Credit Tips: Issues with Dillard’s Credit Card Account After Taken Over by GE Capital

Posted On: February 9, 2005

Author: Nathan
Joined: 09 Apr 2004
Posts: 41
Location: Arizona
Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2005 1:29 am
Post subject: I used to like Dillard’s…now GECCCC bought their cards!

OK…

I’ve had a Dillard’s card for many years. It was one of my first credit cards. They started me off with a $1,400 limit. A few years later I asked for more, so they increased the limit to $3,000.

Well, at one point I payed them about 10 days late or so for about 3 months straight out of stupidity. No excuses. I paid it when I felt like it. Yes, stupid.

As a result of my slow payments, they decreased my limit to $1,200. I continue to use the card for ‘activity’ purposes.

November, 2004… IN STEPS GE CAPITAL.

Dillard’s has never reported a limit on any of the CBRs, just high credit balance. My high balance with them has been $1,600 or so.

So, even though I know that the limit reported verses the high balance is not directly included in the FICO scoring system, it looks bad to anyone actually looking at it. ($400 over the limit is not good!)

POINT:
Last week I went to the card site to request a credit line increase. They ok’d an astounding $250 increase. I tried again a few days later just out of curiousity and they said no. THE NEXT DAY ALL 3 BUREAUS REPORTED MY $1,200 limit AND my $1,600 high balance! I watched it using PG. I’m no lawyer, but that seems like a kick in the ribs that has to violate some FCRA rule. How can it be ok for a C.C. company to say “we’ll report this today…even if you pay on time (for at least the fast 4yrs or so anyway) & violate NO terms of our agreement…BUT if we feel like it, we’ll stick it to you. HA!”

Wrong is wrong. Any thoughts?

There are no stupid questions — only stupid answers.

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Author: Board Monitor
Board Monitor/ Administrator
Joined: 05 May 2003
Posts: 550
Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2005 9:04 am

Hmm…not sure what to advise you in this situation. Maybe Night will have some ideas. I have heard someone else complain about the way Dillard’s reports to the CRAs, so you’re not alone.

Best Regards,
Curtis Arnold
Board Monitor
U.S. Citizens for Fair Credit Card Terms, Inc.
http://www.cardratings.com
501-663-0314 PH
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Author: Board Monitor
Board Monitor/ Administrator
Joined: 05 May 2003
Posts: 550
Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2005 7:02 pm

Nathan,

If you’re interested in talking to a reporter from a major national newspaper about this topic, then please contact me (see Announcement above)!..

Best Regards,
Curtis Arnold
Board Monitor
U.S. Citizens for Fair Credit Card Terms, Inc.
http://www.cardratings.com
501-663-0314 PH
501-301-8474 FX

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Author: Nathan
Joined: 09 Apr 2004
Posts: 41
Location: Arizona
Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2005 5:47 pm

Curtis:

I’m in.

Let me know what I need to do.

Thank you.

There are no stupid questions — only stupid answers.

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Author: NightStar
Board Monitor
Joined: 07 Nov 2003
Posts: 2579
Location: Illinois
Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2005 8:15 pm

You have two issues going here, that is a hard one.

You have late listings on the credit report now, showing at least 3 30 days late… and they slapped you with lowing your available credit limit, and now you are below what your highest balance has been throwing off your credit score looking like you had charged over the limit.

I have seen this happen to others, very unfortunate fix of things.

Nothing you can do about the credit limit increase at this time, that part is just going to have to wait for a bit.

I would suggest writing good will letter to the creditor asking them to forgive the lates and remove them off of your credit report, then in 6 months ask again for credit limit increase and see with missing lates if they give you higher credit limit the next time.

Do this in 6 month phases until you can get back over the high balance on the credit limit.

Sorry just don’t have no quick fixes for this one, I would not recommend disputing the lates with the credit reporting agency, worse case they would delete a perfectly good account - that would hurt worse then the over the limit is hurting now.

Best Regards,
Pammila Phillis
Board Monitor
U.S. Citizens for Fair Credit Card Terms, Inc.
http://www.cardratings.com
501-663-0314 PH
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Author: Nathan
Joined: 09 Apr 2004
Posts: 41
Location: Arizona
Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2005 8:49 pm

Thanks for the reply Nightstar.

Only thing is I was never 30 days late. I paid Dillard’s about 10 days late, for 3 different months, which is still within their (old) grace period.

There is nothing negative being reported to the CBRs other than the high balance, versus credit limit.

I REALLY don’t think it affects my score. The reason I say this is I had another company (providian) raise my interest rate, so I closed the account while it was over the limit. No effect. Yes, it looks very bad. But I really don’t think terms of credit granted are computed in the FICO system.

Example:

If you had a negative amortization (payments lower than the principal and interest) on any type of loan, it does not affect the score. I once had a credit card offer that was definitely negative amo (Very low min payments), and it had ZERO impact on the score.

Another example:

You go to the car dealer and buy a new car. They approve you, and give you the option of going 36 months, or 60 months. Will choosing one or the other affect your score? Not from my experience. I have done both with no effect, so from what I know, the answer is no.

What do you think?

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Author: NightStar
Board Monitor
Joined: 07 Nov 2003
Posts: 2579
Location: Illinois
Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2005 9:21 pm

Ok, so no negative reporting, that is good.

I had First USA do that to me a few years back, I was late like 4 days and they deducted $100 from my credit limit.. they didn’t report the late, but it still made me made… though looking back I guess I would take a deduction of that sort any day over a late reporting.

So they are keeping track internally that you had exceeded the payment due date, and they can hold that against you.

What you said about still being in the grace period didn’t make since, are you saying like example would be that every 25 days payment is due, but grace period is 30 days???

I wonder if writing a letter to this company through www.planetfeedback.com would help - to explain your situation, and ask what requirements need to be met for you to get the credit limit reporting again over the high balance.

I had found a source onces that claimed over the limit could hurt just as bad as a collection account listing, 20 - 50 points… besides it not looking very good.

There are companies that will look at that, through add on products like (experian sells one called profile summary)

Profile summary will list how many of each type of account you have like installment, real estate, revovling, then it will also list the balances on all of these account combined, and it will list all payment require, and finally it will list your credit limit to balance ratio. This works for companies that want more hands on tools for manual underwriting.

The one loans you talk about, were the payments are high, I have seen that before, it has caused people trouble when that happens trying to get approved for mortgage loans.

Like someone takes out a HELOC, but in the payment section is shows $2300 - but they might have missed updating the term section to show that is only 3 payments due to pay off loan… not the typical 36 months or more… I have had mortgage officers just go crazy with that. It to them was not acceptable, they wanted me to break that down to a 36 payment grid when none existed. I have no idea why, myself just know it has caused a problem.

Every once in a while someone gets a loan like that set up - that the credit bureaus just don’t have the field options to reflect properly then it ends up looking funny like that, and then the other creditors viewing it get lost on how to process what they see.

If you didn’t notice a difference in your score since that happen, then maybe you were fortunate enough that you have plenty of positive things to outweight the negative of this. And fortunately if another creditor already give you credit limit over looking this, you got lucky to get under the wire, but I know they can if they wanted to.

There is a difference from one creditor to the next on underwriting or account reviews, some of them actually view the credit report for determination, others will take just a look at the credit score, if the score is good enough they don’t bother looking at the credit report - that might have been what happen in your case.

Still on the chance that it could hurt you, periodically continue trying to request credit limit increases to get that back up over the high balance.

Best Regards,
Pammila Phillis
Board Monitor
U.S. Citizens for Fair Credit Card Terms, Inc.
http://www.cardratings.com
501-663-0314 PH
501-663-0033 FX

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Author: Nathan
Joined: 09 Apr 2004
Posts: 41
Location: Arizona
Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2005 9:43 pm

“What you said about still being in the grace period didn’t make since, are you saying like example would be that every 25 days payment is due, but grace period is 30 days??? ”

Dillard’s used to have the most liberal payment structure of any card company I’ve ever known (Have No idea how they work now). That’s one of the reason’s I used to pay them a few days late, or whenever I felt like it. My payment was due on the 14th, but was NOT considered late until the 24th (I think? Or about there anyway). There were no late fees or penalties as long as the payment was received within the grace period. I know this because I asked the reps about a dozen times, and I also tested it. Wish I hadn’t though.

So, I would do a payment by phone whenever I got around to it. No, not smart. I thought there would be no consequences. (ahem!)

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Author: NightStar
Board Monitor
Joined: 07 Nov 2003
Posts: 2579
Location: Illinois
Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2005 9:55 pm

Most other cards work, that the due date is considered the end of the grace period and any time past that is over the 30 days… a lot of consumers would be thinking they are only a day or so late and be in for a shock when they see a 30 day late reporting.

But it does get a bit confusing now, because creditors go by 25 day grace period, I know the grace period is the time they are not charging interest, but it is also used on the late reporting too.

I think if you look at it that way, they have cheated the consumer out of the 5 additional days and will report them 30 days late reguardless that only 25 days have passed.

It is a new game they play and they just keep gaining ground on us, changing the rules to suit themselves.

I do think it was quite excessive that they took that much of the credit limit from you, where in my case I just lost $100 off of my credit limit. When that happen to me, I paid the account waited a few months, then closed it for good, but that was before I knew about the reporting side of things. Now I would just stop using it, but keep it open. Use it maybe once per year.. it will cost them more in the long run then you.

As time goes by keep checking on the credit limit, and when they give it back, then start using them again.

Best Regards,
Pammila Phillis
Board Monitor
U.S. Citizens for Fair Credit Card Terms, Inc.
http://www.cardratings.com
501-663-0314 PH
501-663-0033 FX

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Author: Board Monitor
Board Monitor/ Administrator
Joined: 05 May 2003
Posts: 550
Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2005 10:04 am

Nathan,

E-mail me your contact info. and the best time to call and I’ll have the reporter contact you. Thanks for your interest!

http://www.cardratings.com/contactfr.html

Best Regards,
Curtis Arnold
Board Monitor
U.S. Citizens for Fair Credit Card Terms, Inc.
http://www.cardratings.com
501-663-0314 PH
501-301-8474 FX

View our latest credit card ratings!