What CC issuers have a history of jacking up APR's when balances become high? Last time I visited this issue, the worst offenders were Fleet and First USA. Who else? RM
Re: Who are the rate jackers? DMB & Chase come to mind. However, many CC lenders have a clause in the Cardmember Agreement allowing them to raise rates at will, or due to higher risk perceived upon periodic review of your credit report.
Re: Who are the rate jackers? Fleet First USA for high utilization. I think I read MBNA does it some too. and more importantly, which companies don't kill you for high utilization? Cap1 has been stable at 8.9 fixed whether you're at 9 percent or 99 percent utilization.
Re: Who are the rate jackers? My experience...Providian, Chase, Direct Merchants, and Fleet. Discover also jacks up rates, but not significantly. Dani
Re: Who are the rate jackers? My experience: FirstUSA 17.9 - 24.9, depending on their mood. Nextcard 24.99 Citi 24.99 MBNA - wrote me and told me I had two choices. One, I could get 14.9 if I promised in writing to never ever use my MBNA card again. I picked this one. Two, if I ever use my card again, the entire balance goes to 24.99%. When you pay down the balance, Citi will reduce the APR for both future pruchases and for the existing balance. FirstUSA will not lower the APR for the existing balance when you reduce the balance, but will offer you a lower APR for new purchase (9.9 for me). But, who would be stupid enough to run up another balance with them? Nextcard won't do anything to lower your rate if you pay it down.
Citibank without a doubt, they will jack your rate to 24.99 if you are max'd on your other cards, even if your not max'd on theirs. They will also jack the APR up if you are late on another card, but I believe most cc companies are doing that nowadays. That seems to be a new cc trend. They all have these tricks it seems, BT at 0 apr, get all your debt with them, get max'd out on the card, and go to default rate. All your debt now at 24.99. Jamee
Wow! There are more bad actors out there than I thought! This just reinforces the need for getting those CL's up into the clouds. It would absolutely SUCK to have all your APR's get jacked up and have no place to put the balances. Chase, Discover, and even Citi? I liked these guys up till now.... RM PS. Has MBNA ever APR-jacked anyone's GoldOption or GoldReserve LOC's?
I forgot to mention this. I have three FirstUSA cards. When two of them got near the maximum, they jacked up the rate on all three, AND they reduced my credit line on the third card from $8500 to $3000
Nope They all do it. Another reason people should not deal with them. As long as we keep our mouths shut and don't tell them what products we want, the lemons already on the market is all that will be available to us.
I have had Amex for four years and they have never increased (or decreased) the interest rate. I would really like the 9.9%, but I do give them credit...when they say "fixed" they mean "fixed". Dani
