The Columbus Dispatch: $2 trillion in credit may be cut

AFFIL appeared in this article by Steve Wartenberg on December 7, 2008

…The fine print on credit-card applications allows companies to alter the terms, reduce the credit line or cancel a credit card even if a customer has done nothing wrong.

“I think this is outrageous,” said Jim Campen, executive director of Americans for Fairness in Lending. “When you sign a contract with these people and get a card, they should be held to those terms for the duration of the contract.”

Many small-business owners use their personal credit cards for company expenses and rely on these lines of credit, he said.

“If they can’t use it, they could be forced out of business,” Campen said.

For consumers, card cancellation or credit-line reductions could make bad times worse.