Credit card companies going crazy! WTF?!

[TinyGiant]

the reason i closed mine is because the credit card company sent me a letter saying . keep the card and have an interest rate of 22% or cancel the card and keep your 5%

so i canceled them. then called and said I was having trouble keeping up and they dropped one card to 0% for a year and the other stayed at 5%

the crappiest thing is one of thecards is maxed from fixing the jeep i no longer have :(

i had to replace the tranny, brakes and windsheild. then like 4 months later because of the gas prices I unloaded it to get the yaris..

makes it even more defeating to keep paying it lol

[YarisSedan]

Ooh man this pisses me off even more at boa. I already have issue with them charging fees for having a checking account now. I cant wait to cancel all my accounts with them checking savings and credit card and move my money elsewhere. Once i get my american express blue cash i plan to use that instead of my bank of america visa. Sad thing is not all places take amex and if i cancel my visa i wont have a backup. Well i do have another card but thats a discover and the places that dont take amex usually dont take discover either. So dosnt help.

[brotan1x]

This will be regulated.. I think the financial institutions are trying to see what they can get away with. They will be smacked across the face very soon.

[TinyGiant]

we need a reset button :)

[Kioshi]

you mean a delete button, get rid of plastic money....
i tend to make the same mistakes over and over again haha

[TinyGiant]

true lol

[BluYrs]

Looking from across the pond, I have to wonder...

If banks start charging more for credit cards (basically you using their money), wouldn't it make sense to switch your consumer behaviour around? So instead of going through your next paycheck by using a credit card, why not use the money you have from your last paycheck? You wouldn't have to cut back on spending- if anything you'd have a few extra bucks which would have gone to pay off the credit.

Of course, this is based on the presumption that you don't spend more than you earn and that you have the ability to save a bit for unforeseeable expenses. Could it be that this presumption is not correct and that's why so many people have to resort to frequently using a credit card?

I admit that this is a much wider topic and also involves differences in long-time consumer behaviour between the US and the EU, but I have to wonder if the credit card has become a basic necessity. Dammit, I got all Carrie Bradshaw there, sorry...

[Yaris Hilton]

Originally Posted by BluYrs

Of course, this is based on the presumption that you don't spend more than you earn and that you have the ability to save a bit for unforeseeable expenses. Could it be that this presumption is not correct and that's why so many people have to resort to frequently using a credit card?

I, like the majority of American credit card users, have always paid my balance in full each month. I use the card for convenience. The credit card companies unkindly call us "freeloaders," as we're not paying their exorbitant interest rates.

[why?]

What we need to do is to adopt the common sense banking laws of England, and prolly some other countries, which make most of these fees illegal. Heck, my sister checked into getting a fancy bank of america acount in the states, one that allowed you to keep balances in dollars, pounds, and euros, and it would've cost her about $200 a month to have here, but in england, because of the laws, she can have it for free.

[tomato]

Carrie Bradshaw's credit card bills are probably out of control. She always seem to be wearing new shoes and clothes yet she doesn't know where the next paycheck is coming from

[TinyGiant]

its bad enough i gotta sit through skanks in the city when my wife watches it .. lol not on YW too!?! lol

[tomato]

Good point TG ;)

[AmyV]

Haha, funny you guys are talking about all this. I have an excellent credit score. I got a Best Buy credit card last year so I could get a computer there (they offered me 18 months same as cash). Paid it off in about 8 months.

Now, they just took changed my fixed interest rate and changed it to variable. This past month would have been 28% !!! Thank god I don't have a balance on the card!

It pisses me off though. Can't cancel the card, but can't carry a balance either. I guess I will buy like a DVD a couple times a year, charge it, then pay it off right away.

[Kioshi]

AmyV - i always say no to retailers offering their card to me. What cards i have, i can use them to pay for what i am buying.

Yaris Hilton - i can understand where you are coming from. I have a WaMu Visa as a back-up credit card aside from Amex Blue student card....i think the more business type of accounts get charged the annual fee, but Blue by Amex doesn't have an annual fee..you should look into them..again.

Amex has treated me well since Sept 2005, now WaMu/Chase..not really.... :(

[tomato]

Amex used to charge an exhorbitant fee to merchants so that's why they don't take it. I don't know how much they charge these days.

[tomato]

You're just repeating yourself, but not adding any new info, so I can see you disagree with the statement but you're not saying why.

That's OK, everybody's entitled to their opinion

[Kioshi]

I kind of know what yaris-me is getting at, but not entirely...

I dont know how many retailers and stores in other states are accepting Amex..but i do know that I've seen an increase in stores now accepting Amex as of recent (this is based on me shopping at stores) in California.

[kustom play]

i just have 2 cards

one is a visa plat with a 2K limit (lol) and a master card with no limit (lol again)

i use to have a 20K limit on the master card, then I got a letter in the mail saying they upgraded me to unlimited so i dont have a limit

but it doesnt matter becasue my whole life since ive been 16, ive never had a balance on any of my cards. I pay them off every month

my visa I have my web hosting on 9.99 and the master card i use for everything else. I just use the card like cash, if i dont have the money in the bank then i shouldnt be using the card

I keep getting upgraded on my master card, i have all that cool stuff where i can call them and they get me tickets and everything else I need.

Im wating for somebody to offer me a Uranium card


I can see how people can get themself in trouble though, I was at toyota not to long ago and they told me i could qualify for anything on the lot including lexus

im like wtf i know i couldnt afford some of those cars, how can you JUST SAY i could?