I was organizing my papers this evening (otherwise known as Throwing Junk Away) and ran across a letter from my credit card company's customer service. It is dated in early 2000, about a year and a half after I opened my first student credit card account with a limit of $500.
$500 was enough most of the time. Heck, it's still enough most of the time. Still, after a year and a half I thought I deserved a little more rope, so I requested a credit limit increase and received this reply:
Dear LAURA B MELTON:
Thank you for contacting our Customer Service Center.
As you requested, we have your increased your 500 to $13.00.
Thank you for calling on us. We are always here to assist you, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Sincerely,
Customer Service
That was almost five years ago, and it still cracks me up.
alita says:
Just hope you didn't 'spend' that whole $13 in one place! :)
It's funny -- my 1st student credit card had a $500 limit too, and I've not used it in several years. A few months ago, I had a letter from them asking whether I was satisfied with the service. They also doubled the limit in hopes of enticing me to spend, spend, spend. (I still haven't used it.)
Stephen says:
Pretty funny.
It gets funnier though, if the time on your posting is correct. About 6 minutes after you posted, The Tonight Show's "Headlines" segment would've shown in your time zone, and they showed a letter very similar to yours.
Really. I kid you not.
Laurabelle says:
This is still my only credit card, and I've been fairly happy with it. For the first couple of years I got discount certificates for American Airlines, which meant that I could fly home for about $200. Eventually they stopped that, so now I'm looking a little more seriously at other credit cards, especially those that offer cash-back.
A few years ago my brother called up his credit-card company and said They gave him a better deal. I like his tactic, and at some point I may use it.
As in your case, a higher credit limit does not cause me to spend more money, although there is a certain critical point. I rarely spend more than $500 in a month, but it would be annoying if that were my limit.
Ever since my first increase, my credit limit has regularly been raised. () I wonder if one can request a credit limit decrease?
Jeff says:
I just like the fact that it is increased from . No units, no specification that this is a dollar amount (not that we couldn't tell from context, but it's yet another error). I only noticed because I was working on a physics lab report when Laura showed the letter to me.
Jeff