FIGHT BACK- credit card rate increases

[dclfun]

I put this info into someone else's thread regarding Citibank raising their rates, but felt it was important enough to have it's own thread. After getting a letter from Wells Fargo about rate increases ( which I was told have nothing to do with my credit or repayment history) I decided to fight back. I did an online search as to where to report these companies. Here is the info from my search:

"Credit card companies wouldn't be able to operate like they do if you fought back. They rely heavily on the fact that consumers are too busy or just don't care enough to do anything about the present situation. Fight back by reporting your credit card issuer to the proper authorities (see below.) If your elected officials receive enough complaints, legislation will be enacted to regulate credit card companies."

FIRST: Report the company to banking regulators. Their mailing address is Division of Credit Practices, Bureau of Consumer Protection, Federal Trade Commission, Washington, D.C. 20580 or file a complaint online at www.ftc.gov.

THEN:Report the company to your elected representatives. You can find their email / mailing addresses at www.house.gov and www.senate.gov. Note that the banking industry (which is comprised mostly of credit card companies) has a lot of power in Washington, D.C. in the form of lobbyists and contributions to election campaigns. Despite this fact, your elected officials are more afraid of you because you can vote them out of office. If you think contacting them is a waste of time you're wrong. Someone will read your correspondence -- if enough complaints are received something will be done about it.

THEN:Report the company to your state's attorney general's office. You can find links to your state's AG website at naag.org. Your state might allow you to file a complaint online. This is probably the most effective complaint to make as it is the attorney general's who have filed most of the lawsuits against credit card companies. For example, it was the California AG who sued Providian and forced them to pay the largest judgment against a credit card company ever.

THEN:Report the company to the Better Business Bureau. Submit your case for dispute resolution online at www.bbb.org.

Let's fight back against unfair practices. These companies are scrambling to screw us before legislation prevents them from doing so in 2010.!!!!!!!!!!!!---Kathy

 

[james'mommy]

There is no reason to report the credit card companies to ANYONE. They are not doing anything wrong or illegal. It is in your terms and conditions that they can raise your rate at anytime for any reason. You have a choice. You can choose to accept the rate increase or you can choose to not use the card. The things you suggested are just a major waste of time.

 

[wvjules]

There is no reason to report the credit card companies to ANYONE. They are not doing anything wrong or illegal. It is in your terms and conditions that they can raise your rate at anytime for any reason. You have a choice. You can choose to accept the rate increase or you can choose to not use the card. The things you suggested are just a major waste of time.

Also, you can thank your congressmen for the recent onslaught of ratejacks. Banks are preparing for CCard legislation to become effective.

 

[msmayor]

There is no reason to report the credit card companies to ANYONE. They are not doing anything wrong or illegal. It is in your terms and conditions that they can raise your rate at anytime for any reason. You have a choice. You can choose to accept the rate increase or you can choose to not use the card. The things you suggested are just a major waste of time.

Totally agree.

You can vent all you want about the high rates, but the reality is that using them is a choice, not a requirement. No one is forcing you to carry a balance and pay the higher rate. No one is forcing you to even have an account with whatever CC companies are raising their rates. There is no law against just paying off your balance and closing the account to avoid the higher rate and fees.

In any event, I suspect this thread disappears soon anyway because of its "political" nature.

 

[Planogirl]

I'm constantly amazed by the people at work who tell me that the credit card companies don't have the right to raise rates or cancel cards or whatever. Yes, they absolutely have the right unless your original agreements state otherwise. They can choose who their customers are and what their parameters will be.

I'm not saying it's necessarily fair but there's nothing that really can be done.

 

[RitaE]

I'm with the others. Why take up the time, money, and other resources of organizations such as the BBB complaining about a company who is acting within the scope of their Customer agreement?

Fight back by simply refusing to do business with organizations who insist on exploiting their good customers in order to regain the profits they've lost because of their own bad business decisions.

Credit card companies can raise their rates to the sky as far as I'm concerned. I simply won't borrow money from them.

 

[GRUMPY PIRATE]

while I can sympathize with the OP, the sad fact is that 1 letter of complaint, or ten, or a thousand really has no significance when you are talking about a credit card company that has millions of card out there.

and you have to realize that a lot of them are trying to get rid of the "non-paying" accounts. And to them, non-paying accounts are the ones that pay off their account every month, and don't carry a balance so that they can charge interest. (no profit!)

thats why I went to my local credit union and got a card from them, after having my interest rates raised on two of my cards (double or triple the interest rate) and some other ones had the credit limit cut by a third or so.

and I owed nothing on any of them, and the ones that I did use, I paid off every month.

I think we will see a lot less of credit cards being offerred by the banks, as a way of them controlling loss.

 

[dclfun]

Hmmm...first of all this is NOT a political thread. Secondly, I personally don't have a balance so this does not affect me. Legal or not, these are unfair practices. If they weren't unfair to start with, then there would not be legislation preventing the banks/card companies from jacking rates, lowering credit limits, etc. beginning in 2010. I guess the majority would prefer to do nothing, which is the response here. I choose to voice my opinion through channels that do make a difference but I guess I'm the only one in the "silent majority" that isn't silent.---Kathy