I have receiving revised rules from several credit cards that if I am late on ANY card, not just their card, they raise the interest rates for 6 month or more. Is this legal?
Yes, that is the simple answer. Don, unfortunately the credit industry paid off congress recently to pass some of the worst anti-consumer laws of a generation this was just one of them. Be prepared to have ALL your creditors checking your credit file monthly like vultures waiting for you to have even one 30 day late so that they can jack up your rates to "penalty rates" (that is the sky), and as far as the 6 months claim, its meaningless as it will be permanent UNLESS you either bring your balance close to zero or they believe or you threaten to close your account, for then and only then, will they lower your interest though you will find it jacked up again quickly enough if owe them enough that they feel you can not easily pay it off. Furthermore, they don't tell you that if you go below a mysterious credit score they will rack it up as well. As previously posted here, while interest rates have only risen 1.25% over the past year that has given such banks as Associates the excuse to rack up their rates 5% and more and you better believe anything over that 1.25% is pure profit for them. Worse still is the weakening of the long standing usury laws throughout the country, look for sub-prime cards to shortly break through 40% interest!! and beyond with so-called "prime cards" following closely behind.
Steve is right, as usual. There is only one way to battle the greedy banks. Deal from strength. You need to exercise your credit. If you have enough accounts, when the money hungry Associates raises your rate, you just do a balance transfer from the even more money hungry First USA. When First USA tries to rip you off, you do a balance tranfer from Discover. Build your credit. http://www.creditsense.com
RE: Don't leave yourself vulne Of course to maintain that strength one must have at the very least three cards to keep one's options open. Too often I see those desperate to consolidate their credit cards into one fixed low interest card. Usually because they can't stop maxing out their high interest cc and dept store cards. And while yes, there is no doubt one can save interest with this strategy the reality is the present acts of the greedy banks show this is a false sense of security. For upon seeing that you have closed your other accounts or have such a high balance that there is very little chance of you being able to transfer that amount off, particulary because having a majority of your debt on one card skewers your debt to available credit ratio thus lowering your credit score and leading to being declined by other companies leaving you at the mercy of the greedy, ravenous bank who will use any legal or illegal means at their disposal to jack up your rate and financialy up shits creek.
RE: Don't leave yourself vulne You are probably right again. Never leave yourself open to their greedy little hands. The way to better credit is through credit exercise. Build your credit muscle to 18 accounts and I guarantee you will never be asking for credit. They will always be asking you to take it. It has worked for me and everyone that has participated in our program. http://www.creditsense.com
Works great for me. 4 MBNA accounts, 3 First USA accounts, Chase, USAA, Travelers Bank, Capital One, and Optima. Those promotional rate checks never stop coming for 2.9, 3.9, 4.9, and 5.9 % for 5-8 months and when it's about to run out and I move it to somewhere else, they panic and send me more checks with NO transaction fees on them. Lately I've been getting "life of loan" 8.9% and 9.9% offers and these CAN'T be jacked up unless you miss a payment on THAT account.
