Has your Credit Card Limit Been Lowered?

Have you tried looking through the credit card offers on Credit.com? Probably the lowest interest rate cards without an annual fee are the Discover card offers. Interest rates are going to vary depending on how good your FICO scores are but there are a number of cards available that offer no annual fees. Credit.com even breaks the offers down into tiers for Excellent Credit (750+), Good Credit (700-749), Fair Credit (650-699), Poor Credit (600-649), Bad Credit (Below 599) and No Credit. Might be worth taking a look and browsing through.

I'm incredibly unsatisfied with Capital One. Granted, I'm only 19 (nearly 20) years old, married to a soldier, and so my credit history isn't incredibly long, but I have NEVER been late, missed a payment, or been delinquent in any way. Capital One was my first card and I started off with a credit limit of 500, which they eventually increased to 750. I would use my card, pay it off, and do my best to build a positive credit history.

Just this past year before the new laws were passed Capital One decided they would do double cycle billing, and I argued with a representative for probably an hour, always getting a run around answer. I had just paid off over $400 to my card and I always pay more than I owe, so my balance is usually in the negative. Suddenly I had a $4 charge and the representative kept going around in circles, not wanting to admit they do double cycle billing. That was when I first started to have my problems with Capital One. I had had my card for a little over a year at that point and, as I've stated, I've never been late or missed a payment and I pay off my balances as quickly as possible, nor do I ever get close to my credit limit.

Just today I logged on and noticed they knocked my limit down to $710! It's only $40 but I'm supposed to be going FORWARD here, not backwards! I'm trying to get my foot into the door which is hard in this economy. You need great credit for a lot of things otherwise you're screwed. My credit history is only about a year and a half old but all of my accounts are in good standing and I'm very nearly debt free, aside from my one student loan. What's next? Are they going to cancel my card for me?

I never received anything in the mail about them lowering my credit limit. I'm so tempted to cancel my C1 card, but I know that the length of your credit history is important, and closing this account would negatively impact me. Capital One seems to be punishing me for being a customer that pays off their balances, and therefore they can't make money off of my interest.

Sounds like it's been a rough year. I think many of us will be happy to usher in a New Year - hopefully a much better one.

Of course you are always welcome to take a look at the cards we feature at Credit.com

. You may also want to try your credit union if you belong to one. Keep us posted!

I had a zero balance on my Sears card and was keeping it put away just in case we needed to purchase an appliance or something. I received a letter from them stating they were closing my account due to inactivity and to destroy my cards immediately. Also, my husband has a Capitol One cc with 14% on credit purchases and 20something on cash advances. Well, I advanced $20 cash once and was not only charged an additional $10 fee but on the next statement the APR was 54%. I can't believe they can get away with this.

54%???!!! That's a new record. Any chance your husband can fax us a copy (personal information blacked out)? I'd love to have that on record for our efforts.

Gerri

I recall seeing a similar ridiculously high percentage on one or more of my past statements. It was labeled an "effective" APR. The transfer fee was considered a "finance charge". Many times there is a minimum transfer fee, perhaps $10. So a $20 transfer/cash advance with a $10 finance charge would be in the 50% effective APR range. The next monthly statement would probably have a "normal" effective APR because the one time transfer fee would not be part of the statement's finance charges.

OK...Keep me posted!

Me conectó a su foro y quería compartir mi experiencia reciente. Tengo dos tarjetas con Capital One, uno de los cuales he tenido durante más de 15 años y hace una semana recibió una llamada telefónica en relación con esta cuenta en particular. Me dijeron que cuando me llamaron de que Capital One sería bajar mi límite de crédito y me gustaría recibir una carta en ese sentido con instrucciones sobre qué hacer. Hasta la fecha, no he recibido ninguna carta, pero se descubrió que el límite de crédito ya se habían bajado. Cuando llamé para quejarme Capital One me dijeron que el administrador de cuentas yo había hablado con había suministrado información incorrecta, la acción fue inmediata, yo no reciben una notificación por escrito y no tuve ningún recurso.

Leejane - I asked someone in our office to translate your email. Thanks for sharing your your story. It is very common for card issuers to drop credit lines or close accounts, then notify the consumer. It can be terribly frustrating and embarrassing.

I related to your forum and I wanted to share my recent experience. I have two Capital One cards, one of which I have had for more than 15 years and a week ago I received a phone call about this particular account. I was informed when they called me that Capital One would lower my credit limit and would I like to get a letter about this with instructions about what to do. As of today, I have not received any letter, but I discovered that the credit limit had already gone down. When I called to complain, Capital One told me that the account representative that I had talked to had given me incorrect information, the action was immediate, I don’t receive a notification in writing and I didn’t have any recourse.