Generally, I'm a pretty laid back person and lately I've been trying to chill out in order to keep my blood pressure under control. However, this past Tuesday when I opened the mail my blood boiled. Capital One, the credit card we've been using mostly to make online purchases etc sent us notice saying that they had raised their interest rate from 9.9% to 17.9%. What had we done wrong? Had we been late with a payment, or not paid a payment at all? No, we'd never been late and usually pay the balance every month. Had our credit rating dropped? No, it's still excellent. Had we put more than we are allowed on the card? No, the balance was modest.
I had been hearing that many credit card companies were raising rates, but I figured it was on customers who were less credit worthy. How naive of me! Before George Bush left office the Republican Congress, with the help of some key Democrats, including our current Vice President passed a real turd of a bill making it harder to declare chapter 11 bankruptcy. At the same time they lifted the limit that credit card companies could charge up to 30%. Of course, I'm getting kind of long in the tooth, so I can remember when there were usury laws in the United States that prevented them from raising rates beyond 12%. Thirty percent was considered loan sharking and it was illegal. The only people who loaned money at that rate was the Mafia.
The argument for the increase in rates is a real piece of illogic. Some customers are having trouble paying their credit card bills. It's a lot more risky to loan money to them, so we'll raise the rates on our good customers as well as the bad ones. That way those who do the right thing and are prompt about paying their bills can bail out the deadbeats.
How am I going to deal with this? The next time I receive the bill, it will be paid in full and then I'm calling Capital One and telling them to fold the card four ways and put it where the moon don't shine! I don't need them, nor do I need their credit. I'll pay cash thank you and if you don't want to accept my check, then I won't do business with you. I got along fine without their credit card before and I can again. So their attempt to make me their bitch is going to backfire. If everyone with good credit does what I plan to do, then the credit card companies will be stuck with nothing but the insolvent and that would be just what they deserve.
You know what the worst aspect of the whole affair is? Capital One just got 3.5 billion dollars of taxpayer money to help bail them out. So they took the taxpayers money and then they turned around and screwed the taxpayer after they received the bail out. Are you outraged? I know I am.
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Wow that sucks! I received a similar statement from a care credit card that I am paying off from when Tank ate the butter. They said that if I didn't have a balance of 0 by March that they would raise the rate. I cannot believe that they can do that. I had never missed a payment nor been late. It's crap!
ReplyDeleteSadly, this is becoming a commonplace occurance. I had it happen to me about a year and a half ago....good old 5.99% morphed into 14.99% overnight, with no provocation whatsoever. I believe that was a Capital One card too. I did exactly what you're going to do, and about a year later they woke up and realized I wasn't using their stinky old card anymore, and sent me a new one at 5.99% promo rate for 6 months. What a great outfit to do business with, eh? I've got an idea. Use that card to pay Joyce's red light ticket with, and then report it stolen.... maybe you can get even yet!!!!
ReplyDeleteWhat a bunch of fracken A-HOLES.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Scott. I think that may be the best retaliation!