<p>Now that all of you have mentioned it I notice that we are not getting the credit card offers that American Airlines used to send almost weekly. The letters were times 5 since each of us have a frequent flyer account with them. What I loved was that for yrs the 3 kids were all too young to be eligible for a credit card.
My oldest just got a notice from Wells Fargo that her rates were going up due to low account balances on her bank accounts with them. The silly thing is she has always paid in full. Her checking and savings accounts balances are low with them since she is now banking with another bank. She was so mad that she is going to call them up.
I have a couple of cards that I never use. It will be interesting if I hear from any of them.</p>
<p>We’re starting to close credit card accounts that we don’t use. But recently my husband purchased an item using American Express and it was denied on a card that we always paid on time. We took that as a signal from above that we should not spend.
My daughter was denied credit at a credit union because she has no job but she still was granted a credit card from BofA. One nice thing about this credit crunch is that I get less credit card application junk mails. Less shredding for our family.</p>
<p>^ You shouldnt close accounts you don’t use. Just sock-drawer 'em. Closing accounts increases your debt to available credit ratio and, if the cards were open for a long time, shortens your credit history length…both of those factors hurt your FICO score.</p>
<p>^I did not want to close them but after received 2 phone calls from a company claiming I have an outstanding loan(which I rarely have) with late charge. This call made me so nervous that I had to call the credit card company to confirm that it was a case of mistaken identity and that I actually don’t have any credit card with them. Hence, I decided afterwards to close all of the credit cards that I don’t use. I think it will affect my credit score slightly but I already have excellent score and it will be a small ding, not huge problem to my FICO score. On top of that, I don’t plan to do any borrowing for a while. I should be ok for now.</p>
<p>Nah, those missing credit card offers aren’t because of the credit crunch. They’re because I finally bought a shredder so I don’t have to rip up applications into little pieces anymore.</p>
<p>Naturally, now that I have it, I don’t need it.</p>
<p>^^haha my shredder was working overtime for a long time. Our family would get MULTIPLE offers X4 every single day!! I, too, just noticed they’ve all but stopped!! Glory, Hallelujah!!!</p>
<p>Around Thanksgiving I did still get those “checks” from companies where I have credit cards, allowing me to write myself a cash advance. Where’s that shredder?</p>
<p>Actually, now that we have it, I am spending the day doing a mammoth paper re-organization and demolishing. What a way to kill a day off… :(</p>
<p>garland - What? No fireplace at your house???</p>
<p>Unfortunately, no. </p>
<p>A few years ago, we tried to burn up some old sets of checks of my late FIL’s. On the grill out back. I think we sent ashes and bits of burning paper all over the neighborhood.</p>
<p>fireplaces. oh boy, we regularly burn the credit offers. H did it this past September, never told me, he left to run some errands, I was folding laundry in the basement. All of a sudden there were 3 firetrucks, 3 cop cars and firemen and police banging down my doors. Scared the life out of me and kids. They thought the house was on fire, it was a heavy humid day and the smoke just sat pooling outside the chimney and front of the house. Neighbor saw him leave, he called the fire department.</p>