Anyone get a letter from their credit card company saying their rates were going up because of the economic environment? I've been a Capitol One customer for ten years, no late payments and my credit score is over 800 always. I looked at other credit cards a couple of years ago, but they all seemed to have variable rates. I almost never carry a balance, but this is just wrong. I went from 9.9% to 14.65 + the prime rate, currently 17.9%.

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/credi...apital_one.htm

 

Your an idea customer,a safe bet to raise the rates on,your not going to de-fault and mess your credit score up.I've had the same letters from chase and American express.

 

I would think you'd want to treat an ideal customer right, as soon as possible, I'll be an ideal customer for someone else with a decent fixed-rate card.

 

It can get worse than that guys.

I too have good credit and many credit cards due to my business requirements.
I have had rates increased (%), minimums increased ($), total credit availability cut (limits) and in the case of one Business Line of Credit with AMEX, they dropped the program entirely, lowering my credit limit to the current balance and basically saying, just pay this off and the deal is over.

In maybe 2 years, when this recession has run it's course, I will remember the card companies that I feel took the most advantage of the situation and move my business to others that I think played the game a bit more fairly.

Bill

 

I received a letter from Citicards giving me these choices:

1. Keep your current rate (7.99 + prime) and when the card expires your done

or

2. Accept the rate increase (19.99 + prime) and I can keep the card and they will renew once it expires

I have a Citibank mortgage, Citi bank 4 year personal loan that I just paid off, and a Citi card. Never missed a payment.

What the hell am I suppose to do? Take your damn card back you jerks, I'm about ready to tell them to go stick the mortgage too. A HOLES

 

I'd like to see Congress step in and freeze rate increases on CC interest rates. It's not the consumer's fault that these large banks made very poor/risky business decisions with their money. If I gamble away my money, is anyone going to pay me back for that? Nope. Let them suffer, I say.

 

The banks can make the interest rates whatever they want as far as I'm concerned, but once I make an agreement, it should stay unless I do something wrong. What's next, my mortgage company is going to call and say sorry, that 5.75% isn't working well for us, we're raising it?

 

I think that them raising them during an agreement is asinine. Yes, by using the card we accept the terms of the agreement. I mean, we can't contact them and say, "I'm lowering my rate on XX/XX/2009." It's definitely a one way street with them, sadly.

I say again, why should customers with no history of late payment/no payment be required to fund the bad decisions of the various banks?

 

I choose my credit card solely on the rewards program. I have been known to flip flop based on what I feel suits my needs at the time. Right now I am using a AMEX starwood preferred guest card to gain extra points for travel. Probably charge over $30,000 per year or so on whatever card I use. Pay them all off at the end of the month and start over. AMEX seems to have the best customer service. When you call to speak to someone, you usually talk to someone that speaks American English. That is a huge thing for me and I will probably continue to stay with AMEX.

 

Some might not be aware of this but when you cancel a credit card it has a negative effect on your credit rating. Even if the card has no balance.

Here's what we do. Every year we receive offers from credit card companies for a year or more 0% interest. We use that card for a year and pay it off before the 0% interest expires. Usually with tax refund money. We've been together close to 20 years and have never paid interest on a credit card debt.

I think these people living off credit cards are in for a big awakening this year. Credit card companies are going to start cracking down big time. It's going to be the next thing to cripple this economy even further.

My wife DVRd an Oprah a couple weeks ago that had Suzie Orman on it. When the audience arrived they asked each member their CC debt. The average debt per person in that audience was around 8k. Amazing.

 

I got a black eye being stupid with credit cards when I was younger, and I'm still paying for it today. I have one card now, kind of a "stuff happens" card for emergencies (and to try and rebuild my credit score), and recently my interest rate on that card went up, and the limit went down.

Screw it. I'm giving up on credit cards.

 

They can jack the interest rate up all they want on my card. I never pay a penny of interest.
I only use it for the Airmiles points, and to save on checking account fee's. All bills, gas, food, etc, etc go on the card but are paid off at the end of every month.

 

I got a letter about a month ago from mine- called up and said that's not going to work- guy asked what I do (occupation and age) (Architectural Intern; 25) and said Okay, I'll switch it back to the way it was yesterday; thanks for staying with us...

 

Same thing happened to me on a deal I had with circuit city. Zero interest for 3 years on a tv, payment was like 11 bucks a month and I was pay 60ish only have about 400 left on it but the hiked the % up to 14%. Did no use for me to call in, they act like I give a ***** there company is in bad shape. There CEO's im sure are still making a killing.

 

I have heard this quite a bit. My parents have AMEX and they agree, it's a helluva lot better then their other cards.

I personally have my credit card through Wellsfargo. Nothing has changed on my card as of right now. But I do enjoy talking to a very nice midwest girl in Minneapolis/South Dakota everytime I'm trying to work something out.