Here is an excerpt from an article at bankrate.com: ************************************ The chronic credit card hoppers of the world need to be wary as well. Sure, your credit may have been good or very good, but all that hopping around has hurt it. . . . Issuers aren't fools. They're going to take one look at your credit report and know what you've been up to. "If you've hopped around a lot, they know you're not going to stay," says Crystal Gomoke, a counselor at Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Greater Fort Worth. And they're not going to waste an interest-free introductory rate on a customer who's going to bolt. *************************************** (From Take care with your zero-percent credit card http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/cc/20020430a.asp?prodtype=cc) My question: HOW do they know?? Are their systems that sophisticated that they can detect rate hoppers? Or is this just more misinformation? Anybody know about more about this?
Re: Rate Hoppers (How do CCCs Know? Good question Calypso. I've heard this before - but I don't know if it's true - and - being as tho each bank seems to have different criteria in issuing cards (for example - Target Visa offfered me a measly $700 - two weeks later Fusa gave me a 12K card) I'm doubtful that it applies to all issuers, but if anyone knows more on this subject - please share! P.S. Thanks - Calypso - for ur response to the fiasco - apology thread. Mark LA
The only way it hurst your chances is by placing other inquiries on your credit report (which doesn't matter all that much.) There is NO WAY that a creditor can tell you've been card hopping by looking at your credit report (unless you keep adding cards - and adding additional credit card debt.)
Actually, issuers can tell whether you hop if they subscribe to Experian. Assuming that the current issuers report accurately every month over a period of time, potential issuers have the ability to see all CC balance and payment trends on Experian for the previous two years. If they see a huge balance on a CC trade that decreases over time, then magically disappears 6 months after the account was opened, and then the next month pops up on a new CC trade - and if this happens maybe 3 to 4 times over a two year span, they may tag you as a rate hopper. Having said that, I don't think the computer approval models can spot rate hoppers (as there can be many variables). It would take a manual review to really flesh out a trend - and even then, I don't think most companies care.
I agree. I don't think the companies really care. They hope you stay w/ their product. If not, then why are all of the BT offers out there? They want you to place your balances w/ them to get the interest money.
All credit bureaus aparently have your last 2 years of balance info, but only experian is kind enough to follow the law and disclose it to you. So the credit cards should be able to tell...
CRA's are required to disclose your COMPLETE file. If balances are part of it, then that must be discolosed too so the consumer can review it for accuracy. Kudos to Experian for actually disclosing the information.
I don't know. Maybe if I surfed my balanced on and off of the _same_ cards, the "victimized" (ha) card issuer might not be so kind to re-extend another 0% offer. I can see that a company could tell if you were playing the BT game, but do they really care? All you have to do is make one late payment, pickup one cash advance, or buy one unit of their credit "protection" plan, and they made plenty of money on you.
I don't put a lot of faith in anything CCCS has to say. The credit card companies are competing with one another and if they didn't want us "hopping", then why do they send balance transfer offers and special introductory rates?
BT'S PAY GOOD MONEY!!! The banks LOVE you to BT!!! Some even REFUSE to APPROVE you if you don't BT!!!
After they jacked my rate, I paid off the massive balance on my Juniper card ($689) in June. Guess who's done a soft on TU every month since then? Fleet also did a soft on TU last month after I paid off a larger balance. (They jacked me too, thought I didn't have anywhere to go, the idiots.) They're both trying to find out where I "transferred" the balances. That's pretty pathetic.
What is really funny is if you and your spouse or significant other have cards at the same bank. Then one or the other of you gets a promo rate, so you transfer the balance from the other spouse's card to grab the rate... Let them try to figure out where that one went...lol And for those cards that refuse to balance transfer, there is more than one way to BT. You can always pay your normal monthly cash expenses with the credit card you want to transfer to, then use the cash you would have paid your expenses with to pay the other card (tranferee card). In effect you have balance transferred without paying a fee.
"Every consumer reporting agency shall, upon request, and subject to section 1681h(a)(1) of this title, clearly and accurately disclose to the consumer: (1) All information in the consumer's file at the time of the request, except that nothing in this paragraph shall be construed to require a consumer reporting agency to disclose to a consumer any information concerning credit scores or any other risk scores or predictors relating to the consumer." http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/15/1681g.html
