I want to do a BT but here's a little background first. My Bank One card recently jacked up the APR to 25%. So I sold some stock so I can pay off the $4200 balance. The account has a $10,400 credit line. My last statement included some checks which say "...these checks come with a low promotional 3.99% APR that lasts FOR THE LIFE of the transferred balance." So I want to transfer a balance from another card that has a 11% APR. BUT, when I read the find print on the BT offer it says: "We will allocate payments to promotional balances with low APR's before applying payments to higher APR balances. THIS MEANS THAT THE LENGTH OF YOUR PROMOTIONAL PERIOD MAY VARY BASED ON THE AM0UNT OF YOUR MONTHLY PAYMENTS AND THE APR'S ON OTHER BALANCES ON THIS ACCOUNT" My question: If I pay off the high interest balance on this Bank One card, and then do a BT with one of these 3.99% checks, will they come back and say, "we changed our mind, the 3.99% is only good for 6 months, after that the rate goes back to 25%? These Cardmember "agreements" amaze me. They seem to say that they can do anything they want. Sorry for the long question, any advice or comments greatly appreciated! Jake
This happened to my brother in law as his purchase APR was over 20%. He paid off the balance and shortly after started to receive BT offers. He since than has taken on two of their offers and his BT promotional rate has held. I think it's been over a year. Best regards, Mirage
pay off the card in FULL before. Then you're cool unless you piss them off again, then they can jack that 3.9% for life (i just got two offers like that yesterday) back to 25% for life lol. remember they will try to charge you the 3%/$50 fee too so dont go over the limit cause that would be grounds for immediately losing the 3.9% rate. Any way they can they will stick it to ya
I am confused. WHY did they jack your rate upto the higest level of 25%? THis is only done by CC companies after you default. Did you DEFAULT? If not, they can not do it. Did you default on another CC or loan and they found out? If not, they can not raise the rate more than their terms allow. Which is a base amount over prime.
It's not true that you have to DEFAULT to get that rate. They call it the default rate, but if you read the small print, they can raise you back to the default rate if you're late a certain number of times within a certain period (it varies from two months in a row to two months in a year, depending on the bank and the card). Late means not received by the due date, not 30 days late. Many banks will raise your rate if you are late on ANY account with their bank, not just the account in question. And some, like Chase and MBNA, will raise your rate because you were late on someone else's card or they think your balances are too large or whatever else strikes their fancy that day. As far as BankOne goes, pay off the account (I waited until the next statement, just to be sure), then do the BT. Now, make sure that EVERY account you have with BankOne is paid on time, and you should be OK. I found out that if I called or did the BT on the web, there was a BT fee. But if I used the checks, there wasn't. Read the fine print.
