 GMT

@CreditMagic7 wrote:
@Reighn9 wrote:
@baller4life wrote:
Ok so apparently your creditors are getting nervous about the amount of debt you are carrying and taking action. All you can do at this point is sit down and devise a plan to pay off your debt. Don't app for any new cards or charge any thing else. Just throw all you can at your cards.
I've already been putting everything I can on the cards,but I keep getting extra unavoidable expenses caused by others. As soon as I get one situatuation under control another pops ups. I can't seem to get ahead. Iwould like to devise a plan that would work.
You answered your own question.
I can't count the times i run into "how can i get this or that account under a certain figure that i am confident with" laying in bed at night. I then get right up and start writing on a white board on my wall (several times over) and i keep devising many different scenarios before deciding on one plan, and that might change tomorrow but eventually you see one that helps your confidence to tackle what you feel that you need to do in order to get the solid handle on at least one or two of them that works for you then later sometime go right back at it again over your entire plan and draw up some more approaches that you can see with your own eyes that will better turn out to your favor next week, next month, so on and so forth.

Sometimes matters work against us to try and trip things up but you just have to attack right back with your own PLAN to address it in your way.

Hope some of that helps in some small way for you.

I like it.

Re: Another CL Decrease

too-much-time — Sat, 12 Dec 2015 17:53:37 GMT

@gdale6 wrote:
Best thing I can tell you OP is to really diversify your portfolio and only maintain a minimum of cards with so called prime or major banks they will be the first to dump you when you are down. You need to deal more with regional banks, local CUs and even some of the National level CUs. A CU is more apt to stick with you as you are an owner member.

Your advice is good, but not the whole picture. Yes, I favor my CU over my bank, but don't have a credit card with either, and that's how I diversify! You can tell my cards from my signature line, and Chase and Amex have been very kind to me over the years. It is correct that the major lenders are about profit and risk, and I have probably been more about less risk than more profit to them.

Apart from not wanting to have a credit card with someone that I have a checking account with, my favorite type of rewards are points that can be transferred 1:1 to an airline. Not there is anything wrong about having a credit card and a car loan and even a mortgage too with your CU, absolutely not; my living is just both here and there.