Reduced Credit Limits? Share Your Experience

Published on October 31st, 2008
Modified on January 16th, 2010 - 255 Comments
Filed under: Credit Cards, Debt Reduction

About the author: Nickel is the founder and editor-in-chief of this site. He's a thirty-something family man who has been writing about personal finance since 2005, and guess what? He's on Twitter!

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255 Responses to “Reduced Credit Limits? Share Your Experience”

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1. 251
   Adam Says:
   October 27th, 2010 at 10:21 pm

   I have $20,000 in credit with USAA and an 8.9% APR. They won’t report to any credit agency unless you are more than 60 days overdue, and they will always work with you. Additionally, I receive yearly DIVIDENDS from their profit on insurance products. All that, and I’ve been depositing checks with my iPhone for more than a year before Chase offered that capability.

   Disregard Chase and Citi. They are the slum, gas station equivalents of banks. Just seriously take a look at their “bankers” to see what I mean. They are degree-less, spiky-haired, illiterate pathologies.

   If you feel you must use Chase for ancillary services, and you don’t want to pay any fees, simply have your payroll services deposit $100 into a debit account each pay period to take advantage of that loophole.

   And by the way, USAA offers “persistence” perks for being a longtime member. They do all these wonderful things for their clients (dare I say family members), because they conduct business by the philosophy of “good service derives true success; all else is theft.”

   They did not take any bailout. They didn’t need it.

2. 252
   Bridget Says:
   March 14th, 2011 at 5:59 pm

   @Adam: I’m new to FCN so I just ran across this post and I appreciate your recommendation of the USAA card. I looked into it to see if it would work for me and it looked OK, but I found several things I didn’t like:

   First, they post all positive user reviews by date going back several years, then all negative user reviews are buried at the end. That wouldn’t concern me so much, but it’s in the negative reviews that you find out stuff you need to know, and I’d feel better about them if they sorted everything by date.

   Second, payments take 7 days to post – this wouldn’t bother me because I don’t max out my card, but for some folks this is crippling.

   Third, USAA has a serious fraud watch service, which is great if someone has stolen your card but extremely bad if you are traveling and have only one card. Some folks even notified USAA before traveling and still had their card actually cancelled while they were traveling. USAA would call their home number to notify them but, of course, they were traveling so they didn’t find out until they tried to use their card at a hotel in the middle of the night. At that point USAA would tell them there was nothing to be done. It didn’t just happen to one member – it was a frequent complaint. I understand why they do it – they insure the cards against fraud and they don’t want to pay for fraudulent transactions, but that would seriously leave me in the lurch.

   Finally, there is a 1% fee on all foreign transactions. For service members stationed overseas this can significantly increase the cost of living. For the rest of us who travel occasionally this is a deterrent.

   I only keep one credit card, so the traveling problems will keep me from pursuing the USAA card even though their advertised interest rate and rewards program look good. Others might find it more useful but ought to take a good look at the fine print before making the jump.

3. 253
   Chris Says:
   June 7th, 2011 at 11:50 am

   All credit cards are bad for you. They are no good to have. Let’s be weird and be debt free. Taking advantage of all the perks credit cards offer aren’t that great….because you pay for them one way or another.

4. 254
   gerry Says:
   October 18th, 2012 at 1:26 am

   I had citi bank since 2009. I stared with about 7000 cl. I did not use them for a little while after getting the card. Then they had a 0% for 12 mo offer. I took it. Paid them off in about a year. Then another one came along in July 2012. By then I was up to 8500. They had another 0% for 12 mos. So I did another balance transfer that took it to 8300. Space just in case. In Aug and Sep, I had some problems with another Credit card. NAPA. Forgot to add them to my auto pay via my bank. Missed 2 minimum payments on 200.00 Citi bank sends and email to me in early Oct 2012 credit line was decreased. I called and asked why. They tell me that some sort of adviser decided to reduce my credit line to 6200. Then citibank tells me to get a copy of my credit report to them so a sr. advisor can reconsider my credit limit. I was never late to them or under paid the minium for the last 3 yrs. They said that does not matter. My mistake was also having a Sears citi card. They reduced me in the same month from 1000 to 600. Don’t get citi bank connected cards.

5. 255
   PWill Says:
   January 14th, 2013 at 1:50 pm

   I’ve been a part of Amex since 1985. I’ve had a credit limit in excess of $17,500 for the longest time. I had a $7,000 bal. Recently I tried to make a $150.00 and was denied.. I called Amex I was told that my credit score was outstanding, and my payment history was also the same. But I was told that because there were too many hard hits on my credit score.. in the last 12 months.. (bought a new truck and applied for a different Credit Card) My Credit limit was lowered to $52.00 above my current balance.. Had nothing to do with my ability to make payments well above the minimum..

   Don’t cancel your card.. Pay off your balance.. keep the card to maintain your credit score.. Don’t use the card anymore was the suggestion I received from the representative.

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