Firstusa rate reduction question

Without going into a whole lot of detail. I charged my cards to the maximum due to health problems and inability to work for a couple years. Then a paid collection popped up on my report. When this all happened, the cc companies used it as an excuse to increase my rates. Six cards went up to 14.9% to as high as 24.9%.

I am working now and paying off the debt and have been for one year. The collection account has been deleted. Perfect credit now except for high balances. I never missed a payment nor was I ever late.

By paying down Citi, I got them to reduce the APR to 10.49%, which is now my lowest rate. But, they would not give me a BT rate, nor will they allow me to do a BT. They also turned me down for the BDD. Reason given was that I made too many cash withdrawals. And they refused to increase my CL.

I checked my account with Citi today to make sure my payment posted. I was suprised to see that they increased my CL by $7500. I can now use this to pay some of my other balances down and attempt to get those APR's decreased.

The plan is to access my Citi account through C2it, use the money to pay down another account, then ask that company for a BT rate and lower APR.

I don't have much to work with. MBNA told me they would raise my APR to 25% if I ever used my card again. Nextcard is terminal. This leaves me with three FirstUSA cards, all with high rates.

Each of these has offered me a 9.9% BT option, good for the term of the BT. This is kind of stupid, because I don't have more than $20 in available credit on any of them. But, if I pay off the smallest of them ($3100), I can use that BT for my Nextcard account. Hopefully, by then, Nextcard's future will be fixed and I can cut a deal with the new owners.

Heres's my question. After I pay off this Firstusa card, should I accept their 9.9% BT rate, or should I wait a month or so to see if I get a better offer from them. I remember someone last week (George maybe) saying that they would send a 0% BT rate in a month or so after you pay off your account.

Second, should I try Citi again for a BT rate? I've been turned down so often by them that I am hesitant to do anything. Under the circumstances, what would a reasonable BT rate be with them?

Third, any ideas on where else to go? The only other avenue I see is to use the Citi increase to pay down the other FirstUSA accounts, then try to get those rates reduced.

Because of the high balances I carry, I cannot get a reasonable new card. I've tried.

One other point and I will shut up. Last year, when I was burning through my credit cards to pay the bills, FirstUSA reduced my CL from $8500 to $3100 on the only card I had left with any credit available. I have not received any BT offers from them for a year, and now got one on all three of my cards with them. I kind of believe they have a renewed faith in me (since I made all my payemnts and have always been on time). But, I still worry that if I pay them off, they may cancel the card, even though they offered me a BT deal. What do you think?

 

George: Did you take adevantage of the 0% BT?

If so, when did they jack your rate? My BT offer says good for the life of the BT, but I am worried they may decide to jack my rate once I do it, just because they did it before.

Does anyone else have any imput? All replies will be considered. I really need some help here. Thanks.

 

George: If I use my Citi to pay off the small FirstUSA, should I then accept the 9,9% offer on FirstUSA to pay off my Nextcard, or should I wait a month or two to see if they offer me something lower?

I realize 9.9% isn't pretty, but it is better than anything I have now. And, I am taking advantage of what I can.

Do you think they will honor the BT offer or do you think they may renege? Because of my experience with them, I have some hesitation. My ratios improved some today with the Citi CL increase. If I do the BT from FirstUSA and then they cancel my card, I will be hurt some on the ratios.

 

I know that now. When I first got sick, I was depressed and really did not care. All of a sudden, my rates were increased and I really did not know what hit me. I am much more careful now.

I am working on the highest APR's first. If I can pull this off, I can get my small FirstUSA rate cut in half, and get rid of a equally high rate on Nextcard. This would leave me with only two cards in the 20% range and one in the 15% range. A heck of a lot better than I was last April.

 

Thanks ng, but I understand.

I have been using c2it to get some money from my Citi card to pay down some high APR balances and they post at the purchase rate. What I would loke to do is to get a good BT rate from them so that i can use the BT feature instead of going through c2it.

Having said that, in my circumstances, do you think they will reconsider my request for a BT deal? They have turned me down for everything in the past year, but all of a sudden gave me a $7500 CL increase today.

And what about FirstUSA? Do I pay off the $3,000 balance and then use the promised 9.9% BT to pay off my Nextcard? Or, will FirstUSA just close my account when they get the payoff?