Column: Don’t just accept a cut to your credit limit. You can fight back

A South L.A. woman was told the limit on a credit card she’s held for 36 years was reduced because she didn’t use it enough during the pandemic. I wasn’t interested in buying more clothes or shoes because I had no place to go.” The Nordstrom rep, Goddard said, “apologized profusely, but she had no explanation beyond saying that I wasn’t using my card enough.” Presumably the rep didn’t want to admit the obvious: Nordstrom, like many card issuers, was placing its own financial interests ahead of those of a loyal customer during unusually tough times. She acknowledged that it’s “fairly typical” for card issuers to reduce credit limits when borrowing subsides during normal times. Goddard’s credit-limit reduction “seems shortsighted,” Sherry said, “especially with the hit that high-end clothing retailers took during the pandemic.” Nordstrom, like most retailers not named Amazon, experienced heavy losses over the last year. But Goddard said the Nordstrom exec who called her “apologized for what happened and acknowledged that the matter hadn’t been handled well.” The exec also confirmed that no hard pull was made on her credit file in raising the limit, and agreed to put that in writing.