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340 Comments
- Ninh, on 07/16/2009, -9/+160Pay it off, cut it up, get a debit card. Problem solved, company out of business.
- KiddFunkadelic2, on 07/16/2009, -3/+93My Citizens Bank card had a fixed 6.9% rate. I have perfect credit and have never in my life missed a payment on anything. They just notified me 2 weeks ago it was changing to a 17% variable rate. Within 2 days a second card went from fixed 9.9% to 13%. I'm their perfect customer and I'm getting the shaft.
I am done with credit cards. Screw em. - sjbdallas, on 07/16/2009, -3/+82If people were more organized, they could coordinate leaving a company all at once and drive them out of business one by one until those that are left change their tune.
- inactive, on 07/16/2009, -1/+77You're not their perfect customer. People that incur lots of late fees and carry a large interest bearing balance all the time are their perfect customers. Thrifty types like you that always pay the balance down before the interest kicks in and never get into trouble with fees cost them money, to them you're wasting their time.
- treehugger87, on 07/16/2009, -20/+65It's always about something Obama did for you, isn't it? The fact that Bush & his rubber stamp congress allowed the credit card companies to write the new bankruptcy law has no relevance I suppose? When you're done alternatively licking Bush & Cheney's balls, get back to us.
- ogletree, on 07/16/2009, -4/+47I had one credit card go up to 29% interest. I used to have one Chase card and 2 wamu cards now I have 3 chase cards. Chase is a very evil bank.
- sc0ttius, on 07/16/2009, -1/+42Meaner?! They got called out for ripping people off and practicing bad business. They are just restructuring based on the new regulations. People need to become debt-free anyway. Hopefully this is a wake-up call to everyday people as well.
- chadsmith729, on 07/16/2009, -0/+40Were credit card companies ever nice?
- jsmith39, on 07/16/2009, -3/+43I did the cc mistake (like most of us) in my 20's. A few years ago I got my average cc debt down from 12k to 4k. This year I scrimped/saved/got a extra part time job and just paid off one of my 2 cards. Now my cc debt is 1500.00. I should have that paid off in 3 months, and then I'm done. I'll keep the 2 cards for emergencies but will not use them for anything else.
It's going to feel really good to buy my first high-end toy with cash this November. - covertbadger, on 07/16/2009, -0/+38I honestly don't have a clue what the rate is on my primary card. Just pay it off in full, every month, then the rate is irrelevant.
- treehugger87, on 07/16/2009, -1/+39Punishing their customers on their way to insolvency. I'm paying off credit cards as fast as I can and can't wait to cancel them all.
- THETEH, on 07/16/2009, -4/+39Uh, no. It will protect consumers by banning abusive practices. Credit card companies already make a load of money off people, some of it by manipulating them and sending bills right before they're due. This is abusive practice designed to make consumers pay late so they have to pay higher fees. Protecting consumers from this sort of abuse is NOT helping "deadbeats."
- Cern001, on 07/16/2009, -0/+32I follow this philosophy for the most part. I have a rewards credit card to which all my bills are auto paid. I then pay that card off every month. This way I only have to manage two bills (mortgage and CC), and I earn a free trip to wherever every few years. I hope they don't do away with the rewards programs, that's the only reason I manage my bills this way.
- jsmith39, on 07/16/2009, -0/+21Not to be a complete tool, but no... people will not remember how they were treated a handful of persons may remember and avoid specific companies but people will in general not think twice about reburying themselves in debt as soon as it's made available to them.
- Norweed, on 07/16/2009, -5/+25Why would you not want to take advantage of the HUGE cash back offers that some cards have? Using a CC can save you a bunch of money if you don't suck at it.
- CrazedLeper, on 07/16/2009, -1/+19Well, at least some sectors of the economy are in a deflation. How 'bout we just send all the credit card companies packing and pay the lower prices for stuff with cash on hand? Even better, learn to save and do without. Credit card companies' sole source of income is people who *should* know better than to do business with them but don't.
- Bloodwine, on 07/16/2009, -1/+18Who didn't see this coming?
They are going to jack the rates as high as they can before they are locked and regulated.
Also, they are screwing their good customers to help cover the costs of their bad customers and defaults.
In the short term they'll make their money, but in the long term I hope this makes people take credit more seriously and only use it when absolute necessary, which will hopefully bankrupt a lot of these credit card companies. - treehugger87, on 07/16/2009, -0/+17Yeah, I had a chase card. When I got that notice saying the rates were going up I canceled it. My credit rating is near 800. Guess they only want the deadbeat customers...
- deviantbono, on 07/16/2009, -0/+16And you can't buy a house 'cause you don't have any credit. Problem solved.
- MistrBrownstone, on 07/16/2009, -0/+16Same exact thing just happened to me with a Bank of America card. 6.9% fixed for the last 10 years. Never late on a payment, for as long as they have had online payments I've had it set to autopay as soon as the monthly statement is issued. I used the card for almost everything. 2 weeks ago, I got the letter: Your rate is now variable. No reason, just because. Guess I'm done with that card.
- theartfuldodgr, on 07/16/2009, -0/+16Your lucky, that's nothing. I always pay my bills in full, with the rare occasion of an emergency expense arrising and taking maybe 2 or 3 cycles to pay off. I've never missed or had a late payment ever. Capital One raised me from 11.3% to 25.8%. I called them to see if I could negotiate the rate down a bit seeing how I've been a very good customer, they basically told me if you don't like it, gtfo.
- minnecrapolis, on 07/16/2009, -0/+15Not missing a payment and paying off in full every month are not the same thing.
I am the "worst" customer the banks can have. I pay off in full every month. I don't use my card unless I have the cash to pay it off.
They make no money from me. Their take is from the merchant who pays them to be able to accept their cards.
This is the part I will never understand, the double billing. They bill the person that uses their card and they bill the merchant for accepting it. - jsmith39, on 07/16/2009, -4/+19You've really got to stop getting all your talking points from Fox news and 4Chan.
- theartfuldodgr, on 07/16/2009, -1/+16There are things called emergency expenses.
- GREEDOnvrFIRED, on 07/16/2009, -1/+15Werde! Stick with it. But don't be afraid to use those 2 credit cards a little. Just never use them as cash you do not have. Only use them as cash you do not have with you. I over came the ridiculous debt of my 20s about 10 yrs ago. I have had an amex and a visa for the whole time since. I never, ever have a balance due. I pay every month in full. In return I got GREAT benefits from Amex. They gave me 100 bucks when the iPhone got cheaper. They act as an excellent travel agent for free. And they always have my back when I get screwed by a company. It is often worth it to use a credit card for the added service and coverage. But NEVER go into debt on one. "thats how they getya"
- covertbadger, on 07/16/2009, -1/+14"Good debt = house, car, school loans."
Umm, a car loan is NOT good debt. Good debt is when you borrow to pay for something that returns more than you paid for it. A house will generally do that over the 30-year mortgage term, and an education will do it over the course of your career. A car, on the other hand, plummets in value the second you drive off the forecourt, and then pursues a steady and uninterrupted course downwards.
Buy cars with cash, not finance. - EarlOfLade, on 07/16/2009, -2/+15Yepp!
$0 in debt, no credit cards and a nice chunk of change invested and in the bank.
I will never put myself in any form of debt ever again. I don't need "stuff" that desperately. - frequentFlyer, on 07/16/2009, -0/+13All of mine are paid off, cut up and canceled. Go ahead and tell me that not having credit cards is having "no credit" which is bad. I don't care.
- mgithens, on 07/16/2009, -0/+139 out of 10 millionaires claim that they followed these exact rules... i have an uncle and he's a millionaire many times over. He doesn't really have any money, but he has 2mil airline miles --- so he can fly ANYWHERE in the world as long as he doesn't check luggage and flies between 9:44am and 11:03am on Tues and between 12:13pm and 1:09pm on Wed. </sarcasm>
CC Companies are snakes, you play long enough and you'll get bitten. - ripter, on 07/16/2009, -4/+16I dropped my credit card 3 years ago. Debit cards are the way to go.
- Nerys, on 07/16/2009, -2/+14I can not WAIT till I am debt free. I made the CC mistake on going to college (all the free stuff) never thought much of it.
Now they actively work to prevent me from paying off my cards. I am working for almost no pay (special situation long story) barely paying my bills each month. but I pay them. its my debt.
the problem is when they TWIST the rules to KEEP me in debt. I realized I had a little extra money each month so I did some number crunching and with a future increase in my excess (almost paid off another card) I could pay this card off in 12-14 months time baring any unforseen problems.
well 3 months into making my "extra" payments my interest rate spiked. It just so happens that the "spike" was just enough to "eat up" the extra money I was paying toward it. so now my "extra" payment amount to pay off the car in 12-14 months was not my new MINIMUM payment.
I called up raving mad. I have an ok credit score and not one single late payment in nearly 7 years. (6.5 years ago 2 days late on a payment to my sears card)
Basically it boils down to this. Why did you increase my interest rate?
Because we can. Now go ***** off.
thats right. without using exactly those words that what they told me. Because they can.
UNFAIR RULES CREATE DEAD BEAT DEBTORS. Not all of them but surely some of them.
I am getting close. Really close. to saying no more payments and when they call and ask why I am thinking of saying "because I can, now go ***** off." in exactly those words.
I consider myself to be a good person. I have been fighting to pay down my credit cards for YEARS AND YEARS now.
they keep changing the rules to make it harder and harder.
Some of my cards have 32% interest rates! how is that even legal?
I have 1 late payment in 10+ years. I have a credit score of 705 (not great but certainly not bad!)
every single one of my cards has had massive interest rate increases.
I even had one company I THINK manufacturer a way to prevent me stopping the increase.
CHASE off course. my last statemet was january. they Nothing and the account "vanishes" from my online access (I am paperless off course) they won't tell me ANYTHING on the phone but I make a payment to keep everything good. samething in march. then finally end of april they FINALLY fix it.
some "mysterious" fraud alert occured. off course at exactly the same time they jacked my interest rate from 12% to 22% but I had 30 days to decline the increase close the account and pay it off at 12% (which I would have done in a heartbeat) but off course that convenient "fraud" alert occured so I got ZERO NOTICE AT ALL and since I was paperless I got NOTHING in the mail either.
CONVENIENTLY this "event" lasted within DAYS of long enough to PREVENT ME from declining the increase.
I do not believe in coincidences. if the companies start cheating my moral compass won't give me a problem cheating them back. - DangerCollie, on 07/16/2009, -1/+13We closed our last credit card after our credit union sold their card servicing to some company in Texas. We never ran a balance anyway, they probably didn't care about losing us.
We opened up a second debit card account and use that to pay all our bills and for travel. We keep that account separate from where we keep our serious money, so if someone skims the number, they wouldn't get much.
The downside to that is you lose a lot of the protections credit cards offer for online and fraudulent purchases. But I'd rather take the occasional loss than dance on the end of the credit card companies string. Pay them off, cut them up. Hit those bastards where it hurts. - pandawa, on 07/16/2009, -0/+10Debit ftw. Interest rate.... I DONT HAVE ONE. WHOOPEEE.
- ghee22, on 07/16/2009, -0/+10"Wasting their time" is a bit inaccurate. The credit card companies make a % of customers' purchases from the merchant. After a quick web search ( http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_do_credit_card_compa ... ), they also "can make additional money through other means, such as selling your name to a mailing list or sending advertisements in your monthly bill."
- nutzngum, on 07/16/2009, -0/+10I did a tally recently of how much i spent smoking. here in canada, a large pack is about $10 (large having 25, small having 20 cigarettes), so my pack-a-day habit costs me $300/month. I've decided to quit, and the first thing I'm going to do with the extra money I save is pay down my credit cards - I may have a decent interest rate right now, (13%) but who knows what they might do to me in the future...
- theartfuldodgr, on 07/16/2009, -0/+10I damn sure did. I payed off the remaining balance on it and promptly cancelled the card.
- PattyAZ23VM, on 07/16/2009, -5/+15No kidding! I completely agree with this. Good people who pay their bills on time are getting nailed regardless. I can't wait until the economy comes back around; these banks will pay for it in the end; people will remember how they were treated. Here's another story about a bank who treats their customers bad:http://justgoodbusiness.wordpress.com/2009/06/21/b ...
- compulsive1, on 07/16/2009, -0/+92% transaction fee on every purchase is nothing to frown about if you are a CC company.
if you spend 500 dollars every month and pay it right back, they are making 10 dollars times 12 months from the same 500 dollars over and over, or 24% yearly return on investment. If you carry a balance, you only ad to that profit. - JAHred, on 07/16/2009, -0/+9Congrats on kicking the habit, I hope the best for you. Looks like it will help you physical, mental, and financial health.
- theartfuldodgr, on 07/16/2009, -0/+9Not really, i have a 740 credit score, which is pretty decent for someone my age. I also pay my bill off in full, except for the rare occasion where it takes 2 or 3 cycles to pay off. Never missed a payment and never made a late payment. I just got my APR more than doubled. When I tried to negotiate the rate they basically told me take it or get a different credit card.
- dalittle, on 07/16/2009, -5/+14I like how there is only one digg down for your comment. Wonder who that was, lol.
- 9966, on 07/16/2009, -6/+15Credit Cards are not evil. They are free one-month interest-free loans. If you don't take advantage of that, it is YOU who are missing out.
Not to mention the free insurance provided for rental cars, airline flights, and for your belongings on vacation. Combine that with reward points for actually paying off your card, and its an even better deal.
**** Just follow this simple rule: If you have enough to pay for it with a debit card, pay for it with a credit card instead. ****
That way if someone steals it, the company has a reason to refund you the money (they've been defrauded too!) and if they don't you can boycott the payment. If you have a debit card stolen then you have to jump through more hoops to get your money back, and your company won't care because they've already passed the theft onto you!
Credit >> Debit - dangermen, on 07/16/2009, -0/+9All I can say is lower the days to pay, yeah that's meaner. Raising fees, and charger a higher interest rate... what? Why is that A) unexpected and B) meaner? Why doesn't anyone remember that credit cards are supposed to be high interest short term financial instruments and not financial survival vehicles? The first card I got out of high school was something like 25%. I knew that and used it when it was only necessary. Sounds like we need a reality check. Either banks charge fees and interest or we get messed up accounting and investment tactics that wreck the economy. Sounds like one way has a lot more suck than the other.
- dirtmonkey, on 07/16/2009, -2/+11Don't manage your money well? You are ***** because you won't be able to get credit if you need it.
Manage your money really well? By not using credit (I am not giving those d-bags any money) and paying for things in cash by saving up for them, you are also *****. Why? Because if you want a good rate on a loan (personal, home, etc) they look at your credit score. Only way to get a credit score is to give the credit card companies money.
Maybe if the government set up their own rating system we would be a better off... - inactive, on 07/16/2009, -0/+9theyre loan sharks. ***** them.
- Treshnell, on 07/16/2009, -0/+8Credit accounts that don't get used are negative points on credit reports, if I recall, just like ones that get used too much. I think most companies also have a period of time where they inactivate/close your account if it goes unused.
- LacY, on 07/16/2009, -0/+8I *have* insurance (***** as it is) and an emergency surgery put a huge dent on my finances. When you're not making much money, having a $2000 minimum deductable can put you in pretty tight financial straits. I don't even want to think about what would have happened if I hadn't had insurance...
Some places are willing to negotiate payment plans and some aren't. I was able to negotiate with the payments to the hospital itself (the bulk of the costs, luckily), but not with the anesthesiology team and surgical team bills. Good times... - mnemy, on 07/16/2009, -0/+8I wish this was a solution. In fact, this is exactly what i did throughout my college days and the beginning of my first job. Then I realized just how important a good credit score really is. In effect, I have no credit history, which to loaners and renters, makes me look like a huge threat. I need my parents to co-sign for me, even though I'm making way more money than most people my age, and have no debt.
The whole system is ***** retarded. I wish we could do away with the whole bogus Credit History BS. I do the responsible thing by only spending what I have, and I get punished. The idiot next door spends his entire income paying off debt every month, and he gets rewarded as long as he's not late. How does that make sense? - MistrBrownstone, on 07/16/2009, -0/+8I hope you told them to gtfo!
- NoLibertarians, on 07/16/2009, -2/+10Irrelevant. You pick your card company and you set the terms. No one is forced to take any banks card!
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