My beautiful sisters.....
I wanted to bring to your attention something that some credit card companies are doing, particularly Bank of America. In the past, cc companies would up your interest rate if you were late on a payment, etc.
NOW however, some are upping the rate on those who have had no problems paying on time. You might not even know that the company has done this, unless you look VERY carefully at your statement.
This just happened to us. We had a card that went to almost 30% for NO reason at all. None. Thankfully I had happened to see an article about what cc companies are doing now here
http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/105587/10-Things-Your-Bank-Won
I sent that article to TWS and about that same time, he discovered that that is EXACTLY what BoA did to us.
Here is another short but REALLY good article about what cc companies do, but do not tell you about.
http://www.smartmoney.com/deal-of-the-day/index.cfm?story=20080723-credit-card-pitfalls
Also here about trying to save money on gas and what actually ends up costing you money:
http://www.smartmoney.com/deal-of-the-day/index.cfm?story=20080721-4-bad-gas-saving-deals
Of course we know that we should stay out of debt. While we are working on it, however, we are at the mercy of cc companies unless we are careful about checking our finances, fees, increases, etc. There are so many different banks and companies, you CAN go shopping. I have read that you can try talking to a manager, not just the customer service rep, at your cc companies and let them know that you will walk immediately. Apparently, sometimes they will work with you, especially if you have been in good standing.
Have a wonderful day!
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1 comment:
We have a BofA credit card account that we have been paying on for years. However, what I did a couple years ago, was closed the account. By closing the account, they are required to keep us at the terms of service we had at the time of closure. None of the new terms affect us. We don't transfer our debt to another credit card account, because the new cardmember agreements from these creditors, would charge double the payment we are paying and offer shorter grace periods. BofA does now as well, but like I said, we aren't bound by that since we closed it before they changed over to a new way of doing things. We pay more than the minimum, but not as much as what the new terms would require.
We have a different credit card (one I've had since I was 18!) with a credit union that we use for new purchases. It is always paid off in 1-3 months. I have found the credit unions are much more fair than the banks. We no longer charge things that can't be paid off in a timely manner, but you are right- sometimes credit is needed.
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