Posted on 07/01/2009 4:07:36 AM PDT by Red in Blue PA
Reuters) – Citigroup Inc has increased interest rates on up to 15 million U.S. credit card accounts just months before curbs on such rises come into effect, the Financial Times reported citing people close to the situation.
Citigroup had upped rates on 13 million to 15 million credit cards it co-brands with retailers such as Sears, the paper said.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Use Cabela's! Screw Citi.
There will be fewer perks, higher fees, lower credit limits, and far fewer people being *offered* credit.
The era of the McMansion and three-SUV family are OVER: and people will be forced to live within their means.
Now all we need to do is enforce the same fiscal sanity on Washington.
Cheers!
All while enjoying our bailout money.
I got mine. But even at the new rate of 8.3% it’s lower than most. And BofA informed me that my rate on their card is now tied with the prime rate, and while it didn’t raise the rate yet any change in the prime would result in a change. I’m assuming that’s up or down.
Better yet, use your CITI card, but pay off the balance every month, denying them the opportunity to screw you out of interest and fees.
I got a letter from Sears telling me they had cancelled my card altogether. I had a zero balance and hadn’t used it in a year or more. These arbitrary actions are causing people with good credit scores to have average credit scores. It stinks.
I have been free from credit cards for 3 years. Living off of cash is amazing, simple, and I NEVER have to worry if I made the credit card payment.
If anyone here hasn’t read Dave Ramsey’s book “The Total Money Makeover,” I would highly recommend you do so.
Dont carry a balance over on those credit cards ping!
To customer :”Dont cut up the card, just dont buy what you dont have money for. Credit card interest is for suckers”
Your credit score is an indicator of how good you are paying off debt. If you have no debt to pay off, your credit score will plummet.
When I had credit cards, my score was in the high 700's. Since I've paid off my credit cards and my car, my credit score has dropped under 680. I don't care. I don't have to bow to the God of FICO anymore!
Gee, couldn’t have seen THAT one coming...
(Don’t make me put a sarcasm tag here!)
This is irrelevant if people pay their balances on time.
You have to have a combination of diffferent types of credit. I have a Discover card that offered no interest until the promotional balance is paid in full. The credit line was 8500. I ‘borrowed’ 4500 to pay off a car loan. After about 1 year of making double the minimum payment and on time, they slashed my available credit to just $200 above what I owed them. Another hit to the credit score.
That’s fine if you don’t want to qualify for a mortgage. But if you do, FICO rules the day. Who is going to qualify to buy all those houses on the market if this keeps up?
Credit ratings are a way for the lending institutions to keep track of who they can make the most money from. Dave Ramsey would be so proud of you! How long before you have your mortgage paid off?
It’s not irrelevant.
The big banks are not only raising interest rates but are cutting perks to those who pay off their palance each month.
When I was young and stupid I decide what I could buy based on if I could make the minimum payment per month. I admitted I was young and stupid.
I do not know what woke me up, but about 25 years ago I realized credit debt was like slavery. Almost every dime I made went to service that debt.
It may have been when I realized I was paying for things that I bought years before and in fact no longer had because it had worn out or was broken.
My wife and decided to get out of debt. The method was simple.
1. Stop spending! Other then real neccisities we quit spending, no meals out, no movies, no new clothes, no nothing but basics.
2. Stop using the credit cards. Pay cash.
3. We concentrated on the highest interest cards first. Paid as much as we could each month. When one card was paid off we used all the extra money on the next card.
4. Start a savings account. When I looked back on how we got where we were I noticed that we used the credit cards for emergencies. We had no savings and when something came up, the only choice was the credit card. By having some savings we could handle most small emergencies.
It took almost two years to pay everything off and by then our new frugal habits were in place. I was surprised how fast our savings began to grow once we stopped paying out so much in interest.
Once we were out of debt we realized a dream we always thought was impossible, buying our own home. Which we did, and following the same rules as above, we paid a thirty year mortgage off in 15 years (saving a bunch of interest payments).
For any young FreeRepublic person reading this, if you are in debt now, do everything you need to do to get out of debt. Begin today.
Well especially considering the legislation which 0-bam signed, it’s not hard to figure that the cards will have to limit there exposure on all fronts. What I also expect to come from this is that issuers will limit lines and boost interest considerably on those will questionable credit, as they should. This will no doubt result in Sharpton, Jessie, and thier pals at ACORN jawboning and protesting the banks which end up doing this since they will be disproportionately discriminating against the underprivileged. rolls eyes.
Just pay it off every month and they can’t charge you a penny.
We have a Citi, but we use a Chase Rewards card for almost all our purchases. We’re renovating a foreclosure we bought so I went to the Chase Rewards page and cashed in some points for $1000 of Home Depot gift cards. I’ve never paid Chase a penny of interest, or fee...and they just gave me $1000, pretty good deal if you ask me.
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