This is the most stupid thing I have ever come across. I have received 2 letters this week from two different credit cards that I have. One is increasing my APR because I have no outstanding loans or whatever and one is decreasing my credit limit because I don't charge enough to the card and I pay it all off in one payment. What is the point of maintaining good credit? I have a pretty good credit score. Now I'm being penalized. So ridiculous!

I have seen similar things. And no matter what you do, they will make sure that you get the short end of the stick.

If you don't have any - or much - debt, your credit score will be affected. My grandson is making REALLY good money as a Union Electrician for the Metro trains in St. Louis. When a small house came up for sale in town, he tried to get a bank loan to buy the little house. But he couldn't get a loan because he doesn't have any credit score. And he doesn't have a credit score because he just pays cash for everything - including his older vehicles. So, he had to take out a car loan to purchase another truck - which he needed anyway. So, even though he had the cash, he had to go into debt to start building up a credit score!! The bank said he should have enough credit built up in 6 months and then they will give him the small home loan!

I pay my credit card off in full every month and we have zero debt. I do use it for a lot of things, but although my credit score is high, the only way to raise it would be to take on some debt! NOT going to happen.

See, they are not making any money off you! You never pay any interest or carry a balance. I'm surprised my secondary credit card hasn't done something similar to me because all I use it for is a couple of recurring charges that are less than $50 a month and I pay it off every month.

Yeah, I get that they aren't making money off of me but reducing my credit limit isn't going to help either of us. What happens when I do need that big ticket item? I'm SOL with no way to get it, at least not with that card (which I use every month). I might have a different card to use but that doesn't help this particular card bank. Idiots! I may call them to see what happens but I once had a different card from this same bank and I called to argue with them about something else one time (and they were making money off of me then because I always carried a balance and never paid it off in full) and then I quit using the card and they eventually cancelled it on me. It's just so dumb. You have to have credit to get credit but first you have to be in debt to get the credit. I really thought retirement was going to be relaxing but it's just one stupid worry after another.

I agree with you... it's nuts. But the bottom line is... they don't care.

And I still am having a very relaxing retirement - especially compared to working!

Ob, unless we can get away from the world completely, unfortunately there will still be stresses in retirement. Hopefully it will just be less stressful than our jobs were (and mine had terrible stress).

I have had horrible stresses going on virtually nonstop ever since I stopped working, but I would still prefer this over my hideously stressful job previously. Pick your poison, I guess.

Well, I have to agree about being happy I'm away from the job stress and the commute to and from. Unfortunately, I have a hard time letting go of things and still get angry about work even though it's been 7-1/2 years. I blame that job for a lot of my negativity.

Marian, let's kick our stresses to the moon

I hear you on that one; I can still get very angry about work when I think about it (and I try to think about it as little as possible!).

I will certainly join you in trying to kick our stresses to the moon.

Finally got around to calling about the decreased credit line and they will not do that at this time. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate making these kind of calls and talking to these people???

Nah, never heard you say anything like that! Have I ever expressed that I hate making those kinds of calls too!!

Oh yes, I call them the nightmare calls.

The PERFECT description, connie!

And calling any organization for help these days is an exercise in frustration, what with the automated systems. It takes hours to work out exactly how to reach an actual human and by then my patience is gone and I'm ruder than I would like to be.

I don't bother worrying about being rude anymore. I could barely understand the woman I eventually reached and then she asked me some strange question that made me feel like I was talking to a scammer, except I made the call to them. I stopped her in the middle of the weird question telling her it didn't really pertain to me and so she tried another equally weird question which I answered rudely and asked her what was the point of these questions. She said, to make sure I was me but the questions had nothing to do with me, so how would she know? One was something about my license and Audi. I have neither. I don't really remember the other one but it had to do with some states or something.

I couldn't agree more with the stupid automated phone "trees." I have become a huge fan of the chat feature if it's available. I usually have someone within minutes and even if it's a phone bank in Asia, I don't have to worry about understanding them.

oldbroad, those actually sounds like password prompts. I have been asked questions like that before - Social Security is one who asks weird stuff like that. When you tell them no to the ones that don't pertain to you, they know it's really you.

You know, I do understand that Drac because I know that every bit of every persons information has probably been hacked by somebody, and I shouldn't take it out on the people who are trying to keep my information safe, but it's still aggravating. This place actually wasn't hard to get to a person except I lost my train of thought while listening to the prompts and had to go through them again.