This post is prompted by a phone call I got today. It is the history of that call.
I am a frugal man despite my indulgences. That is the sort of sentence my children call a 'dad-ism. What I mean is that I am indulgent on things like cars, trips and clothing. And home repair, where right is always better than cheap. But on everything else I spend virtually nothing. My wife is responsible for our theater subscriptions and social attachments. I would be a hermit. I have a home theater and more than 500 DVDs, and I am happy to stay home.
In school I never had a credit card. I paid cash for stereo equipment, saving the money before I bought. The idea of buying something on which I owe money doesn't feel like ownership, like safety, to me. When I started using a car I needed a gas card, and got one from Shell, but I had no 'credit' card.
When I started residency I could finally afford a meal I couldn't pay for with the cash in my pocket, and so applied for a Visa. I was turned down everywhere for lack of a credit history! I was astonished that the reward for financial responsibility was to be shunned as a credit customer. Even my own bank, where my pay was deposited, said no to a credit card.
Finally, the American Medical Student Association, through Maryland Bank NA, offered me a credit card in the mail. And I took it. No one else was even offering. It had a credit limit of 1000.00 at a time when my gross salary was 26,000.00, almost a cash card by credit company standards. I am a very loyal man, and also sensitive to offence (that will be important in this story). I kept that one, and only one, credit card, for the next 20 years. My credit limit grew to 5,000.00, then 10,000.00, and finally 58,000.00. Numbers I have never charged, crazy numbers. I paid my balance in full every month. I never paid interest (making me, in the bizarre, upside-down world of the credit industry, what is called a deadbeat- they make a great deal of money on interest). Maryland Bank was eaten by BankAmerica, a corporation whose practices I think are unethical, and so I approached my bank, First Tennessee, for a credit card. As a matter of respect, I asked for, and received, the same insane credit limit I had had with Maryland Bank.
I love First Tennessee Bank. They are another example of loyalty. When we came to Knoxville, I felt my world was falling apart. I had no money to buy a house, and had a home for sale in Atlanta, a home on which we would ultimately take a loss. First Tennessee has (had- it's changed now) a private banking program for high earning professionals. I didn't think of myself as a high earning professional, or any kind of professional success at all. But on the basis of my employment and my salary, First Tennessee gave me a mortgage and a bridge loan that let me buy a home for my family. No credit check, no elaborate investigation of my past. They showed up at the closing with the papers, which I signed there. I still remember that day, when someone had enough trust in me to give a loan to a near-stranger, and to give that trust and respect in public. I remain a First Tennessee customer for everything I do because of the kindness they showed me that day.
After 2008 banks were required to separate their credit card and private banking divisions. Private bankers could no longer approve mortgages and boat loans. Or manage credit cards. I subsequently moved to Chattanooga, with Kim and Michael staying in Knoxville for a year so that Michael could finish high school. I put some charges on the card in Chattanooga, Kim put some on in Knoxville. And one Sunday I found my card rejected at a coffee shop. I called the number on the back of the card, and instead of the very personal service I had become accustomed to, I got a phone bank worker. I was told a hold was placed on the card because of simultaneous charges in two cities. I explained the circumstances, and was told that without prior notice to the company, charges in two cities led to card suspension. I said I was notifying them as of right now, and I was told there was nothing that could be done on a weekend. Exactly who the hell were these people, that I had to let them know my personal travel plans? Suddenly, instead of a friendly banker honoring me with trust, I was dealing with the Secret Bank Police, with a faceless, nameless phone voice who represented a company that could tell me what to do.
The next day I called my banker, and got substantially the same story. I was outraged. I paid my balance in full every month for my entire life, and am rewarded by card suspension? There was nothing my very helpful banker could do. There was another hold placed the very same month, for the same reason, despite my explaining my wife and I would be in two cities for a year. The honor, respect and loyalty that were the basis of the credit relationship were destroyed.
I went and got an American Express. I shifted all my buying habits to Amex. There are a very, very few places that don't take Amex, because their fees are higher for merchants. On the other hand, their service is second to none. All I have to do is call 24/7 and I can get virtually anything I need for travel assistance. Amex has no problem at all with charges in two cities; the company is travel-friendly.
I run all purchases, and I mean all, through my credit card. I get cash from the bank about three times yearly. This is TMI, but I run about 5000.00 monthly through that card. I paid my children's tuitions on that card, while Visa now gets about 100.00 per month. I stopped paying much attention to the card, and I developed a passive-aggressive tendency to miss the payment.
I got a 'friendly reminder' call one day that my payment was overdue. I told them I had forgotten, but that I would pay it. I have never gotten such calls; I pay everything in full, on time. I pointed out to the friendly phone operator that I paid in full, and that the volume of charges was down by 95%. He did note that, and I told him I changed companies because of their policies.
This has now gotten to be a game for me. I get monthly calls from these people, asking me when I will pay. I tell them I don't know. They then ask, in a silky voice worthy of a mafioso making a threat, if I have any plans to pay. I tell them no, and then hang up. Some months I get a couple of these calls. I love this.
I love it because they are having to spend money to remind me to pay a bill on which they make virtually nothing. I have eaten dinners that cost more than my entire Visa balance. I just don't use it. They have to hire someone at a minimum of 8.00 hourly just to call a customer they drove away, and who, if they had any brains at all, would realize pays in full. They would get more money if they skipped the calls and let me pay late. Ah, but their stupidity has many levels, and they just haven't quite figured that out yet.
And so, monthly I get a little thrill that I am sticking it to the credit card division (they are separate from my beloved private banking division) for treating me badly. I am a loyal man, but when disrespected I am also completely unforgiving. I love making First Tennessee's credit card division waste money even as they lose income from me. The emotional and entertainment value is worth every penny of the late fee.
Ted
I am a frugal man despite my indulgences. That is the sort of sentence my children call a 'dad-ism. What I mean is that I am indulgent on things like cars, trips and clothing. And home repair, where right is always better than cheap. But on everything else I spend virtually nothing. My wife is responsible for our theater subscriptions and social attachments. I would be a hermit. I have a home theater and more than 500 DVDs, and I am happy to stay home.
In school I never had a credit card. I paid cash for stereo equipment, saving the money before I bought. The idea of buying something on which I owe money doesn't feel like ownership, like safety, to me. When I started using a car I needed a gas card, and got one from Shell, but I had no 'credit' card.
When I started residency I could finally afford a meal I couldn't pay for with the cash in my pocket, and so applied for a Visa. I was turned down everywhere for lack of a credit history! I was astonished that the reward for financial responsibility was to be shunned as a credit customer. Even my own bank, where my pay was deposited, said no to a credit card.
Finally, the American Medical Student Association, through Maryland Bank NA, offered me a credit card in the mail. And I took it. No one else was even offering. It had a credit limit of 1000.00 at a time when my gross salary was 26,000.00, almost a cash card by credit company standards. I am a very loyal man, and also sensitive to offence (that will be important in this story). I kept that one, and only one, credit card, for the next 20 years. My credit limit grew to 5,000.00, then 10,000.00, and finally 58,000.00. Numbers I have never charged, crazy numbers. I paid my balance in full every month. I never paid interest (making me, in the bizarre, upside-down world of the credit industry, what is called a deadbeat- they make a great deal of money on interest). Maryland Bank was eaten by BankAmerica, a corporation whose practices I think are unethical, and so I approached my bank, First Tennessee, for a credit card. As a matter of respect, I asked for, and received, the same insane credit limit I had had with Maryland Bank.
I love First Tennessee Bank. They are another example of loyalty. When we came to Knoxville, I felt my world was falling apart. I had no money to buy a house, and had a home for sale in Atlanta, a home on which we would ultimately take a loss. First Tennessee has (had- it's changed now) a private banking program for high earning professionals. I didn't think of myself as a high earning professional, or any kind of professional success at all. But on the basis of my employment and my salary, First Tennessee gave me a mortgage and a bridge loan that let me buy a home for my family. No credit check, no elaborate investigation of my past. They showed up at the closing with the papers, which I signed there. I still remember that day, when someone had enough trust in me to give a loan to a near-stranger, and to give that trust and respect in public. I remain a First Tennessee customer for everything I do because of the kindness they showed me that day.
After 2008 banks were required to separate their credit card and private banking divisions. Private bankers could no longer approve mortgages and boat loans. Or manage credit cards. I subsequently moved to Chattanooga, with Kim and Michael staying in Knoxville for a year so that Michael could finish high school. I put some charges on the card in Chattanooga, Kim put some on in Knoxville. And one Sunday I found my card rejected at a coffee shop. I called the number on the back of the card, and instead of the very personal service I had become accustomed to, I got a phone bank worker. I was told a hold was placed on the card because of simultaneous charges in two cities. I explained the circumstances, and was told that without prior notice to the company, charges in two cities led to card suspension. I said I was notifying them as of right now, and I was told there was nothing that could be done on a weekend. Exactly who the hell were these people, that I had to let them know my personal travel plans? Suddenly, instead of a friendly banker honoring me with trust, I was dealing with the Secret Bank Police, with a faceless, nameless phone voice who represented a company that could tell me what to do.
The next day I called my banker, and got substantially the same story. I was outraged. I paid my balance in full every month for my entire life, and am rewarded by card suspension? There was nothing my very helpful banker could do. There was another hold placed the very same month, for the same reason, despite my explaining my wife and I would be in two cities for a year. The honor, respect and loyalty that were the basis of the credit relationship were destroyed.
I went and got an American Express. I shifted all my buying habits to Amex. There are a very, very few places that don't take Amex, because their fees are higher for merchants. On the other hand, their service is second to none. All I have to do is call 24/7 and I can get virtually anything I need for travel assistance. Amex has no problem at all with charges in two cities; the company is travel-friendly.
I run all purchases, and I mean all, through my credit card. I get cash from the bank about three times yearly. This is TMI, but I run about 5000.00 monthly through that card. I paid my children's tuitions on that card, while Visa now gets about 100.00 per month. I stopped paying much attention to the card, and I developed a passive-aggressive tendency to miss the payment.
I got a 'friendly reminder' call one day that my payment was overdue. I told them I had forgotten, but that I would pay it. I have never gotten such calls; I pay everything in full, on time. I pointed out to the friendly phone operator that I paid in full, and that the volume of charges was down by 95%. He did note that, and I told him I changed companies because of their policies.
This has now gotten to be a game for me. I get monthly calls from these people, asking me when I will pay. I tell them I don't know. They then ask, in a silky voice worthy of a mafioso making a threat, if I have any plans to pay. I tell them no, and then hang up. Some months I get a couple of these calls. I love this.
I love it because they are having to spend money to remind me to pay a bill on which they make virtually nothing. I have eaten dinners that cost more than my entire Visa balance. I just don't use it. They have to hire someone at a minimum of 8.00 hourly just to call a customer they drove away, and who, if they had any brains at all, would realize pays in full. They would get more money if they skipped the calls and let me pay late. Ah, but their stupidity has many levels, and they just haven't quite figured that out yet.
And so, monthly I get a little thrill that I am sticking it to the credit card division (they are separate from my beloved private banking division) for treating me badly. I am a loyal man, but when disrespected I am also completely unforgiving. I love making First Tennessee's credit card division waste money even as they lose income from me. The emotional and entertainment value is worth every penny of the late fee.
Ted
This entry really strikes a chord with me.
ReplyDeleteThe U.S. credit rating system is Topsy-turvy, and is especially onerous in punishing the fiscally responsible.
When I came back from living overseas for 13 years, I had a credit rating of zero. Before heading overseas, I had bought and sold a condo, bought and paid for cars, and now had no school debt, had all Visa purchases paid for, paid cash for most everything, and was in debt to no one. All of this made me anathema in the eyes of the business and banking world, where my credit rating was zero for not having taken out any loans in the last 5 years. All past loan payments (that theoretically should have established me as a reliable payer of debt) were as if they were non-existent. I was turned down for house loans and credit cards alike.
Fortunately, like you, I had a lending institution that took a personal approach, looked at my earning potential, and gave me a loan to buy a house. (In my case, it was a credit union, as they now have less restrictions than banks do.) I have remained loyal to them for their willingness to see me as a responsible individual (who makes all house payments on time), rather than merely a credit rating number.
I was discussing the nutty U.S. system of credit with a nurse one day who told me that she and her husband both work and together have managed to pay off all bills for their home and her cancer treatments, despite the narrow margin between what they earn and what the bills demanded. Even so, their credit rating is lower than her in-laws who defaulted on all their loans, declared bankruptcy, and started over.
We really do live in a crazy credit world in the U.S., where fiscal responsibility is too often penalized and irresponsible behavior too often rewarded.
First Tennessee's credit card division - which from reading your case now appears to have a centralized (i.e., non-local), customer unfriendly approach to clients - is but another example of the perversity that is more and more becoming systematized in the U.S.
-D-