My Citibank mastercard's rate was raised to 29.99 percent. If I opt out now I'll retain my current rate at the expense of closing the account - which is worthless at this rate anyhow. If I keep it open, are the previous balance's charges billed at the old rate or the new one?

What about none-of-the-above?

@The Cheat: The new rate. If you can't pay the entire thing off (or at least transfer it to another card), I would suggest closing it. Sure, it'll hit your credit score - but at least you won't be paying 30% APR.

@bornonbord: exactly. That option should be added to get a better idea of what's going on.

Two of my credit cards, including the AmEx that we got through Costco's rewards program, have reduced credit limits to approximately $1000 over our balance. This actually happened several months ago. They blamed it on "worsening economic conditions." They certainly didn't have any other cause to cut our credit, since our scores are good, we pay on time, and we pay more than the minimum payment.

I chalked it up to the recession, but it did cause me to start cutting back on frivolous expenses. We're both still employed but I considered that unused available credit a cushion in case of emergencies. Now that it's gone, I feel that we need to increase our cash cushion (which is probably a better idea anyway).

Chase lowered one of my cards with them from 8,000 to 3,600. Funny that they kept begging me to do a balance transfer to this card, but I had no real reason to transfer a 13% balance to a 12% when I was going to get charged 3% for the privilege.

They're excuses for the credit cut were funny too (as in, I suppose technically true but far from legit, imo). One card "had" a high balance of $5,000 (just paid of 3,000 of it), and one card has a late payment 2 years ago because it took them 2 months to update their system with my new address and they refused to have the post office forward the statement to me (fortunately I noticed I hadn't made my monthly payment when it was only 2 days over due and wasn't charged a late fee, but apparently that card still reported the 'late' payment to the credit bureau).

Amex also lowered my credit limit twice, from 10,000 to 6,000, then again to 5,200 (which was only 200 over my balance at that time). This is the card that just got a 3,000 payment (a surprise work bonus), so I'm wondering if they're going to cut my credit again.

There is no option for the rate being raised to something less than 29% . . .

Chase sent me a letter saying they were extending the due date by five days, so they've gotten nicer, not meaner.

@dham: Approximately 29%

It's weird, because I keep expecting my Chase Amtrak card to start screwing with me, but so far no percentage hike or decrease in my limit. I keep thinking they'll yank it out from under me at any moment.

Plus, I got a letter the other day about how they're "giving me 5 more days to pay" during the current billing cycle. I didn't look into it much, but I don't quite understand that move.

PLEASE people, this was happening LONG LONG before this bill was signed.

This is considered normal AA.

@Groovymarlin: AMEX and carrying a balance don't mix. Normal AA.

You need to add an option to the poll "Card cancelled without warning", this happened to me on my Costco AmEx.

@The Cheat: new rate. Opt out and save $$.

This is the second poll on Consumerist that has completely missed the mark on this.

I have to vote "None of the above" despite 4 credit cards all raising their rates to 10-12% or so on me, but nowhere near 29%.

It frustrates me, but these polls, as far as I can tell, keep underreporting people like me with perfect credit who get their rate bumped simply because the credit card company thinks it deserves more money.

@wcnghj: But a lot of these things began happening in earnest in anticipation of the bill being signed. I only wish the bill had made its provisions retroactive to, say, January 2008. It would have been fun to see all the CC companies crap their pants.

@Jevia: My Costco Amex did something similar. Every payment resulted in a reduction of my credit limit to just above ($200-$500) my balance. I paid it off last month. One week later they closed the account.

@wcnghj: BTW, my TransUnion FICO is 782 and the ONLY AA I have gotten was from chase in January. It was an APR increase to 10.24% but I don't carry a balance so it doesn't matter.

With my cards I average $40/month in cash back. I spend about $1200/month...
__

Discover Escape- 2% back on EVERYTHING.

Penfed Cash Rewards- 5% back on gas, 2% groceries, 1.25% on everything else. (Credited on next statement)

Citi Forward- 5% back on Amazon, restaurants, movie theaters,bookstores. 1% everything else.

US Bank bumped up my late fee by $10. Missed a payment deadline by 45 minutes on the due date and was charged $30, plus interest.

@aphex242:
Yep. One went from 9.99 to 14.99 so that doesn't really fall under "approximately 29%"

I had to vote none of the above as well.

I pay off my balance at least 2 weeks before it's due and never carry a balance into the next month. My credit limit was actually increased on that card.

Between my AmEx and Discover card I had a credit limit of over $35k at the beginning of the year, now because of one unrelated account with a late payment, the only one I've ever had, my AmEx card is cancelled and my Discover card has a credit limit of $500, so my credit limit went from over $35k to $500...needless to say this hurt my credit score and has caused me to swear off both AmEx and Discover forever, and I have even begun to switching to cash only for purchases to stop giving money to the credit card companies completely.

@The Cheat: My Citi opt out let me continue to USE the card under the old rate until 04/10 when the card expires. This is the best opt out I have seen. Since opting out they have given me a CLI and keep sending me the BT checks. In a nutshell they are treating me the same as any other customer.

When April comes I could ask my account to be reinstated under the higher rate, but I think I will just let it close and go with a CU. First I will ask to keep the lower rate and see what they say.

You really have nothing to lose to close the account and you gain the lower rate. 29.99% is ridiculous they are really just telling you to close the account at that point.

Noone I know has had this happen to them yet, I think they look at the state of the economy in your region and decide from there. I'm in Calgary Canada, the economy is still fairly good here.

Am I alone in saying I got an INcreased credit limit?

I know Consumerist readers probably have less debt and are in better situations than the average American, but is anyone in a position that you would default on CC balances if your rate were hiked, your adjustable rate rose or would be in a tough spot if your credit lines were frozen (thus making you more likely to default on this or other debt)?

I definitely know people in these kinds of situations and it will be very interesting how they play out.

Dan

Because of bank consolidations, three of my four credit cards ended up under WAMU. I have just shy of 10K on them, related to moving for a job, and a heck of a lot of medical bills. (Moved to get the job, to get insurance, to get get treated, actually.)

It was all going swimmingly well, and we made all our payments on time, by more than the minimum. Never, EVER late.

Then Chase took over WAMU. We thought, at least it's not BoA, and decided to see how it would go. Boy was that a mistake.

Just in the last two months, they have jacked our interest rates up from a doable 10-12% to 27%, 29%, and up on the three cards. (I can't remember the highest one except it's orbital.) Our limits were slashed, too. They haven't closed on us, yet, but we are expecting that soon. There is no lowering interest, or transferring balances to just one card. We called and asked.

Our reaction was to move entirely over to the credit union I have my car loan with. We then got a $5000 line of credit, and took just over half of our debt off of the Chase cards, and put it in the Credit Union. That alone took our payments down by $80 a month, and our interest rate for that is 12%. Sure not the lowest ever, but a helluva lot better than the 29% card it replaced.

We are waiting for that last bill on that card. You know, they can only 'estimate' your last bill, when you go pay them. Sure they can calculate down to the penny if you ever go over, but if you want to pay them, then they only 'estimate' and you still get another freaking bill in a month for 50-100 bucks.

As soon as our cards are all the way paid off, we are cutting them up. We estimate it will be done by this time next year. (Already closing our Chase bank accounts next month, when the direct deposit switches over to the Credit Union.)

@wcnghj: I think I asked you this before--are you interpreting miles in dollar value? Escape by Discover gives no cash back at all--it's all miles (which are in some cases convertible). It sounds like a great card for the frequent traveler, but if you're not, it's pretty valueless. Here's a review: [www.askmrcreditcard.com]

@frank64: Thanks for the advice. I'm going to close it and ensure that they retain my old rate. It had gone up from 10% to 16% two months ago, now up to 29.9% which is insane. I'd hate to default on a 29.9% card.

@jscott73: Same thing happened to me. Credit limits totaling $45k last year. Costco Amex closed my account as soon as I paid it off, and Cap One reduced my limit to $500 as soon as I paid that one off. Now I have $500 in total credit. Securing travel for a family of four with a debit card makes me feel vulnerable compared to using a credit card.

@aznjoker: not only an increase in credit, also reduction in interest (by over 10%). They did raise my monthly payment quite significantly though (which as far as I'm concerned is only a good thing)

So far BOA has done nothing to my rate of 9.24% and Citi raised my rate from 9.99 to around 17% but I opted out of that. My CLI has not been touched and with Citi actually increased after I opted out.

I have been unemployed since Feb and worried that my lower payment would cause some adverse action, but so far nothing. I have still managed to pay at least $100 over minimums and that seems to be working. I usually try to pay way before the due date and don't charge anything like alcohol. I think this might be good for internal review purposes.

I am still real surprised that BOA hasn't done anything.

@B: Chase did the same with me, and they actually raised my limit in September of last year when I asked them to. I was in the process of buying a house and wanted to increase available credit and the raised it 1500 for me.

You missed an option on the poll... "elimination of cash back rewards". I was loving my 3% cash back on groceries with Chase, but they just killed it.

@futuresuperbowlMVPJayCutler: I think the largest problem for a lot of people will be the increase in minimum monthly payments (compounded by increase in interest of course). While this is probably a very positive thing in the long run, a lot of folks out there will have a hard time reshuffling their monthly budgets to accommodate the higher payments.

@futuresuperbowlMVPJayCutler: Dan, I really would like to get EVERYONE to default. All at once. Millions of debt-laden card holders just say no more.
(are we all to blame, no. I blame the government and irregulations)...sounds like nuklar...

"Minimum payments raised" am I the only one who thinks this is actually a very positive thing? It will finally force a lot of people to take paying off their credit card balances more seriously. My Citicard just raised my monthly payment by about 3 times the previous minimum (still less than I tend to pay), but at least making a minimum payment doesn't equate to simply paying off what I incurred in interest the previous month. It will be a pain for a lot of people at first, but once budgets are adjusted this will only help, not hurt, credit card users.

After Amex cut my limit, and chase, amex and discover raised the minimum payment, I decided that debt-free was the way to go! I now have no credit cards, and no credit card debt. GO ME!

I answered "None of the Above", but one card got meaner long before the new rules (added 3% Balance Transfer fee), while Discover has actually gotten nicer (announced an end to double-cycle billing before they had to). I also learned that Discovers "why aren't you using your card" calls meant that I was in a position to make demands, like a lower interest rate.

AmEx bumped my rate up to 13.99%. I've never used the card, just had a balance transfer on it and paying it off. So I'm gonna guess they didn't want to bump the rate up too much to see if I would use it. Interestingly enough, I usually get an email when my next statement is due (and they send out a paper statement too--for our records--although I always pay online) but the email has not arrived. I show I should have gotten the email last week on or near the 15th. I recently changed my mailing address due to a move, so I wonder if that has something to do with it. No I wonder if I'll even get the paper statement...

My BOA card is completely paid off and so far the rate has not been changed...I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop, though...

Chase refuses to lower my purchases APR although they did cut me to a fixed APR on outstanding balance. Then, unexpectedly they canceled one of my two cards. I'm waiting on the other to cancel any minute now because I have a balance on it. I'm speaking to Exec Customer Care and even they seem to act like their hands are tied. The least they could have done is leave the account 'open' for credit reporting purposes while I pay off the balance. Certainly they should be able to stop new purchases if they wished?

Makes me mad! I think I will write to the Senate banking Committee - - -

@zaremba: That's exactly what happened to me. They increased my credit limits, reduced my interest rate (not that I care, as I always pay in full), and raised my minimum payments (again, not that I care).

Hasn't Consumerist complained in the past about credit cards having minimum payments so low that it would take years to pay off balances at that rate, claiming that that is somehow exploitative? Now, the credit card companies reverse that trend (agreed, a good thing) and they're saying they've gotten "meaner"? The only "mean" thing I can MAYBE see about raising minimum payments is doing it for existing balances. But still, if you're having trouble making the minimum balance on your credit cards you're a high risk anyway and shouldn't be carrying so much debt.

@Jevia: AmEx just raised my limit, actually. I did a double take last time I logged on a few days ago.

@olderbudwizer: I had a similar situation with Bank of America, but they kept the account opened (although I wasn't able to make any purchases) until my balance was $0. After that it was immediately closed.

@The Cheat: Check to see if you can still use the card until it expires. I think it depends. Probably shouldn't use it anyway until it is paid down and it shouldn't influence your decision either- because 29.9% is still to high no matter what.

But I wouldn't sweat the loss of the card. Even if they close the account you can ask them to reopen it(under the low rate) after you pay off the balance or get real close. You will look better and hopefully they will be in a better position too. It is going to take time for things to settle down. Maybe a year?

Last week I got a letter about my Chase Visa, stating that I would have an additional 5 days to make my payments. This is for a credit card that I pay the full balance each month. My guess is that the next step is that the grace period will be eliminated and interest will be charged from the transaction date.

@aznjoker: Not at all. :)

@johnva: To be honest, I don't actually know if they've changed my minimum payments or not (I guess it would be changing their percent of the balance, really). I know some people feel minimums and interest rate are a matter of principle (pardon the pun) even if you do keep your card paid off, but it seems to me that if I'm being asked to accept a condition change in order to retain my current rewards and limits, those that don't practically apply to me would be my choice.