I have a chase card with a balance of 6K and a apr of 21.99%. I will be old and gray before I pay this off. I was thinking about getting a consolidation loan with my credit union at 15% to pay this off. 15% is still high, but a lot better than 21%. I also have 4 accounts with small balances. 2 with a no interest, and 2 with interest. Should I pay the interest, then the no interst off first before applying for a loan. This would bring down my utilization. Would this help me to get a loan at the credit union? I'm despirate. There is no way I'll be able to pay a 6k loan at 21% apr off.
Balance transfer all your balances to your credit union. Do not use your Chase card for 2-3 months. Within that time Chase will see your utilization go down whereas they will offer you a special balance transfer to use your account again. They might give you a 2 or 3% balance transfer. Chase checks your credit report about every 60 days.
Same thing happened to us. We had 2 Chase cards, one at 7.24% and one at 18%. They jacked both to 28.9% recently so we closed out the accounts and froze them at the current rates. You can always have that option if you want to keep the current rates. The strange thing is we have our 1st mortgage and HELOC with them and have had these credit cards open for 7 yrs nows with no late payments, no over the limits, nothing and they still jacked us due to utilization. If not transfer the balances!
Chase jacked my wife to 20%+ or something a few months ago, but now it is back down to 14.99%?? When we pay-off in full, I am closing this acount and I will never ever consider a CHASE card or product for the next 20,000 years. We did the same thing with the Capital One account with the $300 limit after 1.5 years of paying as agreed. Paid-off then closed, game over for Crap One and Chase. Dog
I just called Chase to see why they raised my 9% card to 22.98%. They said they sent me info back in November that due to high utilization my interest rate would go up. This ticks me off. I told him I was going to transfer the balance to a different card and hung up. I just transferred to my citibank card which is 6.9% for 6 months with no transfer fees. I have one more Chase card and I am afraid of when this one will also get jacked up. I got myself into a pickle right now. $32 in CC debt on five cards. All high utilization. I hate that this happened and need some support here. I always pay my bills on time. Reading someones thread on here about how they paid down over 70K in cc debt by budgeting is promising. I need to sit down and think about where all my money is going. I am not a home owner and at this rate wonder if I ever will be.
You cannot count on the purchase interest rate remaining unchanged. They can change it any moment. BT rates are more dependable, assuming your accounts remain in good standing and your credit reports show no negatives. $32K is large enough that it will start to control your life, even if you are able to cover the minimum payments now. You can only do so much by juggling and balance transferring. To pay it down, you need to reduce spending elsewhere. The only point you can have a significant effect is at the point where you are deciding whether or not to spend.
Re: Chase jacked me to 7.9% to 21.9 It's not default rate, Chase does this all the time, they just did it to me because of same issues others have said... too high debt/limit ratio.... so the card went in the drawer, got paid off, and wont be used again.
Re: Chase jacked me to 7.9% to 21.9 Hey, they did the SAME THING to me just recently too! I opted to close the account to keep my old APR of 12.74% until the balance is paid off. They mentioned that I have 90 days to change my mind and un-freeze my account and take the high rate again. One question though. Has anyone here considered the potential effects of "closing" your Chase card on your credit reports/scores??? FYI my Chase is not my olded revolving account, so that is not the concern... but the sheer idea of "closing" an account?
Re: Re: Chase jacked me to 7.9% to 21.9 xY is right though. When your ratio goes up they exercise the "Universal Default Provision". That's not to say that they rate bounces all the way UP to the technical default rate. By the time we combine the UD with the difficulty now involved in BK'ing unsecured debt off the books, this represents a sure ticket to hell, for those who have a lot of CC debt. Our ONLY [remaining] option; MAKE MORE MONEY!!!!! : )
Re: Re: Chase jacked me to 7.9% to 21.9 Make more money and spend less of it. Be careful closing those cards. Keep them open, but only use them occasionally and pay them in full when you get the bill. That's how you keep them active. It seems that a lot of people got in trouble because of utilization. Closing the card makes utilization worse, not better. Keep the card and just use it enough to keep it active and you'll keep your utilization up. You can't get emotional about these things. It's business, pure and simple. Play their game if you want to beat them at it.
Re: Re: Chase jacked me to 7.9% to 21.9 If you must carry a balance, do it by balance transferring to a card that is only used to carry balance transfers, under terms that are fixed until paid. Never carry a purchase balance.
