Watch Your Credit Card Statements!

It is more important than ever to pay attention to your credit card statments and any correspondence from your credit card companies. Because of new laws affecting credit cards (look for my previous blog post) the banks are getting very aggressive with consumer and business credit card accounts.

Consider this article -

One-Third of Credit Card Holders' Limits Cut

"Credit card companies reduced limits for 58 million cardholders w/ little regard to their credit scores" http://bit.ly/JB2y9


And from American Banker yesterday (a subscription publication):

"Credit card lines nationwide are set to be cut by another $1.5 trillion before the economy bottoms, on top of a $1.2 trillion cut from the peak, the analyst Meredith Whitney predicted Monday.

Unless credit loosens up dramatically for Main Street, small businesses will stymie a recovery, she wrote in a report to clients.

Credit cards are a particular source of concern, as roughly four out of five use them as vital portion of their overall funding, Whitney wrote."

So watch your personal and business credit card statements and correspondence and don't be blind-sided by increasing interest rates, reduction of credit lines or cancellation of accounts and the worst, in my opinion, the increase of the minimum payment percentage.

American Express Putting Credit Limits on Business Cards

My business e-mail inbox just received a nice little note from American Express telling us that they were putting a credit limit on our business card. We have used it extensively for business purchases for over 20 years (as is proudly proclaimed on the front of our card - member since 1989). We've always paid it in full every month, whether it is $3,000 or $15,000.

The only advantages of AMEX over a traditional credit card has always been that we didn't have to worry about bumping into a credit limit with 4 employees enrolled with cards.

But now that advantage is gone, so why in the world would we pay the expensive fees associated with an American Express card? Answer is we won't. They just lost our business.

And the funny thing is they sent me another e-mail at the same time reminding us to use our American Express card for all of our business purchases! Maybe the marketing department should check to see what policy decisions are being made before they create advertising - makes them look a little silly, doesn't it?