This is about my FirstUSA account. I recently checked my statement, and found that between the last statement, and this latest statement, my interest rate has jumped to 30.38%!! I called to find out what the heck happened. I was transfered to a supervisor who says they got some negative info from experian regarding the age of my credit history, and they now all of a sudden consider me a credit risk. Now, for all I know, my credit history is free of negatives, and they (firstusa) are, and have always been my oldest open account (1996)... which I still use, and make regular payments on. So instead of offering to reduce my rate, she told me that she could close my account for me. So wth?! I told her I will call back to make that decision. Now, I can't even "threaten" to close my account if they don't lower my rate!! I think they know they're my oldest account, and I can't afford to lose them on my credit history. I pulled all 3 fico reports just now, and true enough experian is being bad! (EQ, and TU are still perfect) I noticed that an OLD charge-off from back in 1997, that I had disputed, and WAS taken off back in 2001, had all of a sudden reappeared, and started reporting every month (it's not on either EQ or TU...just EXP)! So what are my options here? I have to keep firstusa open, but I hate the 30% rate. My credit is excellent, and 2 of my cards are at 6.99%... so what do I do?
If the old chargeoff was removed thru a dispute, then you can nail EX for reinserting without notification. If this CO was from 1997, sounds like the furnisher has reaged the account. As the other poster said, transfer any balance off of there to save yourself the bucks. Sock drawer the card. Did you receive an adverse action notification from the cc? Sec. 615 of FACTA.
I've actually gone ahead and paid off the card. I have a monthly payment for $25 that automatically charges to that card. I think I'll keep that there for now to at least keep the card active. Given that it's my oldest open account, and it's in good standing (as is everything else), I don't think I can afford the risk of getting it closed due to inactivity. Nope, I didn't receive anything. As a matter of fact, it's been almost a year since I've even looked at my experian report. All I know is, the charge-off was moved from all 3 reports sometime back in 2001 when I first disputed them, and it's still off the other 2 reports. So I have no idea when it got reinserted into my experian report.
