Credit Card Junk Mail – The End of the Sweet Deals?

By Eva Norlyk Herriott

If you’re a tree hugger, you may be able to find one bright silver lining in the gloom of today’s troubled economic climate: the economic crisis just might save some trees. As the economy flounders and credit card companies continue to struggle, the usual flood of credit card junk mail has thinned to a trickle.

According to research from Synovate Mail Monitor, the market research arm of Aegis Group, the volume of credit card mail offers decreased by 27% in 2008, a total of 1.4 billion fewer offers compared to 2007. The volume of junk mail credit card offers provides an easy snapshot of the health of a credit card issuer. Issuers of subprime credit cards (cards issued to people with limited credit history or substandard credit scores) were the first to cut back on credit card solicitations. The rest of the credit card industry, with a few exceptions, followed suit and cut their direct mail solicitations back to levels not seen since 2000.

Even if you have great credit, you’re likely to see fewer junk mail credit card offers, particularly from credit card issuers that are hurting. Only two card issuers increased their mail volume in 2008, i.e., US Bank and Barclays Bank. In contrast, most leading credit card issuers like Citibank, Chase, HSBC, and Bank of American cut their mailing volume by 30-61%. Card issuers are refraining from actively soliciting customers that could lead to potentially more credit risk.

In a never-before-seen twist, some credit card issuers are even paying undesirable customers to go away. In the early part of 2009, American Express sent out letters to a subset of “select” cardholders, offering them $300 each if they paid off their Amex credit account in full before April 30 and closed the account.

In the face of a deepening economic crisis, American Express made the move to reduce its risk of credit card defaults, and move to the front of the line for getting paid back by cardholders with multiple outstanding balances.

While unusual, the Amex move is certainly a lot friendlier than the way other card issuers have been trying to protect shrinking bottom lines: slashing credit limits and raising interest rates and penalty fees, even for good credit card holders.

So is this the end of the sweet credit card deals? Not necessarily. If you have good credit, credit card companies still want your business. The cutbacks mainly target households who are considered high risk, as card issuers are forced to become increasingly cautious.

It does mean that you may have to look elsewhere for the best credit card deals. Online credit card applications continue to be strong, and leading credit card websites, including CreditCardGuide.com, Bankaholic.com, and CreditCardSearchEngine.com continue to serve up plenty of great credit card offers.

Published: May 22, 2009