Hello all, I apologize if this post is in the wrong area. My problem is this, My wife lost her Job in late October 2010, She got another job in Nov. 2010, but at 2/3 of her normal pay. Our Citibank card has doubled my rate from 15.99% to 29.99%.They said they sent a letter stating this and if we wanted to stay at the old rate and cancel the card, we had 30 days to do so. We don't recall getting this letter Talking to Citibank,I said that the back of their statemaent says that if you are late with a payment your rate will be raised to 29.99%. We have never been late, we pay more than the minimum.They told me they're policy has changed,Our rate can't be raised any higher and if we pay late, we will be charged a $39 fee. I explained our situation and was told there is nothing they can do, and should consider credit counseling. I understand credit counseling can lower my rate as low as 9%, Can I do this myself? I've also heard of hardship programs offered by credit card co. but can find no recent info on them. Can anyone help? Thanks
You're not alone...Citi has done this to a lot of customers during the past 6 months. Do everything you can to stay current while you figure things out. Do you both have good credit scores? And how much debt are you carrying on this card? If you already missed your chance to opt out and pay it off at the old rate, I would consider moving the debt to a no interest credit card and paying it off over 12 months. You'll have to do all the math to make sure it makes economic sense, but you may be able to save quite a bit in interest even if you do have to pay a BT fee. Of course, this may not be feasible for you due to a lot of different variables I don't know at the moment - income, credit scores, how much debt we're talking about. Can you please provide us with some more information?
