I’ve been writing on a theme for the last few blogs: the mistakes that credit card companies make. I’ve categorized them into three types: 1) non-fulfillment errors, 2) wrong info given, and 3) wrong action taken. Of course there are always those errors made by individual agents, based upon their own misperceptions, but that is a another can of worms related to the turnover in the call center industry due to low pay.

In regard to the second category “wrong info given” this, typically, occurs via a letter generated by computer program to you, the credit card account holder. The misinformation about your account is likely to ‘only’ cause frustration or nuisance and, because it’s only you who received information that’s wrong, it’s likely to be more of an annoyance than a danger to your finances.

Far more dangerous is when a credit card company reports misinformation to a third party like a credit bureau. Credit card companies will seldom inform you about such reporting because they are communicating with the credit bureaus all the time.

Yet this mistake can pose a real danger to a your financial well-being if your credit card company makes this kind of blunder in the closing of an inactive account. So you need to know how and when to check for it. [Read more →]

If you have a credit card that you have not used in a while, look out. Your credit card may be about to disappear. You may be getting a letter from your lender any day that says your credit has been revoked and your credit card account is going to being closed – just like that.

The customers that I have been dealing with are often quite surprised when they get this news. Many of them are used to leaving credit cards with lots of available credit just sitting in a drawer, maybe waiting for a better deal and lower rates. But those days may be drawing to a close.

Lenders are closing credit card accounts for inactivity in ever increasing numbers. As an excuse, [Read more →]