Unsolicited MasterCard

Last Saturday I received a Citi MasterCard in the mail. I was stunned - I hadn't applied for it. Was it a scam? I already have a Citi MasterCard. I checked the account numbers and they were different; my current card doesn't expire for another year anyway. I couldn't figure it out, and I didn't know whether I should keep it - hey thanks! a spare $5,000! - or cut it up.

This morning I Googled "unsolicited MasterCard" and discovered that I'd received it because I haven't used my Macy's charge card in over two years. Hah - I never used it at all! It was also unsolicited, in a sense. I had had a Filene's credit card for probably 25 years. When Macy's bought out Filene's, they sent me their card. I have never liked Macy's. I remember years ago walking by the Filene's jewelry counter and seeing small, delicate, refined and elegant jewelry, then walking into Macy's and seeing large, clunky, hideous jewelry. That summed it up for me. I never bought anything there, and I have no intention of starting now.

The whole situation appalls me. How dare they?!?! It ought to be illegal to send major credit cards to people who didn't apply for them. According to the USA Today article I found, 3.5 million of us got these things. Obviously, Citi (who bought the unused Macy's credit card accounts last year) wanted the interest we weren't generating, and came up with this highly unethical way to make money off of us. It makes me want to cancel my existing Citi card - but I won't, because there's a caveat in the article: If we close the Macy's account without obtaining an equal amount of credit elsewhere, our credit scores could drop. I already closed the Macy's account. If I now closed my existing Citi account, it could really hurt my credit.

In an interesting coincidence, yesterday I actually did obtain an equal amount of credit elsewhere. I went down to Sears to buy some Lands End clothing, and allowed the clerk to talk me into getting a Sears charge card - which is now a MasterCard, too. So for about 12 hours, I was the not-so-proud owner of four MasterCards. (The fourth one was recently issued by my bank; I got it because I wanted a Rewards card.)