Anyone that has had an interest rate increase on their credit card

[tkitty]

Just got my letter today. I guess I better decide how to pay it off, I have also been a loyal customer, always on time, they keep increasing my limit, too. I'll be closing this one within the month!

 

[Bearnut2]

Just went thru this with Amex. Had no balance on the card--only kept it for emergencies and used it from time to time-- but they did a "credit review" and decided that since I had one questionable item, from BEFORE I ever even applied for their card, they were going to cancel my card! I called and was informed that they were reviewing all of their accounts and based on what the credit reporting agency told them they were taking "appropriate action"??? WTH?! Even when the reporting agency reported something that occurred BEFORE I even got the card! Makes absolutely no sense to me!

 

[disneynuts777]

My dh owns a small business and carries a balance on a few credit cards. Don't the banks realize that raising the rate on his balances brings him 1 step closer to having to shut down/ declare bankruptcy? He is doing the best that he can in this economy. I feel bad for him because it seems he can't get out ahead no matter what he does.

I really do not think they care. Our AMEX small buisness card just went to 25.99% from 12.99%. Thats double!!!! I phoned and grouched and was told there was nothing they could do. I will now pay off the card and not use it. The perks are not worth it!!

 

[stephaniebatesjones]

Sears increased my rate as well. I called them and asked why. They said it had nothing to do with me it was just because of the economy. I told them I was a long time customer with them and that I was not happy with that. I also told them that I wanted it lowered back to where it was. They lowered it back, but informed me that if I was late on any of my credit card paymennts that it could be increased. Well, that's no diffrent than before. I will be paying them off because I don't want to deal with companies who believe that it is ok to milk people for everything they can get out of them.

If enough of us stop giving them our business they will wake up and make changes.

 

[CLR4321]

I also had a BOA card (it is actually through FIA card Services, which are the "Bad guys"). They took my fixed 7.9% APR, and sent me a letter saying I could either keep the account open and have the APR changed to 24.99% or I could put a freeze on the rate at the 7.9%, and never use the card again. If I use it, the rate would go to the default 24.99%. So of course I signed their agreement, because I do carry a medium-large balance on that card, and 24.99% APR would devastate me financially. So I cut up the card.
On the flip side, I did have another card through FIA that claimed to have sent me a letter with the same offer, freeze the APR and never use the card or take a 21.99% APR. I also had a fixed 7.9% APR on the card. Well I did not see the notice (turns out on this card it was in the fine, tiny print at the bottom). My rate went up, and I called them to find out what the heck they were doing. There was "nothing they could do" even after talking to a manager. So I transferred half of the balance to my Disney card I was getting to pay for my Disney trip to save the $40 off plus get the 0% APR for 6 months on the Disney vacation, and used a chunk of my tax refund to pay down the card. I now only owe $500 on it, which will be paid off in the next month.

I hope Obama's plan knocks these credit card companies back into shape.

I forgot to mention, I have excellent credit and have never had a late payment on anything, ever also.

 

[WendyMS]

BOA just did this to me. Very strange, but I guess a sign of the times. I've never had a balance carry on this card, but I put a thing or 2 on it in a month. Over the years they just kept increasing the credit limit on it; I guess hoping I'd use more. It was up to 34K and they cut it in half this week. Credit score is over 800 so that isn't the problem. I think they are just closing down their credit lines to insure their government bailout money ends up in their own account at the end of the day.

Other banks have either done nothing, or are still increasing credit lines. I guess that was why I was surprised with BOA. BOA did not raise the interest rate at all, just lowered the credit line.

EXACT THING happened to me! Interest rate went from 10% to 24% after BOA bought out the account from the original bank a few years ago. (Yes I pay it off every month!). Got the reduction in credit limit Friday. I was irate at the letter and worried about my credit score---but sent for the free credit report based on the lowering of the credit limit. Still over 800 but I don't trust BOA. Time to shop for another card as a back up

 

[drinkme]

Same thing happened to me. The cc's I had no balance on were closed, and the ones I had balances on had their interest rate upped, or had their limit lowered. I just don't get it! I have great credit, never late, always pay more than the minimum.

Well, this has been a huge wake up call for me to get the darn things paid off quicker. I could kick myself for letting those cards carry over balances. I think I'm not alone when I say that I won't have this outrageous cc debt any longer.

 

[kim929]

I understand being upset with the rate increase, believe me I do. I'm glad they lowered your rate. But what good is it yelling at the person who answers the phone? Do you really think they have the ability to change your rate? There job is to take payments and to answer questions about your payments, due date etc, they don't have the authority to change an interest rate, your lucky they have the ability to waive an over limit or late fee. Next time ask the person do you have the authority to change my interest rate? No, then connect me to the supervisor.

 

[PinkRhombus]

We don;t carry balances on our cards but in the past week I have had 2 cards cut my credit limit in 1/2 even though we have excellent credit. What really burns me is we just applied to refinance and lowering my credit limit impacts
my credit score. The banks have done nothing but punish people that financially responsible!

If it does affect you, ask about manually underwriting the loan (they don't go by the credit score in that instance). As long as you are over 700 (although the one we just got, you had to be over 740) you shouldn't have any problems.

 

[tasha99]

I had that happen with my Target Mastercard (went from 14.99 to 29.99%)

I did carry a pretty high balance, so rather than pay that difference, I paid off the card as well as all my other revolving accounts. Then, Target lowered my credit limit to $500 from $2000! They said I was too close to my credit limit, which was kind of ironic because they didn't do a thing when I actually was carrying balances.

I guess I don't really care anymore since I'm not planning on using much credit ever again. I was their ultimate stupid customer before--always on time and always paying interest to them. From now on, I will make a point of exercising my cards every couple of months, just to keep them open, but I won't be using the cards to spend more money than I have. In the end, I think that's a good thing for me, but not so good for the card issuer, who will now only get a few cents in transaction fees every other month.

 

[punkin]

I don't have any balances so interest rates don't really matter on the cards I actually use, but I recently got an 18K credit reduction on a card I originally got for a 0% balance transfer deal and used only sporadically after that balance was paid off. I promptly closed that card. It was not old and a 2K credit limit is of no use to me.

Banks are really cracking down.

 

[momxx5]

For everyone with great credit........I highly suggest you go to annualcreditreport.com and print out a copy of your great credit history.

Either you closing the accounts, the bank closing the accounts, or banks dropping credit limits will all have effects on your credit report. Sometimes the effects will not show up until the card company does an "update" to the reporting agencies. This is sometimes done every 3 months or every 6 months.

If there have been any negative impact on your credit, you will then have a copy showing the date of when your credit was gold.

We have had a terrible bunch of circumstances that have really left us in a bad position. Looking back, I wish I had printed our credit report just less than 1 yr ago when it was excellent. Within a few short months our credit tanked.

The cc companies are not being friends to anyone. They will really be taking hits hard, especially after raising rates. If people were barely making payments at the low interest rate, increasing the rates will just put people over the edge and unable to pay at all. Thats when it will get ugly and the cc companies will start lossing.

 

[nealsmith]

I read my letter as an invitation to close my account. Bye-bye I've had a Discover card for 18 years, but I guess they are ready to close my account. We only used this card for online transactions, didn't want to use our bank card online. Guess I'll have to find another solution.

 

[MScott1851]

I read my letter as an invitation to close my account. Bye-bye I've had a Discover card for 18 years, but I guess they are ready to close my account. We only used this card for online transactions, didn't want to use our bank card online. Guess I'll have to find another solution.

I agree! I have a Discover with a fairly high limit (13,500) and a low interest rate fixed at 8.24%. I haven't carried a balance with them in at least three years. I use it to charge about $200 worth of bills per month (just to keep it open) and pay it in full. I got a letter from them on Friday saying that they were going to change my fixed rate to a variable rate. Now, technically it shouldn't matter if my APR is 8% or 88% because I don't carry a balance, but it's the principle of the whole thing. If they don't agree to leave my account alone, then I'm closing it.

DH said they're treating people who are 'good customers' this way because they're not making any money off of us. I haven't paid a penny of interest to a credit card company since 2006. They don't want my business, because I'm not contributing to their bottom line.

I guess I'll just charge everything on my Disney Visa and build up a big balance of dream reward dollars to use on vacation! Bye, bye Discover!

 

[mominwestlake]

The cc companies are not being friends to anyone. They will really be taking hits hard, especially after raising rates. If people were barely making payments at the low interest rate, increasing the rates will just put people over the edge and unable to pay at all. Thats when it will get ugly and the cc companies will start lossing.

Yes, I don't get why they are raising rates on those who have balances but are making payments. They are going to push those people over the edge and wind up with nothing.

 

[j's m]

We just got a letter from one of our Chase accounts that the interest rate was going from 13.94 to 18.94. Since I've never had a balance on this card in the 12 years I've had it, it doesn't really matter.

What's really funny is that for the last 2 months I've had a credit balance of $ 8 on it.

I guess what must have triggered it was a dispute I put on the card from an ebay deal that went bad. I still paid Chase the disputed amount until reversed by Paypal and then used the credit, but I guess just the fact that they might have been screwed was enough to raise my rate.