This is the text of a letter that I sent to each of my national representatives:
Dear Senator,
I am writing you to provide feedback on some of the short term results of efforts made by congress and the federal government to deal with the current economic struggle our country faces. Some of the efforts made so far that I am aware of include spending up to $700,000,000,000, of which I believe half has already been spent, repeated reductions in interest rates, potential bailout of some American automakers and rumors of some sort of housing or mortgage bailout. Two companies I have confirmed that have received at least $25,000,000,000 each in “Bailout” funds are JP Morgan Chase and CitiBank. Additionally, American Express has requested at least $3,500,000,000 from the “Bailout” fund. I have accounts with all of these institutions.
Last week, I received a letter regarding my Chase Mastercard that stated they were lowering my credit limit due to various reasons. The letter stated these reasons were found by reviewing my credit report with Experian. Note that I have neither been late in any payment in years nor have I recently increased any balances on any credit cards by more than a few hundred dollars, and that only due to Christmas. I reviewed my Experian credit report within hours of reading this letter from Chase. I noticed two things: first, that all accounts stated either Current or Paid Satisfied; second, I reviewed all inquiries on my credit report to see what companies have queried my report and when. I noticed that the last review by any Chase related company was in January 2007 and that wasn’t even a Credit Card related inquiry. To me, it would then appear that whatever prompted the reduction in my credit limit was not related to any information in my credit report since they did not even look at it.
The only extenuating circumstance to this issue is that two months ago I chose to exercise the insurance that every credit card company tries to push on their customers, which protects against things such as job loss or disability. I did this due to the recent birth of my second child which has put my wife out of work for several months.
Yesterday, I received a letter from my CitiBank MasterCard stating they were increasing my interest rate. They gave an option of opting out of this increase; however, it stated that my account would be closed and the balance would have to be paid in full when my current card expires if I did so.
Additionally, several weeks ago my wife received a letter from American Express stating that the limit on her card would also be reduced. We just assumed the reason was because we don’t use this card much. We’re starting to wonder now…
I am not asking for personal intervention in my situation. I only wish to share my first hand experience with the results of some of the economic bailout efforts. It is my opinion that the results hoped for are not being achieved.
Respectfully yours,
Ramon S. Ebert
