I get 2% cash back on every purchase I make. I have had the card for years and now they would like nothing more than for me to close my account as right now, the same bank only gives 1% cash back on all purchases. My other card has a really high credit limit, so I have no negotiation as if I canceled I suppose i could get another card, but they would start me off with some small credit limit, like $2k-5k. In the letter when they raised my rates they told me I didnt have to accept the new adjustable rate, but they would close my account if I kept the fixed rate.
There's an easy solution to avoid this mess. Pay the bitch off and stop using the mother. The CC companies need to see more middle fingers.
My credit card company (Chase), which I've been with for close to 20 years, closed my account last year without my consent. I didn't have any outstanding balance and I've never made a late payment. As a matter of fact, I've always paid off the balance in full. So why did they push me out? Not using the card for over a year. WTF! If this is the way you treat your customer of 20 something years, so be it. It's not like I have no other place to go. I also have cards from Capital One (the best IMO), Citibank (they're asswipes as well), BofA (formerly MBNA, is also good), Discover (don't use it too often but decent) and, of course, AmEx (used to carry the "Gold" just for the hell of it but have since opted for the "Blue").
People they are free to do that and I wish they would. Cowering before some piece of shit credit card company in fear of a change in my rating is not my idea of having a life.
They were closing unused credit lines to reduce the amount of potential default liability they were carrying. They did it to me with one of my business lines that had a 0 balance and even sent me a letter in the mail explaining it. Took them about 3 weeks to re-open the line like nothing had happened.... Went in just the other day to make a deposit and was offered a brand new line of credit, in addition to the ones I already have; this, more than anything else, tells me things are starting to come back.
I like my high interest rate. It ensures that I will never have a balance on my card at the end of the month. If my rate was like 2 or 3%, I would be too tempted to use that money.
I'm in full agreement with you. No matter what the percentage on my cards, they get paid off monthly. If you have the ability to use them at YOUR convenience, do it.