Posted on 02/01/2009 10:35:27 PM PST by Lorianne
Here's the latest reason to hate credit card companies: Shop at Wal-Mart, obviously a sign of financial distress, and your credit limit gets lowered. Hallelujah!
This is from American Express, which has now decided to hunker down and simply lie about their habit of doing this. Compare and contrast the following news accounts. When Kevin Johnson returned from his honeymoon last year he got a letter from Amex saying, “Other customers who have used their card at establishments where you recently shopped have a poor repayment history with American Express.” Here's what they told the Atlanta Journal Constitution about this in December:
“We’re just doing this to manage risk,” said Lisa A. Gonzalez, an American Express spokeswoman. She declined to say which retailers or mortgage companies are associated with consumers with higher default rates. She said it makes sense to examine these factors because “customers who have loans outstanding with certain lenders or customers who make transactions with certain merchants tend to have a higher proportion of credit issues or a higher probability of default.”
And here's what they told the New York Times this week:
“The letters were wrong to imply we were looking at specific merchants,” said Susan Korchak, a company spokeswoman....Now, the company says that there never was such a list. So what about the language in its letters to cardholders, which calls out particular “establishments” where cardholders had shopped, I asked. Well, apparently that was all just a big misunderstanding, despite the number of people who must have been in on drafting the notes in the first place.
So: a month ago monitoring your transactions with "certain merchants" was a legitimate way of managing risk. This month the story is that they were never doing it in the first place. You betcha.
Bastards. I really hate these guys and their entire sleazy industry. More here. Kevin Johnson's website is here.
Mother Jones is a highly questionable publication, IMO, and I would not necessarily trust this storyline as far as I could throw a ‘59 Cadillac by the tailfin.
Granted, I have a distaste for credit card companies, but I view this one with caution..
A.A.C.
IF the word “exclusively” was omitted from the Wal-Mart reference, the story is BOGUS!
I shop at Walmart. My credit is excellent according to the 3 reporting agencies: Trans Union, Experion, and Equifax.
Credit scores are individual and another cardholder's behavior would never effect my credit score.
Mother Jones = hogwash!!! And, I suspect the purported Amex letter is an excuse for the liberals bad credit behavior.
The Am-ex story is real but I believe the Walmart inclusion is speculation and silly because so many shop there.
The real establishments that resulted in lower credit limits included marriage counselors and pawn shops.
No longer have credit cards and no longer worry about it.
Occasionally it is quite convenient to have one. For example, I just saved $100 by being able to purchase a Walmart "web-only" tire special. Not to mention deposits for various things. Could have used a debit card for the Walmart thing but I worry more about giving out that number.
Used to carry a work-issued American Express card. Kept getting bills for $000.00 in the mail. Asked ‘em to stop sending such retardation; they said they couldn’t help it. I told ‘em I couldn’t help cancelling the account & chucking the green plastic in the woodstove.
If the discriminant function says that people who engage in activity X, Y or Z are bad risks, then that's that. End of story. Businesses that want to remain in business had better pay attention to what the mathematics says. I swear, libs are just dumb petulant children -- too dumb to understand the science, so they throw their temper tantrums and major in some BS subject, which is undoubtedly taught by another dumb lib. When they do dare to venture into science, they come up with crap like global warming and throw another temper tantrum if you dare to question them about it.
Spending all day hunting down a $40-$80 item is a joke especially coming up with a blank.
Point in case...not one computer place in Raleigh carries an Intel E7300 (2.66 GHz dual core) CPU for my current computer build...they can get it, however.
They have the newer more expensive high end CPU's and a lot of slower older stuffer. One is out of luck finding middle of the road performers off the shelf locally. That CPU has to be ordered...then I have to go back to the store to get it. HEll, I can sleep through that 4 hrs of aggravation..... PS I knew better too as 2 phone calls proved my intuition to be correct.
Me neither. I have a Visa debit which comes with all the same protections as a Visa credit card. I don’t miss CC’s, not one bit.
You actually have more liability if you debit card number is lost or stolen (i.e. even if you use it at a restaurant, you’re vulnerable.)
We use a designated CC for all purchases (groceries, gas, etc.) and then reap the benefits of reward points...we don’t carry a balance.
The thing is get a fee-free card, pay off the balance and collect the points — you can not just be “convenienced”, but ahead. I completely agree with buying from reputable dealers. We wait until we have enough books on our wish list so we can get free shipping from Amazon for example. You can save, time, money and frustration. Plus institutions like Amex and PayPal double your insurance on purchases.
Oh, and call them and have the preposterous limits reduced from $20K+ to say $1000 (they hate this - tee hee). If you pay it off monthly, you never need it, and if it gets lost your liability is immediately limited.
you have to use your credit cards to your financial advantage....use their own system against them. we rarely pay cash, always use our credit cards, have cash back cards ( that gives us an automatic 2% discount on everything we buy ) and pay our balances in full every month..this means you have to monitor your spending, because to us the card is our cash...our credit rating is stellar, and we save cash on everything we buy..
We do the same thing with our amex account. I’m sure amex doesn’t like giving bonuses to folks that never carry a balance, but I’m OK with it.
Our local Walmart, to my knowledge, has never accepted amex. Menards doesn’t either. I asked why not and they said amex charges them more per transaction than other companies.
Attacking WalMart is a national pasttime for the dims.
I carry both a discover and a visa, set up for cash back rewards....each has an advantage for certain types of purchases.....gotta check out each card and read the fine print..we also will take advantage of those 6 months same as cash type deals, if it is something we really need....nothing feels quite as good as using someone elses money for free ( but if you are 1 day late paying off the balance at the end of 6 months, you will get hit with tons of fees, so send in your last payment real early )...
My AmEx card has no limit; never has so far as I know. Is this just more disinfo?
re #12.....smart, many people do the same thing. Debit cards are convenient, but, like you say....much more liability if lost or stolen. No reason for a bank not to issue a picture with on the debit cards....that would stop a lot of fraud attempts. Some banks issue credit cards with picture id’s which is very smart. I will say AMEX nowadays will not let large purchases take place if out of state at stores unless one notifies them 1st.....they did it 2 me twice here in NC from cities 100+ miles away that I go to on occasion.
AmEx has both charge (yours) and credit (the story’s) cards.
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