Have you had your credit card interest rates go up?
Have you been treated unfairly by your credit card companies or banks?
Are you willing to tell your story? If so… you can help!
I’m heading back to Washington to lobby our elected leaders and I need as many stories as possible so we can make a difference.
Let’s face it…. The LAWS are not fair, and they need to be changed!
 Tell me your worst story about your bank or your credit card company.
1)Â Â What happened?
2)Â Â What did they tell you?
3)  Why wasn’t it fair?
The more detail the better!
Post your comments below! Do it now!
had a 3 year account in good standing with dell. never missed a payment. never late. on february 22nd of this year they reduced my credit limit to 47 dollars over my balance. a reduction of $900 in credit. when i asked why my account had been slashed i was told that because of my overall credit history, it was decided that my account available credit would be cut. they did not check my credit because i have a monitoring service and my credit was not run. for a law that is supposed to help consumers, the banks seem to have the last laugh. now with an account close to its max it with significantly reduce my rating unless i make a substantial payment prior to its reporting time
Your message here…
I have acredit card with a decent rate (7.9). I owed about $800 on a $5000 limit. The card company announced they were going out of business and no more purchases could be made. I decided to pay the mininum payment each month and continue to payoff.
I received a copy of my credit report and they lower my credit limit each month to the amount outstanding (currently $670). This makes it look like I am at the max amount and my credit score has too high balances in relationship to available credit.
Not a huge issue but unfairly penalizing me.
Recently I learned that several friends and colleagues were able to get reduced interest rates due to recently late payments or no payments at all. However as a good standing consumer who paid my bills on time and more than the required monthly amount, when I called to ask to have my interest rates lowered I was given the same statement, “Thank you for being a valued customer but unfortunately we do not have any lower interest rates to offer at this time”. I have interest rates ranging from 18% to 29% and there is no liable reason for the high rates. I feel consumers that are in good standing are being penalized from a lot of the government bailout incentives for hard economic times. Where the credit card companies are forced to lower interest rates or provide plan repayment options on consumers that are in distressed times;consumers not so distressed are enduring the extra fees and expenses that are caused by other consumer write-off balances or decresed payments.
Recently I received a letter from my Barclay’s visa card indicating that my APR rate will be increasing as of 01/01/2010 from 25% to 30% due to an over the credit limit balance by $5.00. What happen to the days when credit card companies would decline usage if your current charge put you over the limit. Now they are allowing you to charge above and beyond but charge over the credit limit fees, as well as use it as an excuse to increase interest rates.
There is a lot of non-dislosed activities that lie beyond the surfaces of credit card and financial institutes. I am truly an irritated and disappointed consumer.
Your message here…
Thank you for this opportunity. How is it that Bank of America can take away your line of credit for no apparent reason? I have an account with Bank of America and my credit line was $13,000.00. I have not been late with my monthly payments. I have had the account for approximately ten years, my monthly payment is $163.00, I rarely send less than twice that amount for my monthly payments, I have a balance of approximately $750.00, and they have “reduced” my line of credit to $900.00. I called and complaine and no results. Some higher-up was supposed to call me but never did. The persons that I did speak with said that it was a “banking decision”. This, I do not understand. I thought that I was an excellent customer and that my history with Bank of America should reflect that.
Thank you for your time,
Rod
Your message here…
well its back three months ago since i recive my visa and i thought its allready contain more than 4000 cridet on it but its not what i thought it is it was 650 only in the same time i had friends whom recived the same visa card and it contain more than 2000 euro per month and they have the same work conract like me and even more less as an official income
then i called u early in septemper so went throw another cridet card starting with numper 5 witch means its master card so if it was the same as i think it is so i got tow cridet cards contain few thousands i could manege with so i can have my own financial freedom and it is handy if am in open practical economy so i can cover my own expenses and pay back my depts
but i found my self going into circels and cant get out of it the income is low the expenses are high and to achive a finacial targets in short time are impossiable leigaly
leave all that behiend
even insurance
i got my car smached in october last year and instead of nearly 5000 euro is the price of my car and the phisical dameges
i got only 1400 euro and if i dont take them i may go out empty hands
i depended of those 5000 to be even a start to some investments and changing appartment but it alweys dosent work
and there is a lot of stories to tell under this financial sitiuation on earth witch getting us in circls around with finance
hassan reda
We have a Citi Mastercard. We have been loyal customers for over 10 years and have NEVER missed a payment. Lst month they went up on the interest rate from 13% to 29%. When we called they said oh you over the limit a few times. What!! We over the limit because of the fees they charge at if it’s over it’s only for a few days until they receive the payment. They are the worst I guess they prefer customers that don’t pay on time or miss payments. I’m soooo angry!!!! STAY AWAY FROM CITIBANK
Your message here…Three months ago,I had gotten approved for a Sears/Citibank Mastercard. It had a high credit limit and was to have the $1000 cash withdrawal option. This was done in order to increase my credit score. I called to check on how one would get the cash withdrawal: the associate told me that Citibank, as a cost-cutting measure,had lowered the limit to $50. The company was losing money because borrowers weren’t repaying the withdrawals taken. The state of the “National Economy” was also cited as a reason for the reduced cash limit. It would have been A BETTER BUSINESS PRACTICE TO HAVE BEEN NOTIFIED BY CITIBANK(Computer-generated E-mail/letter) TO THE LIMIT CHANGE INSTEAD OF FINDING OUT ON MY OWN WITH A “BY-CHANCE” PHONE CALL. If the “National Economy” is that bad off, keep a secretary working by letting her key-up a Mail Merge/Database standard letter or compose the E-mail!!! SW
Your message here…Larry Hubbard at Countrywide said; I can do a loan for you for 1 year an intrest only & after that 1 year we can convert it to a fixed rate. More than a year later I called and the answer was I did not say that. Plain and simple Loan companies will say anything to get yer money.
Have you had your credit card interest rates go up? YES
Have you been treated unfairly by your credit card companies or banks? YES
Are you willing to tell your story? YES If so you can help!
I’m heading back to Washington to lobby our elected leaders and I need as many stories as possible so we can make a difference.
Let’s face it. The LAWS are not fair, and they need to be changed!
Tell me your worst story about your bank or your credit card company.
What happened? Credit card interest rate increasing for no apparent reason.
What did they tell you? Received a letter from Citibank stating that they have decided to increase my interest rate from 13.8% to 29.9% due to begin with November ‘09 billing period due to current economical climate. What kind of justification is that!?? I haven’t been late with any payments for at least 2 years and my balance is approximately 70% of my available credit.
Why wasn’t it fair? This is absolutely NOT FAIR! It’s ridiculous, we the consumer are at their mercy. Do you realize how much more my minimum payment just increased. Now I will have more than 2 times the amount due minimum per month. I have to come up with twice as much money just to keep the account current let alone pay down the principle. Now they are allowed to do whatever they please and if we try to fight it then they give the option to close the account and provide a payoff plan.
Thank you for your efforts Philip. As for now I’m following your guidance from your book and getting these credit cards payed down ASAP. Looks like it will take me about 1 year to be credit card debt free. I’m looking forward to that additional money to be used how I want.
Until a few months ago,we always paid our Citi Corp credit card account in full every month and had a credit score of 729. We had an unusual expense and made a large charge. We suddenly, without warning, received a letter that our interest rate was increasing significantly, to 19.9% if I remember correctly. We could opt out with the old interest rate until balance was paid up, but we would lose the use of our cards. We did choose to opt out and continued to pay our payments until one was a day or two late. Without warning, although the opt out agreement told us, Citi Corp raised our interest o 29.99%. Now we can barely pay the interest charge. We went to a debt reduction/settlement program and our credit score has gone to hell in a hand basket. In a period of 4 or 5 months, it has plunged from 729 to 555. We do have 4 credit cards in trouble, but that seems a bit extreme. It seems criminal that credit card companies can walk all over us like this.
Hello Phil … the one thing Ido rmember seems to be that using betwen 5 an 8 cards and paying them off regularly …they all seemingly used to (as you said before) list too many inquaries whether there were only one, two or ten,,,and other things like unpaid balances and other such things…. it’s bad now as I havn’t been able to pay them at all for some time now… as i have no income and lack work… Any suggestions ?
Citibank changed my interest rate from 14.24% to 29.99% even though I have been a loyal customer for 10 years, have a strong FICO score, and have never been late. They said they need to do this to “maintain credit availability.” Well guess what – I am going to payoff the whole balance and take my business to their competition. So long, Citibank.
Your message here…I CAN`T BELIEVE WHAT IS GOING ON WITH CREDIT CARD.
MY CREDIT SCORE LAST TIME I CHECK IN THE SUMMER WAS 813. I PAY ON TIME ALL THE TIME
AND MY CHASE CREDIT CARD APR WAS 8.99% IN THE SUMMER AS OF NOVEMBER 2009 MY APR IS RAISE TO 23.99%.
ALL MY CREDIT CARD WHEN UP BUT CHASE IS THE WORST.
THANKS
HELP PLEASE
Years ago, Citizens Bank of Massachusetts unfairly charged me over $400.00 in fees for insuficient funds. Here is the story: At one night, I checked my balance online, and noticed that I had more than enough money to cover all the checks I had written. Two days later, I checked again and to my surprise I had a negative balance. Immediately, I made a deposit, and talked to the manager. I told her that there must have been an error, as two days ago the balance was more than enough to pay all the checks. She said that one of the checks I had deposited in my account had been returned for insuficient funds, and they had withdrawn that amount from my account, besides charging a returned check fee. Therefore, the bank did not pay when the first check (I’d written) hit my account, because there was not enough money in the account. In addition, the bank withdrew a fee from my account, which made the next check to bounce. The next seven checks were returned unpaid, because the bank (without informing me) took money from my account, as a “insuficient funds” fee, for every single one of those checks. I would understant to pay the fee for the first returned check, although I perceive that the bank should not add to my balance an amount that is pending payment. Moreover, it is not fair to pay over $400.00 as a result of insuficient funds caused by the fees charged by the bank. The bank withdrew money from my account without even giving me a chance to make a deposit to avoid my checks to bounce. When I asked the manager why I was not made aware of the situation, she said that the corporate office would send me a mail to let me know. A mail? Why not a phone call or even an E-mail message, as it would take, at least, a day or two before I got that mail? She said: “The bank does not do that.” Then, I told her that if that is the case, the bank should not charge me those fees, until I had been informed, so that I could make a deposit and prevent the checks from being returned unpaid. She said that everything the bank did was legal and according to the law. It’s clear to me that the law has been made to favor the banks. It is time to change the law, so that it can protect the consumers: The American people.
Thank you for listening!
My wife and I recently decided to sell our 97 Nissan Maxima and purchase a 2000 Honda CRV. More room for more kiddos and the new ride had nearly 100,000 fewer miles!
We sold our Maxima for $3,000 and planned to purchase the CRV for $5,000. For nearly a month, we tossed around ideas on where to pull the remaining $2,000.
We had a $4,000 CD maturing and knew that rates wouldn’t be substantial enough to roll it into a new one, so we planned to pull $2,000 for the car. The problem is that the CD matured 2 weeks after the seller needed to sell the car. We didn’t want to miss the opportunity.
Our options: Pay the seller 2 weeks worth of interest on the $2,000, take out a personal loan for a few months and eat the interest, take a cash advance on a Bank of America Credit card and pay it off when the CD mautres, or borrow from family for two weeks.
Well in our information gathering, we called B of A credit card services to find out what we would have to pay in interest if we did a 2 week cash advance on a credit card. We were unsure if there was a per diem interest, or interest would be calculated once monthly, and if we paid it off before that time we’d be interest free (since the card had a $0 balance).
While we were on the phone with credit card services, the agent gave us mediocre information but insisted that we were due for an account review. After a couple of questions into the “account review” we were disconnected.
(to be clear, it was more than likely our cell signal that deteriorated not the agent disconnecting our call. Although we did NOT get a call back)
After we were disconnected, we decided to handle it later in the evening after having dinner with my step-father who was in town for the weekend. And, as many good visits go, we lost track of time and did not call back.
A couple of days later, we recieved 4 letters in the mail from Bank of America informing us that ALL of our credit card accounts had been suspended, and no further charges could be made.
When we called to figure out what happened, the first customer service agent explained that our profile had changed but there was little else that he could say. The second customer service agent explained that it was something on our Equifax credit report, but that she couldn’t elaborate. She said that we would send us a copy of the report so that we could attempt to fix the problem. We never received it. But we’ve had credit monitoring of all three credit bureaus for the past 4 years (thanks to 7 Steps to a 720) and there was NOTHING negative on either of our Equifax reports… PRIOR to Bank of America suspending our credit cards.
In fact according to Equifax, my wife had a 768 and I had a 736. However when Bank of America suspended our credit cards, they lowered the credit limits to whatever the balance was.
Our 2 cards with $0 balances were reduced from $6000 and $1000 to $0 limits. Our card with a $600 balance was reduced from a $1500 limit to $600. And our card with a $8500 balance was reduced from a $12,000 limit to $8500. While we have never had a late payment, our credit ratio went from less than 50% to 100%. This HIGH balance to limit credit ratio became the ONLY negative thing on my our credit reports and it dropped my wife’s score 80 points and mine 40 points.
In summary, Bank of America did NOT have authorization to look at our credit, they were to only do an account review.
There was nothing negative on our credit reports, although they stated there was something NEGATIVE on our Equifax report that caused them to suspend ALL of our credit accounts.
The suspension of our credit accounts caused the very negative note on our credit reports that Bank of America claimed is the reason for the suspension.
Normally this wouldn’t be a huge deal, but in January I took a 7.5% pay cut and after 11 months, our savings has taken a dip. With an 18 month old son, having a safety net in available credit is a comforting feeling when our savings is not all that it should be.
Bank of America has done nothing but give my family stress and worry by their un-communicated policies and under-informed customer service agents.
Please lobby on our behalf. Any voice is an advocate!
Thank you for the opportunity to share,
Eric and Jamie Bailey
Queen Creek, Arizona
I have a Credit card ( Tribute) funded by First Bank of Deleware.
Some months ago the Bank notified me that the Bank is not continuing with this Credit Cards Program and that I have to keep on paying back monthly to cover the credit used.
I am paying as scheduled mmonthly.Never late in payments.
I am not happy that since the Bank has Discontinued this credit cards maybe due to the Bank having Financial problems. and I have to keep on paying a $10.00 Maintenance fee per month without having the usuage of the credit anymore. The card programe have been Cancelled by the Bank and not stoped by me.
Therefore I feel that the First Banki of Deleware should not be Charging me the Service/Maintenance fee monthly.
I should be paid back what have been wrongly charged to my account.
Thanking you for taking on my case.
Choi Sha
CREDIT CARD COMPANY CALLED 1ST FINANCIAL ARE ROBBING CUSTOMERS AND GETTING AWAY WITH IT.
IT STARTED IN 2008 WHEN AN ADVERTISEMENT CAME IN THE MAIL WITH 800 CREDIT LIMIT @ 0%. WHAT THEY DIDNT TELL YOU WAS IT WAS ONLY FOR THE 1ST 6 MONTHS. SO AFTER THE 6 MONTHS IT WENT TO 15% . NOW I WAS PAYING 1/2 OF THE ENTIRE BAL EVERY MONTH, AND OR DOUBLE THE MONTHLY PAYMENT. WELL I NOTICE THAT MY BILL STILL WASNT GOING DOWN.SO ONCE I STARTED TO INVESTIGATE THE PROBLEM HERE IS WHAT I FOUND OUT…
THEY WERE CHARGING ME 28%, THEY ALSO WAS CHARGING ME LATE FEES AND HERE IS THE CRAZY PART THEY STOP SENDING ME MY BILL FOR A COUPLE OF MONTHS I HAD TO CALL THEM AND STARTED DOUBLE BILLING ME. SO I WOULD GET 2 BILLS IN A MONTH WHICH I WAS TOLD THAT WAS UNIVERSAL DEFAULT BILLING.ILLEGAL I MIGHT ADD.
NOW HERE IS THE INSANE PART. I WAS SENDING MY PAYMENTS IN 2ND DAY MAIL WITH DELIVERY CONFIRMATION TAGS. THE PAYMENT WAS GETTING THERE ON TIME BUT THEY WOULD POST IT 7 DAYS AFTER WHICH WAS OVER THE DUE DATE THEN CHARGE ME WITH A LATE FEE.THEY KEEP CHARGING THIS AMOUNT I WOULD DISPUTE IT AND MY CARD WENT OVER THE LIMIT. EVEN THOUGH THE PAYMENT WAS ON TIME THEY STILL PENALIZED ME. SO NOW THE CARD IS OVER THE LIMIT AND I GET HIT WITH DOUBLE FEES.
I CONTACTED BBB, FDIC,ATTORNEY GENERAL. NO ONE HELPED ME GET THAT MONEY BACK. IN TOTAL I WAS CHARGED 239.00 IN OVER THE LIMIT AND LATE FEES WHICH CAUSED THE CARD TO GO OVER THE LIMIT IN THE FIRST PLACE. TILL THIS DAY I AM STILL FIGHTING WITH THEM REGARDING THESE FEES TO BE CREDITED BACK TO MY ACCOUNT. THEY TOTAL FORGOT THAT I WAS A CONSTANT PAYING CUSTOMER THAT PAID MY BALANCE IN FULL AND ON TIME. CAN THEY DO THAT?
Your message here…Well my eyesights went bad. Was pronounced as legally blind in 07. My account was in good standing. Ofcourse late a few times. My credit was curtailed to account closed as i always paid my card in full. On contacting BofA they said they would give me only 1500$ instead of the original. I told them kiss my ass and keep it as i really dont over leverage myself. That was for my personal line of credit. They told me that my business line of account was good. Told them who created the business line account? Naturally me right ? So what seems to be the problem i asked. Got no proper answer.Was told their decision was based on credit report.Credit reporting companies run a sham. Cuz they are there to make money. Bottom Line all comes to money.Root of all evil.