Could a sign of economic recovery be in your mailbox?
Synovate, which tracks credit card solicitations, reported last week that card offers mailed to consumers dropped about 6 percent from the first to second quarter this year, a far milder decline than in recent quarters. And some big issuers, such as Bank of America and Citibank, have actually increased their offerings.
"That's the flattening out or bottoming out," says Anuj Shahani, director of competitive tracking services with Synovate's financial services group.
Of course, card issuers are still stingy with credit and picky about to whom they send offers. Shahani says only the most credit-worthy consumers with FICO credit scores of 700 and higher are getting offers. And even if you're among this select group, you'll likely notice one change: no more fixed-rate cards.
Meanwhile, everyone else with a credit card might soon see other changes when some provisions of the new credit card reform law kick in Aug. 20.
It was only a year ago in the second quarter when card issuers stuffed 1.06 billion offers in consumer mailboxes, according to Synovate. Since then, issuers overall have reduced their mailings by double-digit percentages from quarter to quarter, including a 44 percent drop between late last year and the first quarter this year.
In the second quarter ended June 30, total mailings reached 349.1 million, a 6.2 percent drop from the first quarter, Synovate says.
Yet some major issuers ramped up offers. Bank of America sent out 55.2 million mailings in the second quarter, up 77 percent from the first quarter, according to Synovate. Citibank increased its mailings by 65 percent to 56.1 million.
Card issuers don't want to go too far out on a limb, Shahani says, but they don't want to be the last to extend credit, either.
"Otherwise, someone else will get in and take customers away," he says.
Most solicitations also occurred late in the second quarter, another sign that issuers may be overcoming a reluctance to extend credit, Shahani says.
But don't expect an industry-wide uptick in offers until next year, he says.
If you do get card solicitations, they won't be for a fixed-rate card.
"They are a dying breed," says Curtis Arnold, founder of CardRatings.com that tracks cards.
Arnold says much of that has to do with credit card reform legislation that was signed into law in May.
