My TOP 2 List of Banks....

A hell of a 2009 is past us and it surely affected a lot of people very negatively.

When the full force of the financial crisis hit, a lot of lenders were starting to slash credit lines.

So even if you weren't relying on available credit, your available credit might have been reduced.

This will negatively impact someone's credit score because you now have less available credit compared to what you owe, and that's viewed negatively by the credit bureaus.

So personally, this happened to me and on top of it all, bonuses I was supposed to get were deferred. Money really got tight then and the result was late payments, which resulted in further credit line reductions and even closed accounts. Quite a death spiral.

Considering such a daring situation, it turns out that some banks are more willing to help than others.

I won't mention all the banks who weren't willing to help and actually made the situation worse. Instead, I want to point out the banks that helped me big time!

Here is my short list of favorite banks, based on how willing they were to help:

1. Chase Bank

Yep, I sent emails to all my lenders asking for interest rate reductions and Chase was the only one willing to do it. They cut the rate from over 20% down to 8%. That was truly awesome.

Now, at one point, I made a substantial payment to the credit card and they turned around and reduced the credit line by that amount. That was below the belt ;-) But overall, they are still #1 because of the interest rate reduction.

2. Capital One

Capital One denied reducing the interest rate but at the same time, they never cut the available credit. So while paying off, the available credit increased which is good for the credit rating. I've had months sending $500 checks to lenders with no positive effect because as soon as they got it, they reduced the credit line by that very amount. Capital One wasn't one of them.

Capital One even reduced my interest rate recently without me even asking.


Unfortunately, that's about it. Every other lender didn't miss a chance to cut credit lines, ignore requests to help by reducing rates, or help in any other way.

So yeah, now that I am paying off my debt (Yep, that's the positive outcome of the crisis), I know which banks I will make business with going forward.

I'd love to hear other people's experiences during the last year.........

reply to post by posterboy


You are not the only one doing this.

Consumer Credit default rates are lowering while mortgage defaults continue to steady/rise (last time I checked)

My best was paying off a $600 C.C. with a payment of $250, even though that might be negative on my credit history, it can't go much lower! haha

Worrying about who will give you credit is a mug's game.

What is important is to avoid catastrophe in the future.

By far the best policy is to have accounts in banks that as well run and safe from future bank runs that could leave one having one's debt called in.

Legislation makes the banks in thre countries in particular bullet-proof safe.
They are...

- Canada
(I personally bank with TD Canada Trust and, excluding the odd hickup, they have, honestly, for a bank, been fabulous)

- Spain

- Lebanon
(Lebanon might seem a strange choice, but they are reported to have an ace Head of their Central Bank who saw the credit crunch some years in advance and required all the banks to staggeringly high levels of reserves and no involvement in CDS which has allowed them now to ride out the storm without a glitch).

I dislike and like chase.. Chase is the lender on my favorite credit card, because it gets me free books (yay) when I spend money on it and promptly pay it off. The bad side is they LOVE roving due dates.. they do this stupid 29 day bill period or something, so that every month it changes.

Capital One I HATE.. again my issue was roving due dates, it's the only credit card I was ever late on. However, I called and got my fee back, and the woman on the other end was from Minneapolis, working from her home (I heard a baby in the background as well lol) .. When I call Chase it's some dude named Michael from India. Or Bob. Or Steve.

Chase does do one very unethical thing though. When ever Chase buys out a credit company, bank etc.. and credit card tied to the failed back and or credit company they would automatically double the interest rates or up it to the max of 29.99% .. I have known several people that have had this happen, even though they had perfect credit. Of course, now they supposedly won't be able to do that, but what ever.

They all find a way to screw you in the end.

Holy cow, I'm sorry I lost sight of this thread half a year ago. I do appreciate your responses. I got side-tracked :-|

Anyway, now with another 6 months gone by (in no time), I'd love to hear what people's experiences are now.