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Consumers Blindsided By Card Cancellations

By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff

Posted Aug 12, 2009 12:44 PM CDT

(Newser) – Many credit card users are getting to the register only to discover that their cards have been canceled—without a word of warning, the Wall Street Journal reports. With credit tightening, many issuers give only a cursory rationale for the drops, and then only by mail weeks later. And though it’s frustrating and embarrassing for consumers, it’s totally legal.

Card issuers need to send notifications when they drop customers, but not before they’ve cut off service. “You start thinking of everything bad that could have happened,” said one New Jersey man after his card was declined at a restaurant. “Was the number stolen? Is it fraud?” In his case there was no fraud, just the card issuer “reassessing risk,” even though he’d never missed a payment.

Consumers have been discovering too late that their credit cards are worthless.
Consumers have been discovering too late that their credit cards are worthless.   (Shutterstock)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 9 comments
Yourself
Aug 13, 2009 12:25 PM CDT
this is the kind of thing that makes me wonder. i can understand them canceling a delinquent account, but an upstanding one?? how does that make any sense to them..
Yourself
Aug 13, 2009 12:21 PM CDT
cornelison - the economy is very different North of the border. don't get me wrong, i know it's been hit hard too, but it's none the less VERY different.
my-name-here
Aug 12, 2009 8:03 AM CDT
Agreed. Live within your means, that is what they are afraid of.

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