Let me start from the beginning. Husband & I have joint M/C with People's Bank for last 5-6 years. Couple years ago the current card was to expire and we never received a new one but to find out the they closed our account for further charges and was not sending another card! They stated that there was a negative report on the credit report they pulled to view in order to send another card. We got a copy of the report and it was the SAME report that People's pulled when we first opened the account with them! I called them and the matter never resolved-then received a letter with different reasons of not sending a new card! We faithfully have paid from day one on the account with no late payments and have continued to do so until it's paid off. Now here's the slammer, received another letter by the Executive Vice President stating that after careful consideration, they find it necessary to increase the APR from 12.99% to 27.99%!! Why? that we are at a higher risk of not being able to repay our debt in the future! We've been making the minimum payments all this time and on time! There is nothing in the terms of agreement that states they can do this. And for those reasons. Any suggestions? Would an attorney be helpful? Linda
RE: Breaching terms of service Sounds like the type of thing First USA and Fleet are infamous for doing. Basically, and make no doubt about it, they are screwing you. Fortunately for you they don't have a legal leg to stand on. But before involving an attorney, in this case you may be better off in first contacting all the relevant government regulatory bodies informing them of People's ILLEGAL behaviour, make sure to include the specific terms and regulations they are breaking, the letters where they lie about there being a negative change in your credit report, your corroberating evidence to the contrary in the form of both the credit reports. You may even go one step further by getting a letter from the Credit Bureaus stating that no negative information has been added since that time. Once you have finished that, send a letter with the same information to People's legal department (believe me its far better than sending it to some useless executive who may or may not be a real person), make sure it sent certified with return receipt requested or registered stating that you have already informed the following government agencies as well as the better business bureau and that if the APR is not immediately rolled back and all fraudulent interest refunded then you will have no choice but to take legal action against them. The sad reality is most creditors will keep trying to pull these blatant illegal stunts until they are forced by a judge or by pain of a huge government fine not to.
RE: Breaching terms of service they can change the terms; you can pay it off and end the relationship. they can also become more picky about CREDIT SCORES. Your copy of the report didn't show your credit score in either case, their's did.
RE: Breaching terms of service if the consumer disclosure allows them to change the interest rate, then they can; she can terminate the relationship by paying the debt. her credit score might have gone down without her knowledge. Ironically, I have found that challenging incorrect info on my credit report has LOWERED my credit score, because the creditor checked my credit report 3 times after that within 6 weeks to see if Equifax had removed the item.
RE: Breaching terms of service That type of inquiry should never appear on a report that other potential creditors may see or be used to calculate a FICO score. It should be an 'account review' inquiry, only visible to the consumer.
RE: Breaching terms of service Yes, I am aware how a credit score can factor into things but you have to take these things into account. A: Linda S states it was the SAME report as when they orignally opened their account with People's, meaning there should be no change in the score of whichever CRA that they checked. B: People's stated that there was a negative report (item) on the credit report, nowhere did they mention a drop in credit score as their criteria, if enough people such as Linda S complain to the regulatory bodies they could FORCE banks such as People's to place in their terms that they can make changes in the interest rate or cancel the card based soley on a person's credit score even though there's not a stick of negative info otherwise, something the banks are extremely reticent about doing because their would be an immediate and longterm investigationS into what makes up and even the validity of credit scores and the backlash would not be pretty. And with TransUnion starting to grant their scores come the end of the year the fun should really start and crooked companies such as First USA/Fleet/Associates will no longer be able to hide and lie and about their non-existant reasons for jacking up rates.
RE: Breaching terms of service Two possibilities: 1. The report that they pulled to review the account for the renewal might *not* have been exactly the same. Your numerical FICO credit score (which they can see but you can't) may have gone down for some reason. This could have been due to such subtle factors as balance-to-limit ratios on other accounts, or even could have resulted from some change in the scoring algorithm (the formula used to generate the score from the report info.) 2. Maybe People's tightened up their standards, so that even the same history and/or score no longer qaulified. They *can* decline to renew an account if the customer no longer meets the issuer's requirements. They *can* change the terms of the cardholder agreement (which you are still bound by), as long as they give fifteen days notice. As I understand it, they may be able to raise the rate just because they feel like it, as long as there doesn't appear to be certain types of discrimination or usary. Although there will often be an escape for the cardholder if s/he closes the account before the changes take place (and may be able to finish paying the balance at the old rate, for example.) Attorneys and lawsuits are *not* magic. Trying to take People's to court could consume much more time and money than it is worth. And without any legal proof that People's behaved in some kind of discriminatory/negligent/abuse way, I don't think that route would get much results. -- CardReport.Com - Credit Tools, News, And Reference http://www.cardreport.com/ Everything You Need To Know About Credit And Debt --
