Rate Jacking Sucesses/failures

Former_MSE_Wendy
Former_MSE_Wendy Posts: 929 Forumite
I've been Money Tipped! Newshound! PPI Party Pooper Best Buy Bear
edited 10 June 2010 at 2:55PM in Credit cards
This thread is to discuss Rate Jacking Sucesses/failures here

To find out more about Rate Jacking read the guide
Rate Jacking: Stop unfair credit card interest rate rises


How to report your success/failure:

1. Click reply to enter you story.



2. Report your story in the following format:
  • Who Rate Jacked you: (e.g. Virgin, Egg)
  • Did you manage to get the rate reduced ????
  • Did you get it back after a letter or did you go to the Financial Ombudsman: ????
  • And then write your brief reclaim tale
Not a success / fail report? Pls use the Rate Jacking Discussion thread






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Comments

  • ponty
    ponty Posts: 1 Newbie
    I've been an Egg customer since I was at Uni and they'd always been pretty good. Just lately though (I believe they'd been taken over by Citibank) their service has gone completely downhill.

    I had a number of Egg products (Home Insurance, Car Insurance, Egg Card, Egg Savings, Egg Loan).

    Received an email back in March explaining that my rate was set to go from 16.9% to 22.9%. I read the Ts and Cs and saw that I could cancel my agreement (hence stopping the card) but still keep the existing rate. I guess Egg learnt that simply cancelling cards was bad press. So I cancelled it which meant I could pay back at the existing rate. I also cancelled all other products that I held with Egg when they came up for renewal, and will now refuse to take out any product with them again.
  • speedbird1973
    speedbird1973 Posts: 526 Forumite
    two minor hike for me in the last 2 months Citi - 17.9 to 19.9 and Tesco 16.4 to 17.9

    Both with the option to keep debt at existing rate and close card. Both zero balance so leaving be.
  • NickX
    NickX Posts: 3,046 Forumite
    ponty wrote: »
    I guess Egg learnt that simply cancelling cards was bad press

    No, they are now obliged to provide the option of paying the debt back at the existing rate as opposed to hiking the rate.
    ponty wrote: »
    I also cancelled all other products that I held with Egg when they came up for renewal, and will now refuse to take out any product with them again.

    Is this not cutting your nose off to spite your face, unless you are sure you have got better products elsewhere ?
  • mrsmcdade
    mrsmcdade Posts: 58 Forumite
    • HBOS (Bank of Scotland)
    • Yes
    • Just a phone call!
    • I had a letter this morning from HBOS informing me that my APR is jumping from 17.9% to 25.5%. I phoned them immediately and asked for my rate to be reduced. They reduced it back to 17.9% and I was off the phone in 4 minutes. Very pleased :T
  • DPAman
    DPAman Posts: 1 Newbie
    Egg, SMILE, MBNA, MINT have all done it.

    Halifax are now trying to reduce overdraft limit despiet the fact that I have maintained the saem limit for 10 years with no problems.

    I'm now going to start using DPA Section 12 (rights related to automated decision making) in complaint letters. What they forget is that would mean both the FSA and ICO handling complaints.
  • jesspolo
    jesspolo Posts: 21 Forumite
    Who Rate Jacked you: Lloyds TSB (Airmiles card)
    Did you manage to get the rate reduced ?: Nope

    I'd had the card for less than a year when I noticed in teeny tiny writing on my statement that my interest was going up. They'd put it down as the monthly rate, so it looked like a tiny increase, but after some swift sums I saw that they were proposing to raise the rate from 15% to 21%.

    I'd been making more-than minimum payments on the card, use it infrequently and had less than £1000 on it.

    I phoned and asked for a revision of the rise, spoke to a lovely chap who was immensely sympathetic and said he'd pass on my complaint.

    I got a letter about a month later saying they'd considered my complaint, but looking at the new rate they felt that it was very competitive and in light of this they weren't going to do anything about it.
  • ataylorrl
    ataylorrl Posts: 40 Forumite
    • Capital One
    • 6% for life of balance transfer
    • since 2007 approx
    • Increase to 18.9%
    I rang them after receiving their letter. Spoke to chap in India who was obviously reading from a script....credit crunch... blah blah blah.

    Said I was very unhappy with what they were proposing since I had signed up to life of balance deal.

    Gave me option of taking my debt elsewhere or cutting up card (done in 2007) and continue payments until £0. Snapped his hand off at second option.

    More an more difficult to get deals on credit cards now so have reached saturation with the various tarting we been doing!
    Amanda


    :whistle: :whistle:
  • Stixx
    Stixx Posts: 22 Forumite
    Who Rate Jacked you:
    MBNA - I actually posted a thread for advice in credit cards on Monday when we realised (2.2%pm to 2.529% - from £120 to £140 per month!)

    Did you manage to get the rate reduced ????
    Ongoing - spoke to a very unhelpful call handler with MBNA yesterday that just said we knew about it - we've had no correspondence and they have also put a stop on the account, so should not be increasing the interest on top.

    Did you get it back after a letter or did you go to the Financial Ombudsman: ????
    We wrote a complaint letter to MBNA yesterday which asked for copies of all our information including telephone transcripts under Data Protection and Freedom of Information Acts. This letter will also be sent to the Ombudsman.

    And then write your brief reclaim tale
    We realised this week that the interest rate has been increased, we looked back through statements and noticed that the account was also withdrawn in March 09, we were not aware of this, as we haven't used the card since last year.....
  • jamesperrett
    jamesperrett Posts: 1,009 Forumite
    First Post First Anniversary Name Dropper
    Lloyds TSB did this to me with an Asset Advance card which had been on 9.9% for many years (at least 5). I tend to use credit cards when I know I'll have a lump sum coming in but want to spend early so I may not pay the balance off for a few months. I managed to get a Barclaycard on their 6.8% deal so I've now tranferred the Lloyds balance to that. I've still kept the Lloyds account open but am now wondering whether to close it completely.

    Cheers

    James.
  • Katymc226_2
    Katymc226_2 Posts: 4 Newbie
    I have just been rate-jacked. After being a good customer with a £5K limit, I recently consolidated my debts for an 8% pa loan, to resist temptation I asked Virgin to lower my limit to £500. I currently owe about £260 and always pay £10 above minimum payment.

    Got a letter rate-jacking up to 29%, I have the option of calling them to keep my rate at current level, but my card will be frozen with no more spending.

    I called them and said I did not want to leave as was very happy, they refused to explain why I was rate jacked and would not budge.

    I have a Virgin holiday booked which has to be paid on the card, so she offered to increase my limit to £800 to cover this, then I received a text refusing this, so I now have a failed application on my credit history!

    :mad:
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