Ambushed By the Anti-Credit Crisis

So, I got a letter from my credit card company, saying I was scheduled for an “account review”. They wanted to let me know that, because the highest balance on my account has been significantly lower than my credit limit, my credit limit could be decreased.

Now, let’s think about this for a minute.

I’m being punished for being fiscally responsible.

 

 This annoys me.

 It’s no wonder nobody worries about the national debt. Apparently, if I continually spent more than I could afford and kept a credit card balance high enough for the company to rake in interest, I’d be rewarded with more spending power. It would be as if Congress members got voted back into office because of their skill in spending money the government doesn’t have.

Oh.

Yeah, that pretty much explains it.

 

I recently donated to the IRS.

 

Of course, a credit card company is a business, and certainly they’re in it for the bottom line. You can see why they’d want to give more credit to someone who spends a lot of money, because that person is also paying interest, which goes to: the credit card company. I get that. On the other hand, you have to wonder what harm I’d doing them by keeping my cards paid off. Everything else being equal, I’m costing them the same amount of money whether my credit limit is a hundred dollars or a million.

You’d think they’d keep my credit limit up, hoping something big happens like a pet dog needing surgery (as an example). When that happened to us, I did put it on the card. Of course, I also paid it off within two months, which probably annoyed them.

 

“Dude: If your e-mails annoy you so much, put that thing down and pet me, instead.”

 

I don’t really mind all that much. After all, I don’t plan on running up the card, and if I suddenly needed a bunch of money I’d try for a lower interest source, such as almost anything that doesn’t involve an enforcer named Guido.

But it’s not the first time I was annoyed by, pardon the expression, the principle of the thing.