Credit card use falls; issuers hit
After the recession forced credit card companies to purge their rosters of the riskiest loans, the industry is facing a new issue: customers who are too good.
Card issuers have long found their bread and butter in penalty fees and high interest rates paid by consumers who carry a balance. But that business model has been upended by the legions of consumers who were overwhelmed by debt when the recession hit, forcing the industry to write off billions of dollars of loans. In addition, new federal laws restrict how much card companies can charge risky customers.
Now, frugal-minded consumers are charging less on their credit cards, paying down balances and steering clear of penalty fees – steps that are financially responsible but have the industry scrambling to find new ways to make money.
“The only true deadbeat customer is someone who has a card and never uses it,” said Curtis Arnold, who runs the credit comparison site CardRatings.com. “Just having good credit alone in today’s market is not enough for that customer to be profitable.”
A new study by the Pew Charitable Trusts found that annual fees and service fees have increased over the past year while penalty charges – which are subject to the new federal regulations – remained largely unchanged. Meanwhile, some cards are encouraging customers to charge more by offering enhanced rewards, allowing the issuer to capture “swipe fees” paid by merchants.
And one issuer even allegedly threatened to reject consumers with high credit scores because they didn’t boost the bottom line.
In a lawsuit filed last month, outdoor retailer Gander Mountain, based in Minnesota, claimed its credit card partner, World Financial Network, was turning down shoppers with nearly perfect credit scores of 800 or above.
Gander Mountain said the reason was because the issuer claimed it could not make money from those clients, which World Financial Network estimated as about a quarter of new applicants. That could drive shoppers away, the suit said. Both Gander Mountain and the issuer’s parent company, Alliance Data, declined to comment on the suit.
Though industry experts say the case is extreme, it illustrates the challenges credit card companies face. Issuers typically generate revenue from two sources, interest rates and fees. Congress has clamped down on both of those channels this year, including banning interest rate increases on outstanding balances and curtailing penalty fees for late payments and over-limit purchases.
The new rules are estimated to cost the industry at least $12 billion annually, according to law firm Morrison & Foerster, and issuers have warned that customers in good standing could wind up paying the bill.
“A lot of people thought they were blowing smoke, but they were spot on,” said John Ulzheimer, head of consumer education for Credit.com. “Now something has to give.”
Many issuers have homed in on fees that typically accompany rewards cards as a potential moneymaker. The Pew study found that about 14 percent of bank credit cards have annual fees, about the same as last year. But the median annual fee for the 12 largest banks’ cards rose 18 percent to $59 over the past year.
The cost of cash advances rose from 3 percent to 4 percent.
Michael L. Hughes started getting the harassing phone calls several months ago. He figured they were from scammers and he tried to ignore them. Sometimes he’d pick up the phone just to hang up on them.