Credit Card Companies Are Killing Us At The Worst Possible Time

Call Me Irresponsible

For years I’ve been a responsible consumer helping to prop up the economy with unbounded spending.

When I worked for a British airline, they suggested: “smart casual” for wearing at the office and at company events. So, I invested in the best shirts I could find, rarely spending less than $100. Now they hang idly in my closet because summer lasts from mid-March until mid-October here in Albuquerque, and all I wear are shorts and tank tops.

Ah, but I found that the shorts sold to me online were much cooler than the ones sold in stores. I also discovered boutique men’s underwear collections and went a bit overboard. I stopped shopping at Marshall’s and TJ Maxx because they were déclasé.

However, I always had a weakness for Bed Bath & Beyond for linens, towels, and basic housewares. The company is in trouble, probably because I don’t shop there anymore. Amazon is the place to buy everything else — even leather and sex toys.

“Live like there’s no tomorrow” was my motto because, after all, in a previous essay, I claimed that we’re all going to die anyway. Tomorrow if Putin has his way.

We’ve all had some unfortunate financial circumstances fall in our lap. As a result, there are some things I didn’t wish to purchase.

For instance, I moved from an expensive city (Chicago) to a non-expensive city (Albuquerque). My boyfriend had dumped me, and I was unemployed at the time. The move was expensive, and there were also substantial costs in setting up a household. I had left with nothing much besides my personal effects.

I got my first and only DWI in New Mexico (well, El Paso, really). Was that ever a blow? Fortunately, I had $10,000 in available credit to take care of that crisis.

You don’t plan to have to bury your children, but my son passed at the age of 31 by suicide. So, there was that.

Well, tomorrow came and went. I retired, and the money went with it.

The walls of this house of cards began to cave in a few days ago. One evening I was at the grocery store, and I didn’t have $72 in cash to pay for the purchase, so I used a credit card. I knew it had a $1,368 balance on a $6,000 line, so I wasn’t in danger by using it. After I got home and unpacked the groceries, I checked my email.

And there it was.

Citibank had decided to lower my credit limit to $1,470. My $72 purchase would put me over my limit, and I’d begin to incur service charges and possibly an interest rate increase for being over that limit. In a matter of two hours! So I spent an hour on the phone with India to no avail. A couple of days later, I got on their chat line to try to resolve the matter again. They said they wouldn’t reverse the service charges until I paid off the balance! After an hour and a half of this, the most I got out of it was a lower interest rate, from 22.24% to 19.24%. I’m still livid.

“Thanks for being a Citi card holder!” Fuckers.

Then came American Express, where I have a theoretical credit line of $35,000, though I’d never spend anywhere near that. They started threatening that they wouldn’t pay for my next purchase every time I used the card, no matter how small the amount was. I had to call India again. They’ve decided that my new limit is $3,000, and I had to pull teeth to get them to admit that. So I’ve stopped using it.

Thanks for being a cardholder since 1984! Thank U, India.

The total loss of available credit (so far) is $36,530.

I don’t think this is any coincidence. Since I retired, all that’s showing up as income is social security and a pension. So along with the fact that my 65th birthday is this month, I think it is ageism.

Oh, I forgot my huge Medium earnings!

Word to the wise: try to retire without any credit card debt.

Due to inflation, interest rates are spiraling upward every month. Look at your statements. I’ve never missed a payment or been late with a payment on any of my cards. I’ve been a good customer (maybe too good), and they’re taking advantage of me, making it impossible to pay off my balances.

Sure, it’s partly my fault, but I want revenge. I am still receiving credit card applications, which is a complete joke. I kept the mailings even though I had no intention of responding, as I’d just get turned down with a nick on my credit report for them even looking at it.

But a couple of nights ago, I chose one anyway — the one with the best offer (0% interest on balance transfers for 18 months) and inquired. Sixty seconds later, I had a new card with an $8,000 line of credit! And this is based on my retirement income! I will pay off Citi cards and American Express and never use them again. There’s even enough left to make a dent in a couple of other accounts.

Ha ha! A mild win.

If I could make what I need by writing on Medium, I’d still be living on the edge, but at least I’d be above water at the beginning of the month. I’ve been in the $100 club for the last four months, once in the $200+ club. I need to be in the $500+ club.

If I had nothing else to do, I could probably make it. No emergencies, no disasters, no friends or relatives to maintain contact with, no house and garden to tend to, no errands to run, no cancer (which I dealt with earlier this year), and no doctor appointments. Then I could focus on writing. These things are what more and more people on Medium are calling “life.” They pull us from our love of writing.

Should you find yourself in a similar position but have a steady income, it’s time to start putting pressure on your creditors to lower your interest rate. Sometimes they won’t even deal with you if your credit score is under 700. (I’m at 686.) However, if you use mild threats (in one of the above cases, I brought up how their actions are ageist and, therefore, potentially discriminatory), you may get somewhere.

I’m not too hard on the customer service agents, though. After all, a real person didn’t sit down to crucify Arthur Keith on his credit journey. It was an algorithm just like we have on Medium.

So heed these suggestions:

• Try to pay off your credit card debt before you retire. Living on a fixed income isn’t easy, especially in these inflationary times.
• Don’t close your accounts; leave them with a $0 balance. The more available credit you have, the better your credit score.
• Curb your spending. Is it a want or a need?
• If you have debt, work with each debtor to decrease your interest rate.
• Spend like it’s your last penny!

More from Arthur Keith in Illumination:

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