magicbeans. nothing if not awkward.

I received a notice in the mail the other day about "changes" to my Discover account. And opened it to find out that as of June 1, they are changing my standard interest rate to 28.99%. Yes, you read that correctly, 29 fucking percent. Excuse me?

The letter goes on to say that as a result of their "normal account review procedures", they've decided to raise my rate for three reasons:

Derogatory public record or collection filed

Proportion of balances to credit limits is to high on bank revolving or other revolving accounts

Length of time accounts have been established

Also that the decision was based "in part" on my credit report, and that I had the right to a free copy of said report. Which I made use of to see just what they fuck they thought they were talking about.

There are three adverse accounts listed in my report, none of which are newer than two and half years old. One is from a line of credit with Sovereign Bank, which had been simply overdraft protection with BankBoston, but turned into a $300 credit card tied to my checking account when they merged with Fleet and sold me down the river (so to speak). I was late, 30 days or less, once in 2002 and once in 2003, in covering a balance of (from what I recall) less than $50 each time. The first time I was working on my thesis and simply distracted, and the second time I had left the state and although I had closed the associated checking account, they hadn't closed the credit account.

The second is a 60 day late payment on one of my student loans that apparently had a shorter grace period after graduation than the rest.

The third is a collection for a measly $117, originally attributed to Austin Energy, one of the bills that was in my name that Stef was supposed to change when I moved out, and that apparently she did not. I called the collection agency today and was told that they were not "legally allowed" to deal with me, because I currently reside out of state. I called Austin Energy, and was told that I could still pay the balance to them, online with an additional $4.95 fee, which I was fine with just to get this taken care of (I'd still have to file a letter of dispute with the credit reporting agency), but when the operator looked up my account she found that it had been paid and closed in 2004. I can't remember whether I paid it, or if someone else may have, but in either case it's paid, and has been haunting my credit report for two and a half years, causing who knows how much harm.

Regarding the proportion of balances to credit, I ran the math and found that number to be almost exactly 50%. According to one source I saw online, the US average is around 34%, meaning that yes, mine is high, but not excessively so, and I've been pretty steadily paying my debt down over the last few years.

As to the length of time my accounts have been established, the first goes back about eight years, to my first year at RISD, and then I opened a new account every 18 months or so since then, the most recent was a year ago. They don't, of course, go into any detail about exactly what it is that they are looking for here, but I would think that a credit history going back nearly a decade would be sufficient for determining my history of responsible repayment.

Needless to say, Discover has lost my business. They are the least widely accepted of the four major credit card brands, their cash-back gimmick has been adopted by others, and they are trying desperately to milk every possible cent out of their cardholders. Which is not much of a sustainable business strategy. As soon as I've paid down my remaining balance, I'm closing my account. Fuck you Discover Card. Have fun in your spiralling nosedive.