Credit Card Companies Slowing Offers
I read an interesting article the other day about how, because of the worsening housing situation and more and more people defaulting on mortgage loans (the ripple effect), credit card companies are taking their cues from this slow down, and are starting to pull back a bit on their marketing campaigns, including direct mail credit card offers.
I’m sure we’ve all gotten slews of those at one time or another, but you may soon notice a slow down in credit card offers, or at the very least, a slow down in the amount of credit companies will offer you if they do decide to take on the risk of giving you a line of credit or a revolving line of credit (credit card).
Some credit card companies are reportedly lowering people’s credit limits who are already with them, lowering new customer’s offered credit card limits, and also increasing their interest rates to make up for what they perceive as a higher risk, or clients with bad credit.
It’s interesting times now, with the economy the way it is, but an increasing amount of attention is being focused on irresponsible lending, such as has been focused on the mortgage industry as a major reason that people tend to be defaulting on their loans - because they were loaned “over their heads” to begin with and do not really have the financial backing or income monthly to keep up with the “mini mansion” as it’s been dubbed, mortgage payments.
I myself have noticed a huge slow down in the amount of “pre approved” credit card offers I’ve gotten in the mail. We were just laughing about it the other day, because we now have a mortgage, and several six months to a year with no or low interest bills for furniture and electronics because we moved into a new house, under my name, and my boyfriend is actually getting all the credit card offers while I’m getting none.
Most likely this is because right now, with my high debt ratio, and a lot of it being new debt, I am being looked at as a higher credit risk since they view that as too many monthly financial obligations to add more to the pot. I do appreciate this though - I hate getting all that mail, and it’s a tremendously irresponsible waste of paper!
