I checked and could not find any similar active threads.

I am curious to see who else is going through changes with their credit cards. I do not carry a balance, and have never made a late payment. Last time I had my credit checked, it was near 800. Yet with all that going for me, I went to check my statement this month and noticed that my rate had jumped from 9.2 to 14.99%

I immediately called Citi and asked what was the reason. The customer service lady said that it was due to the regulations getting ready to be put in place, plus the financial situation that Citi is currently in.

Is anyone else having similar issues?

9/10/2009 8:18:02 PM

yep.

9/10/2009 8:29:21 PM

I've got an AmEx card and I got a letter this month saying they raised my rate to something like 17% or 19%.

I never called them because it doesn't really affect me. I pay my balance off every month. I am slightly insulted though because I make AmEx a lot of money through both personal and work expenses.

Heck, my balance was nearly $15k last month due to some large expenses at work (reimbursed, of course). This month might push $20k. At least I'm getting cash back on that.

9/10/2009 8:30:00 PM

^That was my issue. I'm protective of my credit, and sudden rate hikes can put a hit on your score.

9/10/2009 8:30:46 PM

not trying to be a dick, but if you don't carry a balance, what difference does it make what your rate is? is it compounded daily or weekly or something?

i have a credit card, but have never used it, so i don't pay attention to the terms. its just there for an emergency backup.

9/10/2009 8:31:14 PM

I had a Wachovia card I opened 6 years ago that started at 1k and had risen to 31.6k by early last year. Around September, the email reminders about my statement magically stopped being sent (I was paperless). I remembered August because I had put a 1500 TV on the card. I didn't think about it in September and was late on the first payment ever for anything. I thought that I had just forgot so I paid the fee as punishment. Next month, same thing, so I went digging and noticed my reminders hadn't been coming. I called and bitched and had a CSM tell me flat out that they never sent email statements. Maybe she was slightly confused in that it was a reminder, not an actual statement in text form, but regardless, they had stopped. I asked her to re-enroll me in paper statements and I went to the website and saw I had a "go paperless" option again. I held off for a month and never got a paper statement. I call back and they say my call to re-enroll in paper statements was too close to the closing date for that period and I'd begin receiving them the next month. I closed the account on the spot. My credit rating took a 30 point hit from 790->760. I opened a discover card with a paltry 1.5k limit. Request for a modest bump so I don't keep running out of credit each month has been denied twice, despite making all payments on time for 6 months now.

I pay mine off, so I don't care what rates are, however, I will be seeking a new home loan in a matter of weeks and will be rather pissed if I can't get the best rates because of this bullshit.

[Edited on September 10, 2009 at 8:39 PM. Reason : .]

9/10/2009 8:38:24 PM

Do what I did, find another card that's offering you 9% (you probably get 2 or 3 offers a week) and get yourself approved. Then call Citi, tell the first person who answers you want to be transferred to someone who can help you terminate your account, and then when they go into customer retention mode and ask you what better rate you're getting elsewhere, lie and tell them something like 7% and tell them that you would rather stick with them, but since they seem to not want your business, it isn't worth your money to stay. Best case scenario, they beat your new rate, or at least match it, and worst case scenario, you've got a new card with a better rate.

9/10/2009 8:39:34 PM

Amex sent me a similar letter for my card. I think the changes go into effect October 09.

9/10/2009 8:44:49 PM

^^^ Wachovia customer service has gone steadily downhill. I had a credit card with them for almost 10 years and then about 2 years ago they started pulling some really shady bullshit with it. I'm planning on closing all my accounts with Wachovia once I return to the States and opening an account with SECU. Screw Wachovia.

9/10/2009 8:58:01 PM

Quote :

"We pay our credit card bills on time and pay way more than is due, and we just got letters from two of our credit card companies about rate increases--and they're not backing down. So, we paid off the cards and have no plans to use them for now. They can suck eggs. 5/19/2009"

hooksaw

message_topic.aspx?topic=500489&page=31

Credit Card Industry Aims to Profit From Sterling Payers

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/19/business/19credit.html

9/10/2009 9:06:10 PM

When I got the same notices I called and they said basically yeah its because of the financial climate. They said in 6 months or whatever I could call and ask about getting them lowered back down to normal again.

In the end I don't care, I don't use them or anything right now.

9/10/2009 9:13:37 PM

It's essentially squeezing blood from a turnip. You'd think in an environment where your customers are already stressed, you work with them by lowering rates and giving them grace periods so that they get back to the point where they can start paying you again. This is similar to bankruptcy where bondholders take equity stakes hoping they get paid back or foreclosure moratoriums where the lender thinks there is a reasonable change you'll start paying the mortgage again. But credit card companies, it's way easier to just globally bump everyones rate. The people that are near bankrupt will bankrupt anyway, the people that aren't will suck it up and pay more which will help close the profit gap for all those that are defaulting, already rich execs hit year end profit targets and get paid regardless.

This...this is a great country.

I'm hoping this happens in response
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGC1mCS4OVo

9/10/2009 9:21:30 PM

My citicard did the same thing. went from 12.99 to 19.99. Never could get a reason why, other than that they are waiting for the one month I don't pay it off. Thats fine, I haven't paid a penny of interest or fees in the 3 years I have had the card, but I get a $100 cash back every few months. take that.

9/10/2009 9:50:37 PM

same here with my citi card. I have paid my balance in full every month for over 4 years on the citi card and my rates have gone up this year. And they also were no help when I called. shady but oh well for now.

[Edited on September 10, 2009 at 10:02 PM. Reason : ]

9/10/2009 10:02:21 PM

I went out of the country for 6 months and they cancelled my card, shut off me from my online account so i could not check my account or pay my account and called my cellphone in the US 100x and may have emailed me once that got sent to junkmail. so got back called them to pay and i am pretty sure they just charged my account $100 more than i owed.

so moral of the story is Citi is sketch as fuck. they could not even email me anything. i asked them to email me the account balance but the lady on the line couldnt...

9/10/2009 10:03:11 PM

No, I'm not getting many credit card offers - there for a while I aggressively called and told them all to stop sending them to me. I'm hoping that is why I'm not getting them anymore, and not because my rating tanked. I havent checked it in a while.

9/10/2009 10:03:14 PM

I called the opt out number and the offers stopped, you may have gotten on the same list. A bad credit rating is not an impediment for getting a card, it will just have a 23% rate when you get it, according to some broke ass friends.

9/10/2009 10:11:54 PM

Mine went up close to double, but I could care less. Pay the full balance every month and you shouldn't worry.

9/10/2009 10:40:16 PM

This is what we get for voting in a bunch of pricks that go and pass stupid fucking legislation. Of course your rates are going to go up. The government told credit card companies they can't make money certain ways anymore. Did you expect something different?

9/10/2009 10:57:58 PM

^^^ It isnt future credit cards I'm worried about, its my mortgage, when I get one.

9/10/2009 11:22:51 PM

i cancelled a card with capital one years ago because they skipped a month of sending me a statement and i ended up being late (first and only time in my life). i called to clear it up and was told that they weren't required to send me a bill (huh?) this was early in college before online management of this type of thing was common. ever since then i've been a devoted discover card user. however lately i've been favoring my amazon visa card because i have a much higher limit so my ratio looks much better when my credit is pulled

9/10/2009 11:39:16 PM

Yes, this has been happening with credit cards since 2007, and it getting worse as of more recently. Banks are also getting a lot tighter about loans (try getting a personal unsecured loan for even a small sum ... good luck).

I will comment if anybody is planning on cancelling their cards and is still carrying somewhat of a balance they aren't planning on paying off ASAP, go through a nonprofit debt counseling agency. They are usually able to negotiate rates down to a reasonable 8% or so once the card is cancelled and you are on their payment plan. Although the payment plan does carry a fee every month, if you run the numbers, usually (usually...) the savings in the drop in the interest rate FAR exceeds the nominal fee for the debt repayment plan every month.

9/10/2009 11:53:38 PM

Fuck Credit.
Fuck Banks.
GET MONEY.

I know that is more of a chit chat response, but it expresses how I feel about that shit. When I was in college I had companies vomiting cards my way every time I walked through the brickyard. Never took one because I felt like it was the responsible thing to do. Got out of college, got a good job, put thousands of dollars in the bank, and my bank for the past 5 years (Wachovia) denied me for a card with a $1k limit. What's even worse is that I had already taken a $9k car loan with Crescent State Bank in Cary, paid it off early, and found out after the fact that they didn't report to any credit agencies. I would have paid a little higher interest rate in exchange for building some credit history if I had known. I never even considered that I wasn't building credit history when I made those payments. I'm sure they would have gladly fucked my credit score if I missed a payment though.

[Edited on September 11, 2009 at 12:07 AM. Reason : l]

9/11/2009 12:06:43 AM

it does not necessarily help your credit to pay a loan off early. Lenders then may assume "oh well if he paid it off clearly they didn't need the money, and we're less likely to get more interest out of him"

9/11/2009 12:59:46 AM

The latest thing I've noticed is the banks changing the payment due date. Like, a card that has been due on the 15th of the month for years suddenly comes with a statement saying it's due on the 7th. I'm not sure why they are doing this other than to bilk people out of late fees and extra interest. Greed.

9/11/2009 8:24:48 PM

I had two cards I just closed out, both were 0% promo rates from before the crash. The promos ran out so I paid the balance.

A week later I get notices from both banks (chase and citi) saying they've cut the limits on the now empty cards to $500. Which makes them both worthless. So I call to cancel (was going to anyway). Citi closes the card in like two minutes. Chase on the other hand tried EVERYTHING to get me to keep my account open. They offered to renew the 0% rate for another year, increase the Limits back to the original, gift card on the account.

Basically she said that each bank has very different metrics for what they consider "retainer" customers, and customers that they want to cut loose. If you meet the criteria, they'll do about anything to keep your card open, otherwise they treat you like shit.

9/12/2009 12:13:13 AM

We should talk about overdraft fees, too.

Banks are reaming our brokest people at rates approaching 3,500% APR.

9/12/2009 12:52:52 AM

^ I feel that overdraft fees are for the the most part, due to irresponsibility. Yes, the banks are certainly taking advantage of people, but they should keep up with their bank accounts more often, or if overdrafting is a problem, they should probably not use debit cards.

9/12/2009 12:57:48 AM

Overdraft fees aren't high enough. If you don't have money, then don't spend it.

9/12/2009 1:12:24 AM

I know thats not how it works but it would make infinitely more sense if companies charged higher interest to people with better credit. Why charge people more who already can't afford the things they're buying on credit? and then never end up getting the money anyway when you could charge the people who have the money more, and they have bigger limits so thers more money to be made in the event they don't actually pay it off each month.

9/12/2009 11:05:50 AM

I think you're on to something.

Credit card companies should get rid of interest all together so people have a better chance of paying off their debts.

9/12/2009 11:13:59 AM

That makes no sense at all. Interest at it's most basic is the price you pay for someone else's money. They will value that money based on the opportunity cost of parting with the money and your likeliness of paying it back.

If you're a risk, I'm going to demand more compensation for taking that chance.


That being said, adjusted for inflation, the median wage in the US has remained steady since the 1970s and the median wage of white males has actually declined. Americans are tapped out on credit and if you make it more expensive they won't borrow it. This is the essential root of why we're not going to see a significant economic recovery for some time.

9/12/2009 11:25:48 AM

Quote :

"^^^ Wachovia customer service has gone steadily downhill. I had a credit card with them for almost 10 years and then about 2 years ago they started pulling some really shady bullshit with it. I'm planning on closing all my accounts with Wachovia once I return to the States and opening an account with SECU. Screw Wachovia."

That's because years ago, Wachovia did not use their own credit card service but used FIA Card Services. That company was bought by MBNA and Wachovia cancelled their contract with them about a year or two (but it is still FIAs site, for whatever reason). I have had one through them since 2004 (when I got it through Wachovia), and managed to get a fixed 9.9% interest rate. In the midst of the buyout and change-over, I have kept my interest rate locked in.

However, Wachovia decided to do their own credit card company. They called asking me if I wanted to open a card with them, and I did since they had been good to me. But here I am now with their CC too, and they won't lock in my interest rate! They say no one is getting a fixed rate, possibly ever! I have been considering closing the card, but not now since I am looking to get a house soon. I have a great score, so thats not a problem, but if I am going to move soon I need the best credit possible.

So, the problems you are having with the credit card should not be from Wachovia, unless you cancelled your old card and picked up one of their 'new' cards. And when calling Wachovia, you can't even talk to them about the old card or anything because they don't know anything about the account anymore.

[Edited on September 12, 2009 at 12:03 PM. Reason : ]

9/12/2009 12:01:22 PM

Credit CARD Act of 2009.

9/12/2009 12:28:29 PM

This isn't totally related to the OP, but I didn't want to start a new thread.

At the moment I have 4 credit cards. I only carry 2 of them with the other 2 in a safe at home. The 2 at home are cards that I've had for a while and rarely charge anything to. In regards to my credit score, is it better to keep them open with little to no activity while using the other 2 for the vast majority of my spending, or should I go ahead and cancel the old ones?

I've heard conflicting things on what that will do to my credit score, which is fairly high right now.

9/14/2009 5:06:34 PM

From what I understand no use is better then closing them depending on how many card you already have but usually after a year of no use the card's company may automatically close those accounts and still put a small dent on your score. Usually any drop will be small and temporary unless they were very high limit credit cards.

9/14/2009 5:48:25 PM

an advantage to keeping them is that it establishes a longer credit history, and that you have more credit available to you, both look good when evaluating credit.

9/14/2009 6:09:23 PM

Make life simple for yourself, cut them up, pay them off, leave the accounts open. If the company closes the account after a year so what. At least you did not pay them any fees or interest while using them to boost your score in the mean time.

9/14/2009 6:16:21 PM

I have lots of credit card woes, but I cannot post about them here

Quote :

"Responsible folks' credit card woes"

9/14/2009 6:42:50 PM

^^^^

That's what I thought, I've just heard that too many cards can ruin your score and didn't know if that just applied to too many cards with a balance. I only use the two with a few bill companies and work related things that have my old credit card numbers on file. When that happens I usually pay them off within a few days of charging.

^^

I'm content having them in the safe between my passport and a few handguns.

9/14/2009 7:50:06 PM

There is also your credit:debt ratio. If you have more cards open with no balances, then your credit:debt ratio looks better.

I'm not sure if having too many can blow that out of the water though

9/15/2009 9:11:40 PM

I've got a Citi card with 0%APR though that's supposed to change in December. I was hoping to call and get the 0%APR continued but the news, economy, and this thread makes me think this won't happen

9/15/2009 10:08:02 PM

I have limited credit history (meaning I haven't opened more than 2 credit cards). I thought this was the responsible thing to do. Nope.

I tried the other day to get a used car loan: I couldn't get approved to save my life.

Then I'm totally bewildered when I get the lowest security deposit (dependent on credit) at my new apartment. So.. what? My credit proves that I can afford a $1300 monthly payment, but not a $200 one?

Time to go on a shopping spree...

9/16/2009 6:46:50 AM

paid off my best buy card

and i got a bill of $1 yesterday. I think they will just keep doing that so they will try to get me to forget (hey I paid it off, no worries!) and the one time I don't check it will be a late fee on a $1 charge.......................

still worth having it open vs me closing it though I guess

9/16/2009 7:52:14 AM

Quote :

"I've got a Citi card with 0%APR though that's supposed to change in December. I was hoping to call and get the 0%APR continued but the news, economy, and this thread makes me think this won't happen "

They never extend promo rates anyway. The whole reason they offer them is to catch you with your pants down when the rate expires... think about it.

Having too many cards will never damage your credit score... ever. It CAN be grounds for someone deciding you have too much available credit (and are therefore a greater liability). In that case, though, 99% of the time they will just ask you to close a few accounts before they approve you. Trust me, I have like 20 CC accounts open at any given time.

^^What you want to do to establish good credit history is open as many accounts as you can, keep them forever, and ask for credit line increases as often as they allow you to (make sure they are NOT pulling your report every time you do this though).


[Edited on September 16, 2009 at 9:35 AM. Reason : f]

9/16/2009 9:33:39 AM

When Citi upped my rate a few months ago for no reason, I called and spoke the customer service lady and then asked to speak to a supervisor. I asked what I could do to lower the rate and she lowered it from 14.99% to 11% which is still better than nothing.

9/16/2009 4:24:50 PM

Quote :

"They never extend promo rates anyway. The whole reason they offer them is to catch you with your pants down when the rate expires... think about it."

They offered to do that for me less than a month ago. It's not going to happen if you have a balance, but if you zeroed out the card and are trying to close the account, some companies will offer you a new promo rate to keep the account open.

9/17/2009 4:09:51 AM

^yes, I should've been more specific. CC companies will do just about anything to get you to keep/use a card. If you've got a balance on a 0% rate, your best bet is to find another 0% offer and do a balance transfer.

Although lately, I've been finding it MUCH easier than usual to close out accounts. They used to put you through the wringer, offering promo rates and such. Nowadays, it's "OK, the account will be closed" right away. They are clearly trying to get rid of some of their liability.

[Edited on September 17, 2009 at 9:05 AM. Reason : d]

9/17/2009 9:05:11 AM

Another question:

FIA card services will let you pay your mortgage with an FIA card. The Fidelity MC Rewards card that I've had since 05 falls into this category. Sadly money spent on mortgage payments doesn't earn reward points, but I'm curious if having my mortgage go on the card automatically and then have the card direct debiting my checking account would be better for my credit score than just coming directly out of my checking account. I've got mortgages on my house plus two rentals so it would end up being something like $50k annually.

http://thefinancebuff.com/2009/01/pay-mortgage-with-credit-card-for-free.html

9/24/2009 4:27:24 PM

I have 4 credit cards, 2 with no balance and 2 with large balances that I'm working to pay off (read: don't use, just make payments (above minimum) each month). With all this credit card stuff going down I've paid close attention to my APR and they haven't budged. One's around 6% and the other 9% and they're not moving.

knock on wood.

9/24/2009 4:40:59 PM