credit card idiots

[tri again]

so?...I have a card for 10 years I never use. 19% interest.
HSBC bank, some hong cong shainghai bank, sold to orchard bank.
OK so far, still too stupid to use at 19% but it wasn't costing me anything.

Thought about cancelling it but was in the middle of a refi and touching ANYthing is bad for a credit rrating.

Generally, I get 5-10 solicitor calls a day, save on your interest rate,
increase your presence on google etc etc.
Emails are the same, click here to confirm your account status...yeah right!!

so now capitol one buys orchard bank and imposes an annual fee.
Capitol one call and says I own them money. NO idea who's really calling, almost demading a bank account number for payment...typical BS for any solicitor calls and always warned about giving info on the news casts. Lots of people fall for this kind of scam.

I don't and never have had a cap one card...I am now 90 days late on a 20 dollar charge and my credit score dropped 100 points and BofA drops my perfect card from 6,000$ to 500$.
S.N. - any amount due for 90 days is a massive credit score hit, be it 10 bucks or 10 thousand, doesn't matter, it's the 90 days late that's the killer.

Of course, all of this is new to me as my credit has always been pushing 800.
Not bragging, I'm just neurotic.
anyway,

so I get the credit report, wanting a REAL phone number for capitol One, call capitol One and they say they'll change the credit report, send me a letter and THEN ask me if I want a Capitol One card with a 6 grand balance limit.

so I says ta dem, yeah, send me a card.
It should be here in 5 to 7 business days or I should call them.

WTF?

My car insurance could easily Double with a bad credit score and a perfect driving record.
Not to mention, being dropped by homeowners insurance or even car insurance for that matter.

DANgerous stuff going on.

Keep yer eyes open, the spammers and scammers are everywhere.
This just happened to work out ok except for the aggravation AND my refi went through at 3.99% saving me 400 a month so *&&^^% 'em all.

I'm just glad I caught it before it got out of hand.
I can't amagine going through an identity theft.

Be careful out there.

[kb0nly]

Yeah its all a pain these days. The only thing anyone cares about is the credit score, even employers are dropping employees for bad credit as a theft risk.

You can be careful and still have problems these days. I was sitting here working one day when i get a call from PayPal saying that my debit card was being used overseas and online and large purchases were being made. I checked my wallet, yep still there, cancelled the card put a flag on my account, got a new card issued, the charges were reversed and all was well.. How did the info get into the wild? No idea. That card never leaves my wallet except for in my hand, swipe at a gas pump or POS terminal, but i never hand my card to someone or allow it out of my sight. No clue what happened..

Then about a week goes by and the same thing happens to my bank debit card, same process to clear that up, and months later charges were still going to my old bank debit card number. My bank was getting phone calls from overseas banks demanding payment on charges of hundreds of dollars, of course they stopped them all as fraudulent, was hard for me to make a purchase in the UK when i am here and haven't left the country. The charges were coming through as signed in person purchases at stores! So they made a card with my number and even signed for it. I don't know what happened to them but i know legal actions were pushed through, probably nothing though, hard to follow paper trail, etc.

Luckily none of this affected my credit, but it could have. I tell everyone to get your annual credit report, its free to get it from all three agencies. I have been using the website to do it for years and its always safe and fast and easy. I do it every year at tax return time, see if there is anything popping up, clear it up, etc.

https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp

[FBF]

Wow! Im suprised to read the major importance of credit ratings over there, ours is only checked to borrow money, period. It has no effect on car insurance or your job etc. seems an odd way to judge a man who may have fell on hard times and have a poor score to then make him pay more to insure his car and maybe sack him

[tri again]

Not an issue for me but if you need a job and they check credit, you can be denied employment for a low score.
Say your company shut down, jobs moved overseas etc, you need $ so you apply for a job and get denied because you need $.
Car insurance can double IF they don't drop you.
Homeowners insurance can consider you a higher risk and on and on.

My favorite scam is a company that calls about 3x a week ststing they can lower my credit card interest rates.
I asked if they have a cool card and they said NO, we just lower your rate if you give us your card number.

No surprize that the number they use that shows up on caller i.d. is a fake and 'not in serivce at this time'.

[captainweezy]

I love debt score is what your credit score really is-dave ramsey. Once you have zero debt you will have a big ol zero.

[kb0nly]

Wow! Im suprised to read the major importance of credit ratings over there, ours is only checked to borrow money, period. It has no effect on car insurance or your job etc. seems an odd way to judge a man who may have fell on hard times and have a poor score to then make him pay more to insure his car and maybe sack him

It can affect employment, insurance rates, interest rates on both new and existing loans and debts, and even opening a service account with a company that checks first. I have a neighbor that didn't know her credit had any problems until she setup to get a culligan water softener installed, she had the money to buy it and was all ready to, but they ran her credit and wouldn't approve her service contract because of her credit score. She ended up buying her own softener from a local home improvement store and hiring a plumber to install it and had money left over. So i guess the business's can screw themselves doing it as well!

I have heard from many people who had car insurance increases due to credit score, most of the national companies monitor your credit. I know i can check my credit reports annually and there is always a credit check from State Farm Insurance as i have all my home, auto, and life policies through them. Any fluctuation in my income to debt ratio, say i open a new line of credit or get a small bank loan for a project, will affect my insurance rates. Ironically if you have more debt you will pay more for insurance so hence you have even more debt! You just cant win.

Pre-employment credit checks have been the norm for a long time now, but used to be scrutinized mainly by institutions that would place the person in a financially important role, working at a bank, a finance officer, a cashier, accountant, basically anyone that has dealings with money that could find it easy to siphon off some cash for their own debt. But with the changes in the economy everyone gets scrutinized as a potential threat, if you have a low credit score you basically get tagged as a liability. And its legal discrimination!!

I have a friend here that really got screwed. He went to college for four years, got educated, was always paying on his school loans and doing good. Then he got into a car accident, another driver hit him at an intersection and he was all messed up. After two months in the hospital, the first month in body cast, he got back to life and had bills past due, he had the money to pay but the damage was already done, 60 days late started to show on all his accounts. And even after paying and begging them, even sending proof of his hospital stay, there was two that wouldn't budge, his school loans. He even made two payments at once to catch it up, money wasnt the object of his problems at this point. Well long story short he was getting passed up on a jobs that he had dead to rights for experience and qualifications. He gave up, went into working for a local manufacturer making boats and stayed there for five years. Then he checked his credit report and the old negatives had lapsed off! After five years his credit report had no negatives, his score jumped up as well. Only thing he can think is somewhere someone finally updated his info for those loans, and he even had a new auto loan to boot. He applied for a job in his field and had a callback the next day and was hired the same afternoon. The SAME company that turned him down three times before!!

Your nothing but a number these days... God forbid if you get financial trouble, you will never dig out til its fixed because you cant make the money you need to pay off your debt because you can't get the job! I was stuck in that position for seven years myself.

[MyMistress86R]

I only want to jump in here on a couple of issues...

I will put my auto and home insurance rates up against anyone on this forum and likely win and I have never once been denied employment based on my credit score. Even the Air Force granted me the necessary clearance to re-enlist after extensive background (including financial) checks and interviews.

Due to circumstances thanx to the EX, my credit score probably doesn't even have 3 digits. If you suffer any of these problems with wicked good scores then my only thought has to be that you live in the wrong area or deal with the wrong companies.

With all that being said...YES, I pay higher interest rates or get denied outright for loans or credit cards so I buy POS used vehicles for cash to get by for now and don't have any credit cards so I stay within my readily available means. I am also thrilled to say that for the first time in 10 years, thanx to hard work and diligence, as of my last paycheck (and my income is considered below federal poverty level) , I am now in positive cashflow mode. I can write the check to pay the bill the day it comes in the mail. Debt and credit problems CAN be beaten.

[atc007]

I'll take you up on that.. I insure a 09 GMC Sierra Ext Cab 4X4,10,000 miles,,08 Outlook XR,08 Caddy DTS,cloth top,Every option,And a 03 Venture Warner Brothers Edition AWD. ALL have Every single option you can possibly buy from the insurance company,with Comp set @ $250,and collision set @ $1000. I pay Erie $736 a year. I also insure my home for $375,000. And pay $378 per year,,but that hedges a few bucks every year because I live in a " mobile home lol " It's a pre manufactured Triple wide . Anyone beat that? Every single claim we have ever had.. Erie has gone WAAAYYY above and beyond our wildest expectations. I cannot say enough about them!

[MyMistress86R]

Good for you @ATC007

I'd call and raise if I still had my 3 new and full-coverage qualified vehicles, but I had to give up all but a loaded to the gills 2010 Dodge Grand Caravan to creditors (which I paid full restitution as part of my financial recovery). I also live in a "mobile home" (16'x80' SINGLE wide) with the F@CKING axles still hanging from the frame. If your sh!t is considered a mobile home by your insurance company then someone along the line didn't do their homework. Around here, a triple modular on a foundation is all but stick built. My house (super toy hauler, by your definition) is just that, something that can be hooked to and pulled away at any time. Kinda like a car...lose 3k when you drive it off the lot and try to make up the loss as you pay off the loan.

Input again when apples are apples and oranges are oranges. By the way...what was your credit score? Is it bad enough that you had to brag about how well you've survived despite it? Yeah...that's all I was getting at to begin with...

[atc007]

Sorry again. I was simply trying to say. I Love Erie Insurance company ,and to see if there were better rates out there.?? I don't have the vaguest clue on this Earth what my credit score is,as I have never borrowed money. I wasn't bragging. Thought it would be interesting to see what people pay for insurance around the country/world. Sorry again..

[beets442]

Just a word of advice. When ever you make a transaction do it thru a bank/checking acct. if money is stolen thru a credit card it is hard to get it back,plus the credit card company doesnt care where the money comes from or where it goes! You steal from a BANK, NOW there is a problem. They will go to the very ends of the earth to find them and its a federal offense! Happy spending...Beets