Credit card chasm: Some get great rates. Others cut off.

The credit card offer landscape has split radically between the “have jobs” and “have-nots”.

The “have jobs” are benefitting from some of the most attractive teaser rates ever offered – Discover is offering 0 percent APR balance transfers for 18 months, and Citibank is offering 0 percent introductory balance transfers for a full 21 months. Even when you factor in Citibank’s 3 percent balance transfer fee and ongoing APR, this means that someone with good credit can borrow money for 2 years at about a 3 percent rate. Even the US government wasn’t borrowing at rates this low just a few years back.

And rewards credit cards are still in full force too, despite dire predictions that they would disappear. Citibank, Chase, and Discover are all still offering 5 percent bonus cash back on certain categories, and there are still plenty of flat 2 percent cash back cards. And introductory offers on rewards are getting even more lucrative than they were before the crisis. American Airlines is offering 75,000 bonus miles to new applicants for their Citibank card, and Hyatt just rolled out a new card co-branded with Chase that offers two free full nights at any Hyatt hotel.

Meanwhile, the “have-nots” are getting cut off by the millions, and aren’t getting access to credit. Anecdotally, credit card approval rates at sites like NerdWallet are still much lower than they were during 2007. “Real” unemployment is up from 9 percent to 17 percent since August 08 (we use the U-6 measure of unemployment, which counts involuntary part-timers and discouraged job searchers). Over this same time period, credit card debt outstanding in the US has dropped 16 percent, as banks cut off those in dire financial situations. Credit card charge-offs have shot up from around 3 percent 2006 to 10.7 percent as of 2q10.

As millions of Americans are getting cut-off and written-off by their credit card companies due to job losses, the contrast between the “have jobs” and “have-nots” is getting to be especially stark.

While fortunes are rising for the financial sector due to recovering corporate profits, a simultaneously rising U-6 unemployment level may be a sign that many are being left behind. “Real” unemployment this September was actually higher than last September. And retail sales in 4q09 were 7.6 percent off the peak of 4q07, so don’t expect too much holiday cheer from the 17.1 percent of Americans without jobs, especially given how difficult it will be for those families to lean on their credit cards.

While investors seem relieved that write-offs are finally peaking, it may be years before credit card issuers forget about the excesses of the credit bubble and throw out a lifeline to fringe borrowers again.

– Tim Chen is the CEO of NerdWallet, a credit-card search website.