Consumerist
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credit cards
Ending The 0% Balance Transfer Era
Ah, the glory days of American credit cards. When your credit card's interest rate went too high, you could find a different card with a deliciously low promo balance transfer rate, and revel in your low interest. At least, until you let the card sit idle too long or made a late payment, and then started the cycle over again. But no more. More » -
credit cards
House To Pass Credit Card Reform, Tell The Senate To, Too
The House is expected to pass the Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights Act today, and the Senate is considering similar legislation. The Senate battle will be harder, but you can help! More » -
rate hikes
Capital One Does Not Appreciate You Being Responsible, More Than Doubles Your APR
Beverly, who always pays on time and recently started paying off her balance in full every month, just saw the rate on her Capital One card more than double, from 13.9% to 29.4%. That'll teach you to not help sink the economy, Beverly! More » -
chase
Chase Promises To Honor Promotional APR Until Balance Is Paid Off Or They Change Their Mind—Whichever Comes First
Chase doesn't want to honor an old promotion promising to lock in a customer's APR until their balance is paid off, so they're just ignoring the original terms and jacking up interest rates. The bank wants to hike a promised 3.99% rate to either 7.99%, or 5% of the total balance plus a $10 monthly service charge, terms that are dull enough to put you to sleep until you receive the next month's bill. Inside, Credit Slips walks us through how this is legal, along with tips for recapturing the stolen promotional rate. More » -
chase
Nice Letter Gets Chase To Reinstate Man's Promotional APR
Stop the presses! Brian was able to get Chase to reinstate his promotional APR even though he accidentally set up in the auto-payment system in a way that incurred late fees. His secret? Asking politely and making a cogent argument that positioned his request in a manner any business would understand. His strange-but-true tale, inside. More » -
balance transfers
24% APR Crushes Reader To Death
Timothy is getting raped with a 24% APR on his credit card and wants help getting it lowered. He writes: More » -
american express
The 43.5% APR Credit Card
Perhaps this British Airways American Express Premium Plus Card's interest rate is in "metric" APR, but if not, no matter what side of the pond you're on on, or road you drive on, you must agree that a 43.5% variable interest rate is bollocks. Who cares how many bonus miles you get, they're just going to get devalued anyway.
UPDATE: The 43.5% APR is the effective APR after you include the £150 annual fee. Like commenter Hanke wrote, "It's just like those payday loan places, where although the actual interest rate is low, the fees associated with the service give you a 300%APR." Makes you wonder, though, what about all those American credit cards with annual fees? Their effective APR is also higher then, and as far as I know, they don't have to include the fee in the stated APR (big print or no).
British Airways American Express [Official Site] (Thanks to Kerwin!)
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complaints
BoA Closes Your Credit Cards If You Ask Why They Increased Your APR
It's evident the pendulum swung too far in terms of giving away too much credit, but now it seems to be swinging back in the opposite direction just as hard, with banks getting too tightfisted, even when it doesn't make sense. For instance, the APR on James's BoA credit card jumped from 9.32% to 13.99%, and shortly after he called to see about getting it back, they closed all three of his credit cards. One was a Gold account with a lifetime APR of 7.99%, the other had a 1.99% APR. Just last month, he received an offer to transfer $15,000 to the 1.99% card. Obviously at least one department in Bank of America thinks he's a good credit risk. It appears some other expressionless faces of the massive dodecahedron that is the entity called Bank of America disagreed. More » -
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vacations
American Airlines Refuses To Accept American Airlines Credit Card
American Airlines told Justin that they could not accept his American Airlines credit card due to a bug in their spiffy new booking system. Justin wanted to charge a trip to Disney World on the card, which unlike standard credit cards, is supposed to work exclusively for purchasing tickets with American Airlines. More » -
credit cards
Using Your Chase Credit Card Is Cause For A Rate Increase
Chase likes to raise the rates of cardholders whose only fault is properly using their credit card, according to an ABC 15 investigation. The rate hikes affect cardholders who do not exceed their credit limits or miss payments, with some APRs jumping from 7.99% to over 22%. From ABC 15: More » -
smart credit
A Big List Of 0% APR Credit Cards
We know how you guys love 0% APR credit cards, so check out this list of 50 of them from Consumerism Commentary. 0% APR credit cards let you do a number of things—you can use someone else's money for free, help yourself pay off your debt without gaining interest, etc. Each offer is different, however, so you want to make sure you read and understand the conditions of the offer and choose one that fits your needs.
50 Credit Cards Offering 0% APR on Purchases [Consumerism Commentary]
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be good
Consumerist's 10 Commandments of Credit
The Pope recently issued 10 commandments of driving, so we thought, "If the Pope can talk about driving from the back of his little popemobile, we can talk about credit." So without further ado, Consumerist's 10 Commandments of Credit. It's not everything you need to know about using credit wisely, but it's a good start. More » -
Money Crashers shares some ideas for fighting Universal Default, the practice whereby if you fall behind on your payments with one lender, they alert other lenders, who then use that as an excuse to jack up your rates.
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ripoff
Rent-A-Center More Like Ripoff Center
JLP over at AllFinancialMatters checked into renting furniture to own with Rent-A-Center. For a sofa and loveseat with a retail price of $1,048, a renter would pay $26.99 per week for 104 weeks, adding up to a whopping $2,806.96! More » -
debt
What To Look For In A Credit Counseling Service
Credit counseling is not for everyone, but may be for you if you are struggling with debt. Credit counselors work by negotiating a reduced payment plan with creditors. In exchange for receiving timely payments, creditors may return a small portion of the amount received to the counseling service. Only consider a counselor if you can reign in your spending and pay off your debt in less than five years. More » -
loans
Should You Pay Off Your Credit Cards With Home Equity?
Ah, one of the questions for the ages. Shall you or shall you not pay off your credit cards with home equity? Let's say you ran up a credit card on a bunch of crap you didn't need and are now being charged 15%. You've seen the error of your ways, and now are interested in paying off your debt. How should you go about it? Should you use Home Equity? Blueprint For Financial Prosperity suggests that, while you may be saving big money by cutting your interest rate, you should think the decision over carefully. More »
apr
New York, 3:57 AM
Mon Nov 9
6 posts in the last 24 hours
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