Today I received a letter from Aspire in Atlanta, dated Nov. 10 "Notice of Termination of card program". We must regretfully inform you that we are discontinuing your Aspire Visa Program. Consequently, we have closed your account to new transactions and may refuse to authorize any new transactions effective December 10. Further, effective immediately, your credit line is $1536.00. This is a very drastic decrease in my limit - from $3750.00. Anyone know if Aspire is a part of another outfit that recently went belly-up? Or a part of AIG that was recently bailed out so now they're dumping non-insurance holdings? This action - lowering my credit limit from $3750 to $1536 will really hurt my utilization % as my current valance is $1435.
Not only will Aspire lower credit limits drastically/report the new limits to the CRAs - making the utilization % real high - but will also report the accounts as "closed by credit grantor". A double whammy on your credit score. I sent them a letter threatening them with bankruptcy IF they don't leave the old limits as they were and/or report the account as closed by credit grantor.
You don't really have a leg to stand on. Creditors are lowering credit limits and closing accounts left and right, and they can because of their one-way contracts. BTW - it would probably cost you more than $1435 to file BK - why don't you just pay it off?
There's been reports on other boards of Aspire, Salute, Tribute, and Imagine, all shutting down their CC programs. All these cards are issued by several different banks, but Compucredit basically runs the operation. Compucredit has been the subject of FTC investigation concerning their predatory and often deceptive practices. This could have something to do with them shutting down their CC's, or it could be more people are stiffing them, than what they can collect with their exorbitant user fees. When you hand out cards to everyone with less than a 500 FICO, it will catch up with you sooner or later.
Don't necessarily believe that people with less than a 500 FICO score were stiifing them. What probably happened is that these banks went begging on their knees Monica Lewinsky style for bailout money and the govt. - only interested in saving big name banks' butts ignored them.
There is no indication that Compucredit is seeking bailout money. There is indication, that they have been the subject of numerous high dollar lawsuits from the FTC, and several state AG's. Since the year 2000, they have aggressively marketed their cards to every individual they can find an address for, that has highly tarnished credit. I personally know people that are indigent, that have been issued these cards, with no means or intention of making payment. There are individuals who use the cards as a legitimate rebuilding tool, but the way Compucredit did their screening, they had no means of identifying them from the majority who had no business with a line of credit. With the upcoming change in the political climate, and the liklihood of regulation that restricts the practices of card issuers such as Compucredit, they perhaps figured it was time to pull the plug.
Aspire Visa Card Oops! I too was a Fool, I'll admit it! Yes several years ago, don't ask me why, I got one of these Bummer Cards, was misarable service center( claims to be Georgia Based) But could never get anyone on the phone that didn't speak with anything but a Pakistani accent who could barely understand English. The account monthly Fees + annual Fees matched with a Scam low Limit made the card not worth keeping. I called and asked them terminate my card and refund my Annual Fees which they charged up front. It took them almost 45 days to send me the check. I noticed on my CRA Report it indicates the tradelide was closed by Consumer CL300 HB 560 0 PAST DUE NO LATES I never was Over Limit and my complaint was it so low a limit I never used it, it just wasn't worth the monthly Fees and yearly Fees just for another Tradeline. Now it looks like I was upside down is this Bad? Should I dispute it? or just let it go, due to bad judgement call. And if they're not doing business, I might not get anywhere anyway
