Do credit card companies have two levels of service? One for long time customers and one for new?

I see the same cards I have used for decades getting slammed by posters here that I never have any problem with.

I mean no problems at all. My calls never get routed to a call center in India. They treat me like a long time customer would expect to be treated when I need to call. I have a CITI card I got in 1990 and a Discover from around the same time. I get treated well from both of them.

Anyone else suspect there may be different service for new cardholders compared to the older accounts?

Don

any trouble with customer service. I also have a Chase card gotten in 1990 that i paid off and stopped using a few years, those guys in my experience are assholes.

We canceled their card a couple of years ago.

We have a MasterCard through my husband's union. I try to keep the balance paid up every month, but we do use it. At times, we have had a higher balance on it. We pay in a timely manner, and they always treat us well. There has never been a problem.

They were a real pain.

Don

My two cards are Chase and Citi, and so far in neither case has my limit been restricted or reduced (thankfully) nor my interest rate increased. Also, so far, I get the bill in plenty of time to pay it.

But I have to say my mother is not in the same situation, and her credit record is better and longer than mine.

So I don't know.

Great question. I will be reading the answers.

And kicking and rec'ing to see what others have to say.

ON EDIT:

I have been scared that my limits would be reduced, and have heard all the horror stories. All I can say is that so far, they have not--by Citi nor Chase.

If I had any complaints at all it would be that when they were
I've had 2 cc's with the same co. for 20+ years and 2 with a different co for 4 years and I've never had any problems with any of them.

Of course the all probably hate me because I always pay the bill off every month so they don't make any $$ off of me!

ask that question because it's quite personal.

The only thing I can say, for sure, is that my mother has a perfect credit history, pays her balance off in full every month, and her AmEx limit was recently trimmed.

some questions though.

My husband had a cc he hasn't used for about 3 years. When he did use it, we always paid the balance every month. Last week we got a letter from the co saying that since it hasn't been used in a long time, they were canceling it. Now, neither of us care, but I would love to know why they decided to do that? Does it cost them something to keep the account open? Is there some kind of reserve a cc co has to keep that is based on it's potential credit card usage?

I suspect the only way we'll ever find out how there co's really operate is if someone who works there spills the beans.

I got a Chase card as part of a Best Buy promo - the one thing I charged to it was actually canceled before the order went through so it was never used. Last week I got a letter from Chase saying that since the card had not been used in over 24 months they were closing the account. It did not bother me - I never even activated the card and shredded it when I found it last month.

But with so many consumers getting over their heads in debt, I think the credit card companies are worried about people taking advantage of every credit source they can and then tanking along with the economy.

It doesn't matter to me either. My hubby said he already had shredded the card anyway.

for 0% to transfer balances. And that is what I thought this letter was going to be. Oh well, I am paying off the credit card debt I built up after building our house so I will be debt free again. I did not need a credit card account that I never used left open anyway.

CC don't have enough $$$ for everyone to max their cards at the same time. If everyone who has a capital one card maxed it out tomorrow Capital One would have enough $$$ to pay the vendors and would risk collapse.

So if Cap1 want's to loan out $1B they could just issue cards w/ total credit limit of $1B that would be 100% safe. The problem is that most people don't max their cards so most of Cap1 $1B would be sitting around doing nothing. Example: they have $1B in cash and people only charge $400M they have $600 not earning interest.

To make matters worse Cap1 doesn't even use their own money (none of the banks do). They sell bonds or more correctly debt backed securitities. They loan out $1B then divide it up into 1M chunks and sell off the pieces. Cap1 gets more cash which they lend out and investors get a product which pays interest. Now Cap1 needs to make interest payments regardless of if people are using the cards or not. So if Cap1 has issues $1B in dbs (debt backed securities) they need card holders to have a combined balance of $1B.

This brings us to the dreaded L word..... LEVERAGE.

So how does Cap1 get card holders to float $1B each month. Easy they issue credit lines way more than $1B. Likely they issue credit lines of $12B.

Wait Cap1 only has $1B how do they issue $12B in credit. Cap1 is making a guess (taking a risk) that all the cardholders combined won't use more than $1B of their credit lines.

I KNOW THAT WAS LONG..... BEAR WITH ME.

So why did Cap1 cancel your card. People are using more credit. People lose a job and they max out the card to stay afloat. Cap1 wants the float to stay at say $1B but they are seeing that rise. They also look at all these $0 cards with $10,000 limts. Say 1 million more people with $0 balance and $10,000 limit. If 10% of them lost their jobs and maxed the card that would be another $1B cap1 needs to loan out.

The risk of people overunning their available $$$$ is getting higher.

Cap1 manages risk. How?
* Reduce credit lines
* Close accounts on people falling behind (before they can spend more of Cap1 $$$)
* Close out unused accounts. You aren't a credit risk but Cap1 can't afford people to rapidly increase their balances.

Cap1 also will try to increase cashflow. How?
* Raise fees
* Raise Interest rates
* Cut rewards.
* Raise rates, end promotions (gives incentive to pay down balance = return $$$ to Cap1)

Why? Increasing cashflow allows Cap1 to "beef up" the balance sheet. More cash gives Cap1 a larger cushion. Unlike the 90s when they wanted to max profit now they want to min risk. Keeping more cash "laying around" is a safety net. If Cap1 only want to lend say $1B but they have an extra $200M cash laying around balances can rise another $200M without Cap1 running into "issues".

Expect reduced lines, closing accounts, cutting rewards to be more common until the credit crisis eases.

I had no problem w/that. But they USED to leave them open forever. Now, not so much.

Maybe if her obligations are high compared to income, that's a factor??? (i.e. rent or house payment, car payment, etc.)

I've never had a problem with my card (I have only one), but I too pay it in full every month, and I never tiptoe near the limit they've set for me. In fact, they raise it without my asking them to. But I also have zero debts with anyone else, all my utility bills are current, and my house and car are paid for.

Several years ago, the cc company did charge me for a late payment even though my payment arrived on time. I called them to cancel the card over that and they promptly refunded the late fee and then put an extra credit on my account. I don't recall how much that credit was, but it was something small. Maybe five or ten bucks. That was for my "inconvenience."

Recently, I've noticed an odd problem with my statements. Some purchases that I absolutely know I made never appeared on the bill. I contacted the cc company to tell them and ask if maybe their software isn't working right. They are profoundly uninterested in correcting whatever is causing the problem. I went to the stores where I made the purchases a few days ago to make good on the transactions because, obviously, they weren't getting their money from the cc company. Store management in those situations essentially said: "Merry Christmas, enjoy the items." They said they have no way of searching back through their records to see what went wrong and didn't feel right about charging me when they can't prove to themselves that I ever got the products or that I owe them the money.

They started suspending my account if my payment was 4 days late.

They started suspending my account if I tried to used my card at a gas station I've often used it at - they thought the purchase was 'suspicious'.

Couldn't wait to close it.

Don

Last year Mr Pip ended up closing a long standing account because of the shitty service and the way he was treated.

It was one that was in his name, but I used it for almost ten years. I forget what bank it was with originally, but during that time things were fine. I never maxed it out, and I always paid on time. ALWAYS.

Then it was bought out by Barclays Bank and that's when the shit started.

When I used it online it was refused a couple of times. When he called, Mr P got some guy in India who said that because it was in HIS name, he had to give his permission (!!!!!) for me to use it.

He had to call three times...each time they said they would remove that requirement. They never did.

Then he put a used vehicle loan on it that was supposed to get a lower interest rate, being separate from the other balances on the card itself. He paid on that part of it each month and I paid off the part I used...we both paid ON TIME. After a few months we noticed that the special interest rate that the used car loan was supposed to get was gone and the entire balance was whatever the regular card interest rate was. He called Barclays, spoke to someone in a country halfway across the world, and was basically told to piss off.

That's when he got a card through the Pentagon (retired Air Force) and transferred the balance and told Barclays to piss off.

I also got a Pentagon card and one through Chase Bank.

That was last year.

One thing I will say...if you are, or have been, a member of the military, or have a family member who is or has been, the Pentagon Federal people are so easy to deal with. Customer service is excellent.

it's a bit of a dirty trick, but they can also benefit you if you are in certain circumstances or if you play the game. One way is what I do - get a balance transfer on a card with zero balance and then quit using that card until that balance is paid off.

The other way is if you are already carrying a balance. Say a balance of $10,000 on your discover card and paying an ordinary purchase rate on it. So you transfer that balance to another card for a special rate. Over time, that balance will end up switching to your ordinary purchase rate, but you still save money until that happens for the entire balance.

I had a couple of cards that I used a lot, charged an average of $5,000 a month and paid in full every month for 10 years or so. Any time I called them, I always got an English speaking person that just couldn't kiss my ass enough.

After the rip-off, it was a completely different story.

I worked in customer service for Citi and there were several departments. I was part of an American Airlines team, so the calls I was getting were not "general" they were specific to cards that earned "miles" with each purchase. That's sort of a high benefit card, so those customers tended to be well heeled.

Secondly, there are levels of customer service based on customer history. We can do more for "better" customers as the company defines better. Do you have a 30 month history of on-time payments? Then I could do more for you. Have you spent more than $100,000 on your card? Then I can do more for you. Do you have a high credit score? Then I can do more for you. At least that's the way it was, seven years ago before I got fired. One of their mantras was that the C in Citi stood for "change" so likely they have changed some of their rules and procedures.

It kinda sucks that the people who don't need free stuff are more likely to get it, but it's only logical that a company will jump through more hoops to get and retain a $60,000 a year customer than they will to get and retain a $7,000 a year customer, and a company will reward you for causing them relatively little trouble.

When it spun off from Sears we expected trouble (we've had our Sears card since my husband got it in 1969..and they gave us a "special card with a sparkly sticker on it"..I guess the employees are supposed to ask to kiss our hand when they see it..:) )

We 86-ed all the others, so I don't know about them.. they were pretty run of the mill back when we used them..

I get native English speakers whenever I call Citigroup for service issues.