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I've been banking with the Credit Union of my alma mater since 1998, when I opened an account there as a new student getting my first bank account. They have expanded in the last 18 years from having one location on campus and their main office just off campus to having a half-dozen or so branches through the city, as they've found ways to expand their membership pool.
I've come to the conclusion that they suck. Lots of little reasons, like an antiquated online banking system contributed to my gradually lowering opinion. I've been slowly thinking less and less of them over the last few years.
However, how they've treated the credit card I have with them is the last straw.
You see, 10 years ago I got a pre-approved card application in the mail from them. My only credit card before that was a small low-limit one with Capital One, that I'd used occasionally just to build up a credit rating. I sent back the application and got a $4,000 limit card with my credit union. I'd never had a card anywhere near that big, it was more than 10 times the limit on my other card.
In any case, I used the card for some things here and there, and when my family hit some rough spots in the late 2000's I ended up running up a few thousand dollars balance on the card. I never let the card go late though, and always made the payments on time.
In any case, before I lost my job last year, I'd been paying that card off at a highly accelerated rate. Right before I lost my job, I got a notice that they were raising my interest rate. They said it was due to "market conditions." The only market condition was that my card was almost paid off.
Well, I lost my job last year (but am about to get it back), but help from my family and unemployment insurance kept me from missing any payments.
Today I got a letter from them. An "Adverse action notice" saying that due to my credit report, they were raising my interest rate. . .to the maximum allowed under state law.
The card itself is paid off, this won't affect anything, other than the interest rate I'm charged if I ever use it again.
They say my credit score is 746, and gave 4 reasons for the increase. . .which smell like bull to me.
They say I have too many revolving accounts with balances. I have 4 credit cards, only 2 have balances. That's too many?
They say that the length of time that the revolving accounts have been open is too short. One card has been open for 11 years, one for 10 years, one for 5 years and one for 3 years. It's not like I've got brand new cards here.
They say the proportion of loan balances to the original loan amounts is too high. The only loans I have on my credit report are my student loans and two car loans. . . .one was a ~$10k loan that's paid down to less than $2k and will be paid off later this year, the other is a $4k car loan that's half paid off. That's not paying down loan balances enough?
If they are dinging me for having student loans (which are under repayment and have no derogatory information related to them), they really have no claim on being a University credit union.
They say my proportion of balances to credit limits is too high. Okay, one card is at about 50% the other is at about 75%, I'll give them that those might be high. . .but it's not like they are on the edge of being maxed out, and those amounts have been paid down steadily over the years.
Frankly, it smells like bull. It seems like they just want to jack up rates, and are coming up with any excuse they can. A 746 isn't a bad score, and this isn't some deluxe, high-end credit card. It's a standard entry-level card that I got from a pre-approved offer a decade ago.
I just went online to TransUnion's web site, I got my free credit report for them having taken adverse credit action against me. Sure enough, nothing truly derogatory there. Just what they said.
It makes me glad I've paid off that card, and that I do a lot of my banking with USAA. I've only kept that credit union account in case I needed any in-person banking services like depositing cash (which I could then transfer to my USAA account).
I just really wanted to gripe about how they're screwing me over, and wondering if others have similar stories of saying your credit is bad when it really isn't (raising rates on a ~10 year old card out of nowhere like that really seems like "we're trying to find a reason to raise rates on people" more than anything else).
I've come to the conclusion that they suck. Lots of little reasons, like an antiquated online banking system contributed to my gradually lowering opinion. I've been slowly thinking less and less of them over the last few years.
However, how they've treated the credit card I have with them is the last straw.
You see, 10 years ago I got a pre-approved card application in the mail from them. My only credit card before that was a small low-limit one with Capital One, that I'd used occasionally just to build up a credit rating. I sent back the application and got a $4,000 limit card with my credit union. I'd never had a card anywhere near that big, it was more than 10 times the limit on my other card.
In any case, I used the card for some things here and there, and when my family hit some rough spots in the late 2000's I ended up running up a few thousand dollars balance on the card. I never let the card go late though, and always made the payments on time.
In any case, before I lost my job last year, I'd been paying that card off at a highly accelerated rate. Right before I lost my job, I got a notice that they were raising my interest rate. They said it was due to "market conditions." The only market condition was that my card was almost paid off.
Well, I lost my job last year (but am about to get it back), but help from my family and unemployment insurance kept me from missing any payments.
Today I got a letter from them. An "Adverse action notice" saying that due to my credit report, they were raising my interest rate. . .to the maximum allowed under state law.
The card itself is paid off, this won't affect anything, other than the interest rate I'm charged if I ever use it again.
They say my credit score is 746, and gave 4 reasons for the increase. . .which smell like bull to me.
They say I have too many revolving accounts with balances. I have 4 credit cards, only 2 have balances. That's too many?
They say that the length of time that the revolving accounts have been open is too short. One card has been open for 11 years, one for 10 years, one for 5 years and one for 3 years. It's not like I've got brand new cards here.
They say the proportion of loan balances to the original loan amounts is too high. The only loans I have on my credit report are my student loans and two car loans. . . .one was a ~$10k loan that's paid down to less than $2k and will be paid off later this year, the other is a $4k car loan that's half paid off. That's not paying down loan balances enough?
If they are dinging me for having student loans (which are under repayment and have no derogatory information related to them), they really have no claim on being a University credit union.
They say my proportion of balances to credit limits is too high. Okay, one card is at about 50% the other is at about 75%, I'll give them that those might be high. . .but it's not like they are on the edge of being maxed out, and those amounts have been paid down steadily over the years.
Frankly, it smells like bull. It seems like they just want to jack up rates, and are coming up with any excuse they can. A 746 isn't a bad score, and this isn't some deluxe, high-end credit card. It's a standard entry-level card that I got from a pre-approved offer a decade ago.
I just went online to TransUnion's web site, I got my free credit report for them having taken adverse credit action against me. Sure enough, nothing truly derogatory there. Just what they said.
It makes me glad I've paid off that card, and that I do a lot of my banking with USAA. I've only kept that credit union account in case I needed any in-person banking services like depositing cash (which I could then transfer to my USAA account).
I just really wanted to gripe about how they're screwing me over, and wondering if others have similar stories of saying your credit is bad when it really isn't (raising rates on a ~10 year old card out of nowhere like that really seems like "we're trying to find a reason to raise rates on people" more than anything else).
), while the rest start complaining about the skyrocketing interest to come in the next year. Then the next wave of complaints will come in, they'll lose another 3% of their customers, while the rest are stuck with 25% interest or what have you, while the people in charge are laughing all the way to their bank.
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