Credit Woes Hit Home
Credit-card crunch is squelching the dreams of entrepreneurs.
Jack Diamond of Tampa laid off employees after Bank of America cut his credit line.
For two years, Jack Diamond used his Bank of America small-business credit card to finance his plants-and-aquatics nursery business in Tampa, Fla. He would use the credit card to purchase plants, then pay down his balance after he sold lilies, pond plants and aquatic fertilizer to customers.
Last September, Bank of America Corp. cut the $46,000 credit line on his card to $27,200, just a few hundred dollars above his current balance. He couldn’t buy the plants, seeds and equipment he needed for his spring selling season. He laid off six of his eight employees.
“I’m almost living paycheck to paycheck,” says Mr. Diamond, 55 years old, who is considering filing for business bankruptcy.
Even as wobbly banks tighten up on consumer credit cards, they are also cracking down on small-business owners by slashing their credit lines, closing accounts and raising interest rates. A recent Federal Reserve survey found that about two-thirds of banks’ loan officers reported that they tightened terms for business loans in recent months. Meanwhile the National Small Business Association, a trade group, said 69% of 250 surveyed small-business members faced worse terms on their cards, such as higher interest rates, in the second half of last year. Read full story:
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