Has anyone had their Illumina card APR raised recently? I got a notice of a rate increase from Prime plus 4.99% to Prime plus 7.99% yesterday. So, I'll go from 8.99% to 11.99%. I do carry a balance on this card, but have never been late or over my limit the whole time I've used it (more than a year). My FICO is 712. The only other two debts I have are with Honda for my car and Capital One (both with perfect histories). It's tempting to close the account, but I don't want to do that with a balance on it. So I'm going to ask Cap One for a limit increase and take some money out of savings to hopefully pay off the Illumina debt (transfer half and pay off half). It's funny, because I thought for sure if anyone was going to raise my APR it would be Capital One and not Citibank. Go figure!
Have you tried to call to get it lowered? That works sometimes. I certainly wouldn't close a Citi account. Once it's paid off, wait for a good BT offer and use it for BTs.
I'm going to call them tonight to see if they'll lower it. And I agree, a Citi account is usually a very good thing to have so I would hate to cancel it. It took me several years to get to the point where they would even consider me and I currently have a $6,500 credit limit. I think the wiser thing would be to pay it off and then see if they'll give me a BT offer to pay off Cap One (which is at 9.9%).
Get it back to what it was...OR LOWER!!! CITIBANK JACKED ME (because they can) I SAID NO!!! THEY NOT ONLY BACKED OFF...BUT GAVE ME 1.00% LOWER THAN I HAD
Citi, MBNA, and BankONE are doing funny stuff to peoples accounts. I once read that MBNA actually raises your rate if your score drops dramatically relative to the score it was booked at. Similarily, Citi gets nervous if any 30-day lates appear (anywhere), excessive inq's or alot of new account openings can trigger the APR hike as well. BankONE is just weird, they close accounts if you have too much available credit, go figure.
Re: Re: Citibank Illumina Card APR Increase I bet you had a zero balance at the time perhaps? My problem is I owe them $4,500 (with a $6,500 limit) and I can't pay it all off right now, so they sort of have some leverage over me at the present time. But I'll call tonight and see what they say. If they don't budge, I'll try Planet Feedback or maybe a letter to someone higher up at Citi. It's worth a try anyway. This just goes to show you how important it is to NOT carry a balance (if possible)...then the APR is a non-issue!
Re: Re: Re: Citibank Illumina Card APR Increase I don't THINK I had a $0.00 balance...(or even close) ...BUT I always have a BACK UP card or two...
