November 25, 2008
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News: Dealing with the Crunch Climate.
Unique situations may lie ahead, but most will probably be generalized. Keep in mind that the credit card industry has no desire to be hard-nosed. They love their customers (at least most of them). They know how important their customers are and are looking for ways to stay healthy yet still serve them. These credit card changes should be well-announced (albeit, there may be some fine print). And so to keep the experiences pleasant, it is important to understand when ‘dispatches' arrive from the credit card issuer. Also, there are a host of good websites designed to provide latest warnings, answer questions, give advice and even perform analyses. Many of these sites are listed on the Wall Street Journal's ‘Market Watch' website.
If your ‘utilization ratio' goes south because of a steep credit limit reduction:
- Call your credit card lender's Customer Service (or go online) and negotiate a limit increase.
- Open a new credit card account to raise the combined limits to reduce the ratio.
If your interest rates jump to an unacceptable level:
- Open a new credit card account to raise the combined limits and reduce the ratio.
- Opt-out of the change. Sometimes, this means no further charges on the credit card. Citigroup has been most gracious with their policy – they allow a card holder to skip the changes and continue using the card in the old way until it expires. The Opt-out procedure should be part of the information provided to you upon receiving the notice of change.
Just remember, retaliation is not called for. A little diplomacy can go a long way (except with one large lender in particular). Stay in tune with this site for continued coverage of the latest developments. Citigroup already appears to be on the mend and the credit card industry may prove to be more resilient than some other lending industries.