Last January, Bank of America raised the interest rate on my credit card to 35%. I owed $22k. I did some balance transfers to my Chase card and made cash payments to reduce the debt to $0.00. Then Bank of America canceled my account. I called and argued with them for a long time but it was hopeless. I was their customer for 20 years, I never missed a payment and I was always on time. I am even a shareholder. Bank of America received $45,000,000,000 (fourty five BILLION dollars) of taxpayer bailout money at zero percent interest and they are just screwing me and the taxpayers over. Now Chase canceled my credit card and jacked up the interest rate to 25%. Chase canceled the because I did not have enough available credit, and I had too many credit inquiries (2 inquires). I asked them if they could lower the interest rate and they said they will review it. If I qualify for a lower rate, they will apply the lower rate and make it retroactive. They said just keep making the payments, the process will take 4 to 6 months. JP Morgan Chase received $25,000,000,000 (twenty five BILLION dollars) of taxpayer bailout money. They are also crooks. I applied for other credit cards but I just get denied. I need more credit because I dont want to pay 25% for the next 4 to 6 months but nobody is offering credit (except for First Premier Bank). What should I do? Should I just stop paying?
You have a very typical problem. You have yourself deeply in debt and do not understand that if you are in a hole you need to stop digging. If you fail to understand, grasp and put that statement to work then you can expect some even greater problems than you have now. Borrowing more money to pay off old debt is simply digging your debt hole ever deeper and deeper until you can't get credit anywhere. Then your problems will really escalate. You will start getting nasty phone calls from your creditors for about the next 4 to 6 months or more. They will absolutely drive you crazy trying to answer the phone calls demanding payments you can't make. In the meantime they will be busy saddling you with even more debt in order to jack up the value of your debt portfolio for later sale to junk debt buyers. With the amount you currently owe they can and will add thousands more on your account so they can get more for your account without incurring more expense. Maybe they can suck a few more dollars out of you in cash while you flounder about uselessly trying to bail yourself out which you can never do without a huge increase in income and a huge decrease in your lifestyle. Maybe you will waste even more money on a debt consolidation plan or file bankruptcy in an attempt to get yourself out of the hole you have dug for yourself. You will probably do that because you know in your own mind and heart that you owe the debt and it is your moral obligation to pay your just debts which you cannot possibly do. Once the credit card companies reach their limits of patience they will sell the debt you owe to a junk debt buyer who is a broker of such debts and buys them in huge bundles worth millions of dollars and who will break them up into smaller bundles to be sold at a profit to debt collectors. That's when the debt collectors will start in on you, calling you incessantly at which time you will probably at least give thought to bankruptcy or letting your mortgage go for a month or two or three or failing to pay your taxes or making other foolish mistakes. Maybe you will surf the net and learn that the lenders can't collect any money from you because credit cards are unilateral contracts of adhesion and can't be enforced. Or you may learn that they didn't loan you any money or risk any of their own money or there is no such thing as money and so you don't owe them any money back. Or you may run into some religious nut who will convince you that God didn't intend for you to be beholden to the money lenders of the temple and you should do your duty under God and help put the wicked bankers out of business. For a few thousand dollars of donations to their church Brother Cheatum will teach you how to put an end to them. Don't listen to all the scammers out there. You can lose everything if you do. Believe me, there are plenty of message boards and egroups you can find who will gladly help you dig your hole even deeper. So what should you do? Again, quit digging and use your funds to keep your home safe from foreclosure, keep your utilities paid, your transportation safe and secure, and food on your table and your taxes all paid up. Don't get into trouble with any of those things. Don't worry yourself to death for fear of what is going to happen to you.
There not scammers they do what your elected officials let them do.They have the biggest lobby in America and give money to reps and demos at the same time.When we as a people wake up to the fact that we elect and corporate rules our officials,why was credit reform passed and takes a year to go into effect.That way they can do their rate jacking.Hey we are the ho's, congress is the pimp,and you know who mr big is.
Just keep paying it down . . . that is all you can do. Your not the only one in such a situation. It is fairly common.
I have $25k in my brokerage account and $110k in my retirement account. I also have equity in my houses. I have about $300k in total assets. I am never late and I never missed a payment on any bills. Why am I paying such a high interest rate? Why don't credit card companies negotiate? Why don't they just give me a decent interest rate? Why are they just being aholes? I am sick of credit card companies taking taxpayer money at 0% and screwing with everybody. I have enough cash to pay them off, but I should just screw them. 25% interest is totally unfair. All they can do is damage my credit and call me a few times. I have good credit but its not getting me anywhere! They cant come after my assets, credit card debt is unsecured debt. Whats the point of protecting my credit?
They CAN come after your assets if you default and they sue and get a judgment against you. Is your utilization high? If so, that's probably why your rate got increased. It's risk-based.
You wonder what to do? There are a lot of people who have gotten themselves into situations and don't really have any good options. Perhaps because having that much credit card debt seems like something that a desperate person would do. You mean why don't they negotiate on the interest rate? They use a curious system of sending out teaser rates on new cards, among other similar things, when they think you are a risk they like. Most of that money went to their many bad real estate loans. People complained and told them to stop loaning money to people who are bad risks. They seem to think you are a bad risk. You can rest assured that if you have enough money to pay them off and you "screw them", you won't like the result. You are very confused about what they can do. Unsecured debt doesn't mean that they can't make you pay them. All it means is that they have some things to do before they make you pay them.
You may have $300 K in total assets but it seems that much of it is either in future value assets or paper assets that are very volatile. Instant cash assets are all that count in this type of situation. Because they can. Where did you get those ideas? Myrland's methods? Cornforth_Strategies? Lewis Ewing? Freedom Law School? Some other patriot website or a combination of all of them and a whole litany of other goofy web sites I won't even try to remember the names of? If you think that they can't come after you and take your assets just because credit card debt is unsecured? If you believe that then you may also believe that banks must be incorporated in your state before they have standing to sue in your state's court system. If you believe that then you may also believe many other such patriot nut case theories which again are far too numerous to mention. Yes it is. Another day later and another dollar deeper in debt. If you don't know the answer to that then you probably don't need any and if you think that your outrage will get you anywhere then it won't be long before you won't have any to worry about. You say you have enough cash to pay them off then I'd advise doing just that before you get into real trouble.
I'll second that. Above all, don't let it go to a debt collector if you can help it. You made the deal with them, you used their money to purchase whatever you bought with it and you agreed to their terms and conditions. If you don't like it now then don't pay it and see what happens to you. I guarantee you will like the results of not paying a whole lot less. If you don't like their terms and conditions then don't use their money. Pay it off while you can and move on.
