Anyone else notice the New Credit Card Offers and Promos have Dropped Off Recently?....

[Blackhatjack]

I used to open the mailbox to find 3 or more new credit card offers each day.

Within the last month, I noticed that the new credit card offers have been markedly reduced, and over the last week I got one.

Any way you cut it, there is a definite contraction in consumer credit.

The next shoe to drop will be people getting notices that their credit card rates have been accelerated to the default rate (as high as 30% in some cases) even though they have not missed a payment or violated their card user agreement. In the fine print, the interest rate can be changed unilaterally by the credit card issuer if 'the issuer believes that there has been a change in the cardholder's credit worthiness'.

Banks are in a real spot with capital they need to make loans is drying up. They are writing off their own bad loans. So expect them to 'call in' all the obligations they can to cover these losses --and that will include raising interest rates on credit cards where they can.

[hfojvt]

1. interesting

I had not noticed it, but now that you mention it ... I have not heard from AMEX in a while, and that is about the only card I do not have, but my current credit cards are sending me loan offers.

[Fredda Weinberg]

2. .. in recognition and all that jazz n/t

[Eurobabe]

3. yeah, as have the cheapo balance transfers

[msongs]

4. capital one is still out there spamming the mail box a few times a week nt

[depakid]

5. Unfortunately, not enough

I still get several a month from various corporate racketeers.

[AndyTiedye]

6. They Are Also Changing Terms and Conditions on Existing Cards

Interest rates are going up and interest is being charged on new purchases, late charges are going up.

[Skarbrowe]

7. Someone from a bank told me on the phone that there are "banking problems".

I've this particular credit card for over 15 years and for no reason at all they jumped my interest rate about 5 points. I pay off my balance every month and I hadn't been late with anything else. I called to say I wanted to cancel this card and to ask why the rate had jumped. She told me there were problems in the banking industry. Ha! I don't think she was supposed to say that to me.

[Kansas Wyatt]

8. I still get them all the time and they all get shredded.

Too paranoid about just throwing credit card offers away that have my name on it.

[eFriendly]

9. My wife and I have been CC-Free since November 2001.

That is when we sent certified letters to our credit card companies closing our accounts with them; changed over our banking accounts from a normal bank to a credit union; and only relied on our credit union issued debit cards. Of course, the debit card doubles as a Visa card, but we never choose "Credit" on any of our purchases - only debit. And it has worked out well for us. One less bill to have to pay at the end of the month is always a good thing.

I think AMEX has finally figured it out that no matter how many pretty, phony green and gold card magnets they send us, we're not biting. I throw all of the offers that we get in with the old Sunday papers that we save, and I compress them into paper blocks (about the size of a normal fire log) to burn in the fireplace. We use the magnets, though, on the refrigerator.

[knitter4democracy]

10. I wish. I hate those things.

Gah.

[Richard Steele]

11. Yup. I'm seeing maybe HALF the level of that sort of junk mail that I saw a year ago. nm

[THUNDER HANDS]

12. ironically....or maybe not

there's a credit card advertisement at the bottom of this thread.

(well, there was when i first clicked on it.)

[Rosemary2205]

13. They CAN'T raise CC rates.

Oh, they can try of course. But all one has to do is follow the instructions for refusing all changes to their credit card agreement. The card is then frozen and term remain the same until the balance is paid off. When the balance is paid off the card is closed and should appear on credit reports as closed per request of the cardholder, not the card issuer.

Beware, if one mistakenly uses the card for any reason after refusing terms, that automatically reopens the card at new terms and there is no going back.