Lowes vs Home Depot, (Synchrony vs Citi)

[Anonymous]

So last month I refinanced my mortgage to get a better rate, cash out, etc. Anyway I used some of the cash to pay off 5 or 6 cards that were over 50% util and my scores went up 60-70 pts by the 1st of June, all over 700 now. It has been a good 6 months since I was over 700.  In the meantime, Home Depot and Lowes, AR'd me at the beginning of June and since they were looking at month old automated data, HD cut me from $5k to $580, Lowes from $10K to $900.  OUCH !!!!!!! 

So I called HD to see if someone could manually review knowing that the 637 they were claiming had gone up to 714 and they basically told me to pound sand or take a hard pull. So I paid off the $515 I owed them and told them I would like to close the account.  They immediately replied "Your account is closed, do you need anything else?" No offer to try to keep me as a customer or have a nice day.  I will never do business with them again and I plan on closing my Citi DP MC as soon as I pay it off in the next couple of months.

Synchrony, on the other hand, was a true delight to deal with.  They manually reviewed their decisions using current TU info and put Lowes back to $6K because that is all I asked for. All of this from one TU soft pull. Not only that, but they were friendly, polite and actually seemed to care. All in all, a good day that could have been rotten, all from making a phone call and simply asking for some help.

  If these banks can all cut our limits with a soft pull, then they should be able to raise them with a soft pull. This experience with Synchrony proves it is easy to do.

CH

[Anonymous]

If a bank ever lowers my limit with no notification like that I'll close my account, too. I'm of the mindset that if I've been with a bank for a while and always paid on time, I don't care if my scores drop, they shouldn't lower my limit because I've proven myself. I won't even ask for a recon unless it's a card I really love with a company that's already proven itself to be reasonable.

Sorry this happened to you, but at least one case turned out okay.

[Anonymous]

I did the recon to keep as much limit availability as possible to help with keeping overall util lower. Losing 9k is impactful.

CH

[Anonymous]

Oddly enough, the MyFICO 3B subscription didn't call this out to me. It was CreditKarma whose scoring system is a crime but their alerts seem to be faster.

[Jetboy]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Synchrony, on the other hand, was a true delight to deal with.  They manually reviewed their decisions using current TU info and put Lowes back to $6K because that is all I asked for. All of this from one TU soft pull. Not only that, but they were friendly, polite and actually seemed to care. All in all, a good day that could have been rotten, all from making a phone call and simply asking for some help.

  If these banks can all cut our limits with a soft pull, then they should be able to raise them with a soft pull. This experience with Synchrony proves it is easy to do.

CH

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Thank you for posting this. I do not have any Synchrony cards and I know little about them . This is meaningful for me.

[Loquat]

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@Anonymous wrote:

If a bank ever lowers my limit with no notification like that I'll close my account, too. I'm of the mindset that if I've been with a bank for a while and always paid on time, I don't care if my scores drop, they shouldn't lower my limit because I've proven myself. I won't even ask for a recon unless it's a card I really love with a company that's already proven itself to be reasonable.

Sorry this happened to you, but at least one case turned out okay.

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Lots of folks on this very forum like to talk "relationship, relationship, relationship".  Personally, I don't think a "relationship" means much of anything.  Credit is a risk-based analysis.  It usually has very little to do with  a "relationship" and more of a snapshot of your current financial situation at a given time.  I don't think being with a lender a long time will grant you any leeway more so than risk will allow.  1 year or 10 years...risk is risk.  If your score drops and balances increase, and they deem you too much of a risk...you have said consequences applied to your account.  Nothing more, nothing less.  Credit is business...not personal.

[Anonymous]

Yep I agree it is business but some of the creditors treat it personally as well. Home Depot in my case. Rudeness because my scores dropped and unwillingness to help. The attitude was all in tone of voice. F them and Citi. I spend 1-2k per year between HD and Lowes. I have since I was 30 years old . Now Lowes gets it all. HD shouldn't have been so short sighted. I am only 50. If I live to the average age, that's a nice sum they will miss now. But They don't care, you don't care and I sure as hell don't care, but it is what it is. Customer service is everything. And they do not have it. They are of the capital one of retail cards.

[UncleB]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Yep I agree it is business but some of the creditors treat it personally as well. Home Depot in my case. Rudeness because my scores dropped and unwillingness to help. The attitude was all in tone of voice. F them and Citi. I spend 1-2k per year between HD and Lowes. I have since I was 30 years old . Now Lowes gets it all. HD shouldn't have been so short sighted. I am only 50. If I live to the average age, that's a nice sum they will miss now. But They don't care, you don't care and I sure as hell don't care, but it is what it is. Customer service is everything. And they do not have it. They are of the capital one of retail cards.

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I can 'second' your experience with Synch/Lowe's... years ago (2007-ish) they balance chased me down to around $500 because my scores were dropping (but I was never late with Lowe's) and it was a real let-down, since I went to great effort to make sure Lowe's was always on-time.  I intended to close the card, but I ended up just removing the card from my wallet and basically forgetting about it.

Fast-forward several years, and just for 'giggles' I gave the online button a try, and they gave me a modest CLI.  A few months later it worked again... eventually I just called Credit Solutions and they raised the limit to $20k (which is what I asked for).  I'm so glad I didn't do anything 'hasty' back in the day, since it's now my oldest card at 13 years.

TL;DR... Synch will sometimes CLD, but they will also give it back (and then some) when your scores improve.  As for Citi, while I don't have personal experience with the HD card what you describe does not surprise me at all based on other's reports on here.  Personally I would rather have Lowe's in my wallet, anyway.

Good job with getting your Lowe's back where you need it, and for 'trimming the fat' with Citi/HD. 

[Blackswizz750]

Citi can be stone cold with credit. They could care less if you close your account. Hell, they have been trimming benefits and perks off their flagship cards so they could give a **bleep** about a retail card. It's glad Synch worked with you mitigate the loss limits.

[Anonymous]

Crapital One is just as bad. They now believe themselves to be a premium lender when just a few years back they were approving 550s and up and at one point were viewed as a subprime lender.  Last year I hit the LUV button on my Quicksilver Visa and was declined for $5K.  Been stuck at $4K forever with them. They said I wasn't using enough of the 4K, so I spent up to $2500. This year I hit the button again and they said my monthly payments were not enough over the minimum to get an increase. I am done with these a-holes too. Meanwhile, BOA, Amex, and NFCU have had no issues giving me 10-15K CLs, NFCU on multiple accounts Amex on multiple accounts.  Amex and NFCU CLI'd based on soft pulls. By October I hope to close Crapital One QS Visa and Citi DP MC.

CH