topic Re: Care Credit drama in Credit Cards

Care Credit drama

Anonymous — Sun, 11 Mar 2018 03:40:55 GMT

Back about April 2017 i applied for $500 Care Credit card. TU was 545. Got approved. Used it on a pretty regular basis for the pets until September. Ive been making the payments on it since May and paid it off just this month with taxes. I went to check it since it was paid off so i could use it again, should have been $0 due, $500 limit and $500 available to spend.... Nope. $0 available to spend. Huh? I got on chat, they swore i had money on it and could use it. I called and got about 3 other stories before finally being told it was closed " because my credit score went down". My current TU is 576, up from when i applied and I have better credit than I did then as far as whats on there! ( I just got approved for a car loan in October). I called hog wash. I looked up reviews and this happens to other people as well.

My advice? Care Credit is great. I had no issues with the service or the card, even applying was easy....but theyll close it in a heartbeat and not think twice.

Re: Care Credit drama

Loquat — Sun, 11 Mar 2018 03:52:21 GMT

Sometimes it's about risk assessment. While you may have been approved back then with a lower score...if things change in the economy or the lender starts to have an uptick in defaults, they'll reassess their risk and sometimes that leads to account limits being reduced or as in your experience, closed. If your utilization starts to creep up and they don't see a pattern of large payments on account review, this could also lead to said actions. Trying to figure out why they did it could be an endless journey.

Not saying that I agree but it's not our company, our money, and we don't get to make the rules. It's good that you didn't have a balance on the card at time of closing. Try again if you like when your score improves. Best of luck to you OP and thanks for sharing your experience.

Re: Care Credit drama

Anonymous — Tue, 03 Apr 2018 18:14:04 GMT

I had been paying the same $30 every month since it was opened, so it wasnt due to paying less or nothing at all.

Oh well. Google says its happened to others as well sadly.

Re: Care Credit drama

SunriseEarth — Tue, 03 Apr 2018 18:24:05 GMT

I'm sorry to hear they closed your account. However, I'm actually a bit surprised that they opened the account to begin with with your TU score at approval. Although it no longer helps your UTIL, it's still a positive TL and will continue to be as long as it reports (~10 years after closure). FICO scores aren't affected by "closed by lender" or "closed by consumer" remarks. Some feel that the latter may look better on manual review, but that's largely speculative.

I would advise that you keep working on your credit profile. Please see the "Rebuilding" forum to see what you can do to raise your TU scores. My scores were similar to yours in the not-so-distant past, and that Forum greatly helped me in getting to where I am now.

Re: Care Credit drama

Anonymous — Tue, 03 Apr 2018 19:24:39 GMT

Im surprised they gave me one too but im thankful!! We had to take the pets to the vet and it paid for our sick bunny ( who died from the crappy vet).

Im glad to know it will still report positive. I was a bit worried about that.

My score has improved since then. Not a super jump but going higher.

Re: Care Credit drama

Anonymous — Tue, 03 Apr 2018 19:26:13 GMT

and i understand how to rebuild and what to do. Its just a waiting game to get there.

Re: Care Credit drama

Anonymous — Tue, 03 Apr 2018 20:00:22 GMT

@Anonymouswrote:
and i understand how to rebuild and what to do. Its just a waiting game to get there.

Hang in there. You will prevail.

Re: Care Credit drama

Anonymous — Tue, 03 Apr 2018 20:26:01 GMT

Wow! Synchrony seems to be on a rampage with closing cards.

Re: Care Credit drama

SunriseEarth — Wed, 04 Apr 2018 00:13:39 GMT

@Anonymouswrote:
Im surprised they gave me one too but im thankful!! We had to take the pets to the vet and it paid for our sick bunny ( who died from the crappy vet).

Im glad to know it will still report positive. I was a bit worried about that.

My score has improved since then. Not a super jump but going higher.

As long as your balance is paid and you had a good payment history, it's a positive TL. Payment history is the largest factor in your FICO scores. And I know all too well about needing patience in a rebuild! It's no fun now, but it will get a LOT better down the road.

Re: Care Credit drama

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Apr 2018 02:01:26 GMT

@AnonymousI had been paying the same $30 every month since it was opened, so it wasnt due to paying less or nothing at all.

OP, not to veer off topic too much here, but what is causing your scores to be in the 500's? Usually when we're talking scores in that range it's a combination of both negative items as well as high utilization.

Where does your current utilization sit? You made the comment above about paying $30/mo, which to me sounds like it was more or less minimum payments. If that's the case, I'd give you the friendly advice to sort of reconsider your perspective on revolving debt. Paying minimums (or near them, double them, etc) is not ultimately what you want to do, as it is something that is viewed by lenders as being far more risky. On top of that, this type of payment behavior suggests the carrying of balances, paying interest and in general rolling with higher utilization than you'd like. Depending on where your current utilization sits, you could be leaving anywhere from 25-100 points on the table. Just something to consider, because with the relatively low credit limits you have paying down balances lowers percentages across thresholds much easier than if you had huge credit lines.

Re: Care Credit drama

Remedios — Wed, 04 Apr 2018 02:06:14 GMT

Also, I've noticed you have two Discover cards.
With your scores, I do not think they will unsecure any time soon. You already have unsecured Disco card ( at least according to your siggy).
Take your deposit and pay some of your debt down, or save it for the next pet emergency as you obviously care about your fur buddies.
Good luck!

Re: Care Credit drama

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Apr 2018 02:23:48 GMT

I was looking into CareCredit a while back and have read this over and over again about them closing people randomally. Not sure it's worth the risk.. like I rather risk another HP on a regular card or a CLI somewhere just for more security.

Does it even look that special or excusable if your one nearly maxed out credit card is a "Care Credit" as if it were for medical purposes only and you kept your others clean? Does anyone know?

Re: Care Credit drama

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Apr 2018 04:04:59 GMT

It was low just like anyone else. Debt. Its coming up and thats what matters.

as for not becoming unsecured, I was told by Discover as long as i keep paying on time, it will be.

and no, having a balance on Care Credit is not seen as medical... its simply seen as Sychrony Bank and a debt owed. You can use it for more than just medical so they dont care what you used it for.

Re: Care Credit drama

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Apr 2018 04:10:40 GMT

JP85, I posed a couple of questions back in Post 10 if you have the time to circle back and reply.

Re: Care Credit drama

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Apr 2018 04:40:09 GMT

I did answer. I answered why the score is lower.

Re: Care Credit drama

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Apr 2018 06:32:18 GMT

@Remedioswrote:
Also, I've noticed you have two Discover cards.
With your scores, I do not think they will unsecure any time soon. You already have unsecured Disco card ( at least according to your siggy).
Take your deposit and pay some of your debt down, or save it for the next pet emergency as you obviously care about your fur buddies.
Good luck!

He or she may also check out Understanding FICO Scoring while the debt may exist with lates or whateva... understanding how

all the FICO Scores work is also a good start.

Re: Care Credit drama

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Apr 2018 11:21:16 GMT

@Anonymouswrote:
Im surprised they gave me one too but im thankful!! We had to take the pets to the vet and it paid for our sick bunny ( who died from the crappy vet).

Im glad to know it will still report positive. I was a bit worried about that.

My score has improved since then. Not a super jump but going higher.

So sorry to hear about your bunny. I have two pet rabbits myself and I went into a fairly extensive search to find a good "exotic-animal" vet with plenty of bunny expertise (which I did; if you're in the Washington, DC area, check out Stahl Exotic Animal Veterinary Services in Fairfax, VA; I have my buns' semiannual checkup scheduled for next month).

I got approved for my own Care Credit in late October - which I got anticipating not only vet expenses but also dental care - when I was somewhere in the 650's. Started out at $4,000, but I got a jaw-dropping $11K CLI last month (which actually worries me just a little since I know Sync's hard limit for exposure is $100K and my three cards now stand at a total of $25K, and I still have my eye on the Marvel Mastercard once I exit my current gardening phase). Perhaps one day you'll be able to get Care Credit again once your scores get higher, as, stipulating its high APR, it really is pretty nice to have a dedicated healthcare card and they do have nice interest-free deals on "big ticket" items.

Re: Care Credit drama

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Apr 2018 11:22:32 GMT

@Anonymouswrote:
Wow! Synchrony seems to be on a rampage with closing cards.

I know, right. Ever since I started hearing the reports about the great Walmart crackdown, I've been nervously eyeing my own three Sync cards (Walmart, Amazon, Care Credit). All three of them seem to be fine...so far.

Re: Care Credit drama

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Apr 2018 12:53:52 GMT

@AnonymousI did answer. I answered why the score is lower.

I asked where your utilization currently sits.

Re: Care Credit drama

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Apr 2018 13:07:07 GMT

@Anonymouswrote:
@AnonymousI did answer. I answered why the score is lower.
I asked where your utilization currently sits.

+1. Utilization is a key piece of information when trying to puzzle out why AA has occured. Oftentimes AA is tied to sudden sharp increases in utilization - for instance, in a recent thread discussing AA on Sync's Walmart card, the OP turned out to have had their utilization go from 30% to 67%. In fact, I seem to recall reading that sudden large increases in utilization (across multiple cards?) are one of the warning signs of so-called "bust out" fraud, according to Experian. (Please note that I'm not accusing anyone of any unethical or illegal behavior. As I've noted in other similar threads, the unhappy fact is that some honest people are getting caught up in AA sweeps because certain activities, carried on in good faith, trigger warning alerts at the issuers when they do account reviews.)