How to Blow Your Credit Limit — Without Spending:
“Paul Pensabene of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., received a statement from HSBC on Dec. 8 that said he had a $359.99 balance and remaining available credit of $8,640. But when he went online to pay the bill several days later, his online account showed that same balance put him over his newly-reduced credit line of $300. [emphasis mine] And that didn’t include the $35 over-limit fee. Pensabene grappled with customer service until they agreed to remove the fee, and then paid the balance in full. ‘All I could think was, ‘Good lord, what if this is happening to someone that couldn’t pay their balance off in one shot?” he says. ‘They’d end up in default with these fees piling up.'”
(Via Yahoo! Finance.)
While it’s certainly fair and proper for the credit card companies to clean up their financial houses, this is ridiculous. It demonstrates the level of contempt credit companies have for their customers. What happened to honest, good faith business dealings?