Are Credit Card Lenders Getting More Aggressive?
According to the Detroit News and several consumer advocates, credit card lenders are aggressively reaching out to new markets and trying to increase the debt-load of current cardholders. What they are doing looks an awful lot like sub-prime lending. “Slowly, issuers have gotten more and more aggressive, not just with credit-line increases but with lower rates, lower fess, offering longer periods with zero percent rates and the like.”
One way they are increasing the debt-load of current credit card holders is by raising limits without reasonable regard for a person’s credit or without the borrower even asking. “So-called subprime customers, those with credit scores of 680 or less, succeeded nearly half the time in February in getting increased borrowing limits.”
Credit card companies are also quickly increasing their clients. For example, in October, credit card companies were approving 61% of applicants on average. In February, that number shot up to 76% according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Not good.
If you are facing overwhelming credit card debt and need to get out of the high-interest credit card trap, contact an experienced debt settlement attorney who can likely help you reduce your debt and get on the path toward being debt-free.