Wot's goin' on?

Geoff._Johnson_3

The Good, the Bad: I write to my HSBC credit card account, which was charging nearly 20 per cent, and say that interest rates are at historical lows, why do they charge so much - they reduced the rate by 4 per cent to 15.9 per cent. Good....
But then I get a letter from Capital One, saying they are going to INCREASE my credit card to nearly 20 per cent - take it or leave it. I can opt to cut the card up, and pay at existing rates, or pay the higher rate. Bad...
I thought the illustrious government wanted us to spend, and support the high street shops?
Credit cards must be the only business that does everything to get customers, then treats them very badly.
Why can one go down, the other go up?
Any ideas?

anotherpaul_2

When times are bad people stop paying their credit cards and so bad debts increase. They're trying to rake is as much as they can to cover it. I'm sure they're trying to encourage you to clear the debt too.

They seem to be doing this to an awful lot of people at the moment.

normanmark

They're variable credit rates. So its purely up to the company what rate they feel like they want to charge.

JayZed

Geoff._Johnson wrote: »

I can opt to cut the card up, and pay at existing rates

That sounds like the sensible option.