The Engine Of Our Economy

I have only one credit card. I've been with USAA for around twenty years and over that time they slowly continued to raise my credit limit...$1500...$3700...until it reached $22,000 in 2007. They were extending credit faster than Obama ended the war in Iraq you can say Jack Robinson.

So I called them up in late 2007 (before the credit "crisis") and had them drop it to $4,000; I had no need for such exposure to potential fraud as I rarely carry a balance. Nonetheless, this came back to bite me last month when I wanted to use my credit card to transfer monies while buying my used truck. I called to increase my limit, only to be refused.

It's highly likely my card company would have involuntarily lowered my limit anyway. While Obama and Giethner are busy bulldozing trillions of dollars of newly minted borrowed money into the banking system as a way to get them to lend, my lender is failing to lend. USAA is worried that I'd default, and why wouldn't they -- given the shitload of unemployment and bankruptcies in this great nation, I understand. So much for our great economic stimulus package.

For someone who has almost zero debt, who has 93% equity even after this mortgage "meltdown", who has worked in the same field uninterrupted for fourteen years -- and who wanted to buy a car for Christ-sakes! the engine of our economy!-- I couldn't get additional credit.