"you paid your debts and now we hate you"

Actually, they love you right now, because lowering your debt ceiling reduces their balance sheet exposure, and lets them extend more credit to the yahoos who don't use it responsibly becuase that's where the money is.

Not that you benefit from their gratitude, but think of it as doing your bit for the economy. I assure you that they'd raise your limit if you got irresponsible again, if that helps!

Oh, and I got numb to the abuse of the word "zen" years ago. Since it's a Japanese transliteration of a Chinese transliteration of a Sanskrit term applied to a religion which is a lot more complicated and faith-based than its mystical, philosophical image in the West, it takes way too long to correct anything....

I'm waiting for my card companies to do something idiotic like that. I just paid off the last card (the others have been paid off for over a year) this month. I got "new" cards recently for two of the paid off accounts -- the ones you have to call and "activate" -- and couldn't activate them without talking to a person who grilled me about why I wasn't using the cards and didn't I want some cool monthly features they could charge me more fees for? No, just activate the damn cards. And the one with the "annual fee"? I called and told them I didn't want to pay it, and they took it off "just this once".

Wait a minute. They pulled half her credit limit to extend more credit to people who are charging more than they're paying??

Sheesh.

And everyone sits around wondering how we got into this mess...

Hey! I got a similar letter in the mail today myself. It says that since you're obviously not USING your credit limit, and since we pulled your credit report and WE think you have PLENTY of credit, we're reducing your credit line by 40%.

This from the same company from whom yesterday I received three blank checks, ready to cash against my credit card to any amount my limit would bear. I ask you, had I chosen to cash one of those yesterday, it it put me above the new credit limit I didn't know I had, would the credit card company have been forgiving?

I think NOT.

No, Bettie, I do NOT think they would have understood.

Dorks.