I've had a Visa account with Providian (recently became WaMu) for 7 1/2 years. My limit is 20k. I have a balance of $19k. I have a great payment history... except last October, I got an over the limit and late pay from WaMu (just a couple of days, so not reported). WaMu upped my rate to 31% as a result. I called them and they refuse to negotiate the rate down. I've GOT to lower the rate as I am currently paying $500/mo in interest alone. My credit score is 647, due to high debt to income ratio. I recently got a decent raise. I can make the payment, but need to pay down my balance to improve my FICO. Is there any company out there that would open a new account for $19k and do a balance transfer? I really want to close the WaMu account. I'm not trying to buy anything, so this isn't urgent. It's just obsurd. Please offer any advise you can. Thanks.
Credit Card Companies will do that when you score isn't where they think it should be and then they will increase your APR so that you'll move the balance else where. Have you rec'd any other offers from other credit card companies offering a low rate? If not maybe the way to go is to do a home equity loan to pay it off and take the interest you pay on that as a tax benefit (in most cases home equity loans the interest is tax deductable).
That is why you don't put yourself in a position where you have most of your available credit tied up with balances, allowing yourself to get trapped if anything goes wrong, such as a payment posted late by a couple days. Diversity and unused available credit is your best protection. Is this $20K account most or all of your available revolving credit? Will WAMU drop your rate back down if your payments are on time for, say, 6 months? To get out of this situation, if this $20K is most of your total revolving credit, try any way you can to get it down, even a little, or get other available credit visible on your reports to start shifting FICO. Even if you don't transfer all $19K in one chunk, if you can get your apparent debt to available credit lower, you will start getting better transfer offers that will help you shift it further. Any balance transfer offer, at even average rates for moderate balances (even $5k), will start to improve your situation, and as your FICO scores start to shift, that may make available better offers. In the short term, the main benefit will be from the reduction in rate on the amount transferred compared to 31%, but in 6 months as the new account ages, the increased available credit should increase FICO. If you are really stuck, and don't want to pay 31% APR as you try to get out, but expect to have steady income and employment, you might even consider a 401K loan if you have a 401k plan that allows it, as that will take this debt off your credit reports, and drop your interest costs to a little over prime. You can then start building a more diversified set of credit relationships, on better terms, while funnelling as much of your income into paying down the 401k loan. I would be wary of this approach, however, if you don't have the discipline to treat your financial situation as still including this total amount of debt and budgetting accordingly, or if there is any chance of losing your job, especially if your plan requires immediate repayment if you leave the company. You don't want a 401k loan to become a 401k withdrawl, with the tax penalties.
It is a bit hard to predict what credit limit a credit card company will offer you because it depends on many variables such as your household income, credit score, company policy, etc. As far as balance transfer offers are concerned, you may want to look at zero-rates.com. You can sort BT offers (including many 0% and â??low rate for the life of balanceâ? offers) by offer terms, fees, bank names, card names, etc. I found it quite useful.
With a 647, HSBC's Union Plus may be your only viable option. You're on the threshold for AMEX but, it would be a product that would likely put you right back at the 19% range after six or twelve months. You may consider Barclayes or RBS but, they will not give you a limit to cover all of that amount.
Run a bluff call them back tell them you find 31% To be outrages and if they wont cut the interest rate in half or better that it MIGHT force you to go Bankrupt. See what they come up with you have nothing to loose.
Strange as it sounds you may also consider adding some avaliable credit in order to improve your utilization. In doing so, your FICO may rise and you could then qualify for better B/T products.
