Credit Card from 6.9% to 24.25%

[ByronBob]

It happened to me yesterday. I've never been late with a payment or had any issues before. So I call and ask what the deal is.

She tells me they're looking over my credit report and I've crossed some threshold for my income to debt ratio. I said I don't need a financial consultant thanks but if I've never been a bad customer then why do you think I will be now.

Credit card companies apparently can do this. Even if you have a credit line of X dollars doesn't mean you can get near it without fear. So they make the situation worse by increasing your interst rate by 3x???

Be careful out there TBN. Bank One just did this to me. I'm closing the account as soon as the check clears. I don't need them as much as they think I do.

 

[gsxr1100]

Bank one was First USA and I closed my account with them. The had 2 charges from overseas on my account and it was a known issue with them as I was told.

They are poor. I have discover and it is 0.0% for life!

 

[Bob_Skurka]

There are DOZENS of ways that credit card companies can come up with to raise your rates. As you found out, your debt/equity ratio changed (at least it did in their eyes!). But if you pay your utility bill late, even if it is by cash or check, your credit card company can raise your rate. Ditto any other totally non-related bill. And it can be late because the payment got lost in the mail, or because of a legitimate dispute, they just don't care.

They have to make up for the "deadbeats" who use their credit cards but pay off the balance every month. Credit card companies make very little on the folks who pay them off, so they need to make money on the folks who carry a balance over every month, or every now and again.

 

[tc35dforme]

A few years ago, my wife and I sat down and reviewed our credit status and closed several accounts that were not needed or were duplicated ( how many gas credit cards do you need ??? ). We ended up cancelling several accounts ( after paying off the balances ). Little did we know that this would trigger a huge negative on our credit FICO score. I guess they feel that if you clean things up you're showing a weakness and you'll get penalized. When I talked to the credit reporting agency, they said logic has no place in credit scores !!!!

 

[slowrev]

Most of the bank and credit card companies income gains in the past few years have been from these types of things.
Some have even been caught using tactics to make your payment late so your interest rate goes up or you are hit with a late payment fee, by holding your payment check till it clears to make your payment late....

I guess I am now one of those "deadbeats" that only use my credit card when there is no choice and promptly pay off the balance /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif Only have 2 now and keep getting 3-4 pre-approved offers every month for new ones....gives my shredder some use /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Ben

 

[ByronBob]

This is wrong. I'm not happy with my credit card debt and have an action plan to eliminate it but to do this for some secondary reason other than being a deliquent customer is shoddy. /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

Figured I'd take my crusade on the road to TBN to spread the gospel according to Bank One. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

DannyDan said in a post a happy customer will tell 3 people and an unhappy one will tell 12. My mission is along that line I suppose.

 

[EddieWalker]

I get some form of mail from Bank One just about every day. They are the worse offenders at sending out unwanted offers. I refuse to do business with them.

 

[JimR]

I would call the Attorney General and ask them if that was legal for them to do. I don't think it is. I'm not working and have a credit limit of 20k on my card with a 0% right now. Yes, I do have a balance that I transferred over to this card. They even gave me the card pre-approved while I was out of work. Granted the wife has a great job. But, she is not on this card. Bank One and MBNA both get sent to the trash. Right now my Capitol One card has a 0% rate on balance transfers for "LIFE" as long as you are not late. I'm riding this one with just a balance transfer. My other card gets paid off each month. I guess I'm going to be in the deadbeat category soon also.

 

[JDgreen227]

What makes me mad about the companies that issue credit cards is that even if you have made your payments on time for several years, they will use any excuse to charge you extra should your payment be late. A few years back we had several incidents of mailbox vandalism and/or stolen mail, I called my card issuers and tried to learn if they had recently sent me a statement, two of them wanted me to send them a faxed police report to verify my story. This after I had NEVER been late with a payment going back five years or more. A third issuer said that after my "excellent payment history" they would grant me one late payment a year without penalty. WOW.

Something that really irritates me about credit card issuers is that they keep shortening the time between the mailing of your statement and the payment due date, recently I had one arrive that gave me 12 days after receipt to make my payment, and on the statement it said "allow 5 to 7 days mailing time"...

Of course, since I am one of those deadbeats who never carries a balance and always pays his accounts in full every month, I can't really blame them for these tactics. They need to make money so they can hook new marks, OOPS, that's new customers, into their scams.

/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[buckle97]

My wife and I get at least 5 "pre-approved" credit cards in the mail a week. Bank One is the only company who sends one application to me, one to my wife, and one addressed to my wife's maiden name /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif.

Lawrence