Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Credit Cards

It's amazing how the "economic crisis" is effecting everyone! Not only have we had some company changes that have directly impacted myself and my family, but now it's hitting consumer credit.

Fortunately, we own a home, have two cars, and currently don't have any large dollar expenses other than some medical bills from having Erik which we saved for. BUT, we do have some credit card debt that we have aggressively been paying off and THOUGHT that was the best thing to be doing.

Turns out-it may not necessarily be the best thing to do as a priority. I had one credit card I opened to finance some microderms. Paid it off in the 12-month, no interest window and was never late on a payment or abused the card. About 3 months after I paid it off they lowered my available credit, and about another 3 months thereafter they closed the account. NOW, it's going to say "closed by creditor" on my report and that available credit/income ratio will be hurt.

In the last 2 weeks alone I had another 2 cards that I have had for over 10 years, and used regularly but always pay on time and more than the minimum, they increased the interest rate by about 6%.

How is this supposed to be helping the financial flow when we have credit in good standing, have no major economic issues and manage our finances? This money towards interest could be going into cash flow but instead they are punishing people who are not a risk. Do they want EVERYONE to start hurting more in this state of the economy?

Apparently so, and in the meantime I am trying to do whatever I can to not jeopardize my credit score, but the government is making that very difficult to maintain.

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