Over the past two weeks, I have heard some truly disheartening stories from Chase credit card customers whose monthly payments were increased from 2% for 5% (see Chase Raises Minimum Payments for horror stories).  Today, however, two posters have left notice that it is possible to arrange a reasonable repayment plan.

According to these posters, people who have been hit with payment increases should request to speak with the aptly titled HARDSHIP DEPARTMENT.  Both posters wrote that they were able to negotiate a lower monthly payment without having to pay a significantly higher interest rate.  Here is a very helpful posting from Susanne, who successfully got her monthly payment reduced: Continue Reading »

2009 has surely been a less than stellar year for many of us.  Unfortunately, the difficulties many of us are going through have been made significantly worse by our not so friendly credit card companies.  During the first half of 2009, Smart Balance Transfers received ten times more credit card complaints than we have in the past two years.  To make matters worse, most of the credit card complaints we’ve received came from people who had really done nothing wrong.  In the past, a majority of complaints came from consumers who had made mistakes, such as missing payments or failing to understand elementary fine print.  Such is not the case in 2009.

In 2009, the worst credit card complaints have come from people who literally did nothing to deserve ludicrous interest rate increases, absurd payment increases, and drastic credit limit decreases.  So strap yourself down and take a moment to absorb some of the most horrendous credit card practices in the history of modern finance. Continue Reading »

In the summer of 2008, it was possible for consumers with good credit – not great, just good – to get a 0% APR on no fee balance transfers for around 6 months or get a 0% APR balance transfer for 1 year with a 3% fee capped at $75.  Today, such is not the case.  Credit limit decreases as well as other factors have dented otherwise very good credit scores, sometimes substantially.  And balance transfer fees, as well as interest rates, are increasing dramatically. Continue Reading »

Editor’s Note:  At the time of publication, Citi had only raised rates on a few store branded credit cards.  For information on the current Citibank credit card interest rate increases, see this article.

Much has been made today about Citibank raising interest rates on consumers.  However, it appears the increases are only tied to co-branded store credit cards issued with Macy’s and Sears.  According to reports, the interest rate increases average 3%.  The media, however, has turned this into a headline story when, compared to the actions of other banks, this is a rather small increase.

Late last week, Chase raised minimum payments for some consumers by 150%, from 2% of the balance to 5% of the balance.  This has put many consumers on the brink of default, as once manageable payments have ballooned into mortgage sized responsibilities.

Similarly, Chase, Capital One, and a wide array of other banks have been sharply increasing interest rates on broad swaths of consumers with solid credit histories.

Perhaps the fact that Citibank is a semi-nationalized bank is causing this big uproar.  But ultimately, Citibank’s decision to raise rates on already high interest store credit cards people should not have been carrying balances on in the first place is one of the least newsworthy credit card headlines of the past six months.