Cringeworthy Credit

We only have a couple credit cards and we like it that way. Years ago, I almost got into trouble with several cards of my own and it was a couple years paying them off and reducing the number of accounts. Now I have one plus my bank card and my wife has two. One of her cards -- an old one she's had for years -- only has a $300 limit. We almost never use it, so we figured it was time to increase the credit limit or close the account.

We can sneeze $300. That's not meant as a conceit or to sound like I'm gloating (I'm not). We're not rich -- we're middle class. It's just that $300 is really not a useful amount of money to us when we could pull the same from our checking or savings and not owe the interest. In the event of an "emergency", it would have to be a modest one to be handled by a mere $300 in today's world. A $1000 limit seemed like a fair increase request based on her standing as a long-time good customer.

So we called customer service to put in the request. Not surprisingly, the toll free number we dialed connected us to the Philippines. The exchange was difficult, to say the least. Our representative, Mai, certainly spoke much better English than our Filipino, but the frustration wasn't because of the language barrier.

We were informed that they could approve a $100 increase "at this time", but we were welcome to call back and request additional increases. I tried to explain that throwing us a bone in the form of such a small increase was practically a waste of time. Couldn't we talk to anyone who could approve a larger increase all at once? No.

Maybe I'm not as clear on all this credit crap as I think I am. Don't they want to extend people credit? Isn't that how they make money? Or are we now what Big Credit considers "deadbeats" (customers who don't make Big Credit money on late and over-limit charges) because we pay in a timely fashion and don't draw out modest purchases with minimum payments for several years?

Then the other penny dropped. We had agreed to the increase thinking that we'd call back later and try to get someone else or a supervisor to assist us. ...And there will be a $25 charge for your increase and you'll see that on your next bill. Exqueeze me? Baking powder? We have to pay $25 to get a $100 increase and we haven't even used the card? Do the math. We could conceivably run up $175 in charges by calling back for enough $100 increases to get to our $1000 limit.

Thanks, but no thanks. My wife's other card gives her regular credit increases just for being a good customer -- at no charge. Maybe Big Credit isn't inherently evil across the board, but I could see where this particular minion was going to get their two cents whether we used the card or not.

We left the card alone for now -- no credit increase and no cancellation. We'd had all the customer service we could handle. It wasn't Mai's fault. She's working and doing her job and in all likelyhood, reading from a script. A script whose plot favors either the rich or the poor, in my opinion.

The rich get the best offers because Big Credit desperately wants them to use their money for the bigger things in life and the poor are goldmines because they're a good bet to get behind and over their limit (fees and more fees) and end up paying many times the value of small purchases by dragging them out for years with minimum payments.

Here I am, stuck in the middle with you. It's okay though, saving for a few months and paying cash the old fashioned way makes for a better night's sleep.