Rate Jacking Sucesses/failures

graemesamson1

i recently received a letter stating my interest rate will be going upto 31.9% from 20.9% orginally it was 15.9% and had to argue a few months ago about them putting it upto 20.9%. i have never missed a payment. sometimes just minimum payment but always on time. i have a £2500 limit with only £1000 on the card. i really dont understand there reasons!! anyone know the reasons? they did say in the letter they can keep my current rate if i close the account etc. same as everyone else has been told so it seems. one thing that does confuse me. in the letter they state they update there terms from credit files etc. as far as i know they have to get permission to do a new credit score on a customer? so how can they tell your credit score without this information???????? and if they are doing secret credit scores then surely they need out permission and could be why peoples credit scoring is going down???????

MariaC

vodkafreak wrote: »

Same happened to me! To be fair capital one DID write to me giving me the option of staying on my current rate if i cancelled the account (owed about £1000 & didn't use card much anyway!). Of course i agreed to this & continued just making usual payments then, shortly after, i managed to get a virgin credit card at 0% so transfered the balance to this. Hope to pay off in 16 months before interest kicks in so capital one actually did me a favour!;)

Same here..
Capital one card @ 6.95%
Had it since 2005

Recieved letter in March 09 saying they were going to put the rate to 9.9%. Not the biggest increse, i know, but with over £6500 owing it would still work out a fairly bit more in interest.

Took the cut up the card and pay off balance at current rate option.

Did give me the boost I needed to pay it off... £6500 in 7 months.. i will be totally free of it on 30th Oct 09. Yay! :j

But man o man has it been hard work!

jjww_2

Hi there everyone,

My rate on my hsbc platinum card has increased from 16.9 to 30.9 apr this year, on average it has went up every 2 months with no option to cut up the card and pay the debt off at the original rate. I kept ringng and ringing them and finally last week had some success they have reduced the rate to 6.9apr for 1 year which should be enough time for me to clear it completely. Anyone in the same boat should perservere phoning them and if need be do what i did and make it clear that if the rate keeps going up you would have no option but to let it go to debt recovery this seemed to worry them enough to drop my rate i guess they are used to people getting ccjs or ivas etc. and not paying back the debt.

I have closed all of my other hsbc accounts , 1 current, 3 business, 3 business credit cards and found as soon as i started to close accounts my rate started to go up on my personal credit card.

my aim is to be debt free ( excluding mortgage and business loan) by december 2010

DaveMacD

Had a Capital One card for a while that I used for a balance transfer a few years ago. Used it again about 6 months ago for another balance transfer, since the rate was 9.51% on balance transfers (although the previous deal was a fantastic 3.5%....) far better than I was paying on my other card (probably around 16%). Shocked to get a letter informing me that my rate was going up to somewhere around 25%.:eek:

Called the number on the letter, and they weren't too happy I was exercising my right to opt out. They tried to get me to stay on the higher rate, but since I was only interested in the balance transfer, and wasn't caring about spending on it, they agreed to me opting out.

Since I've now managed to clear all my cards but this one, fingers crossed I won't have to deal with all these blood suckers for much longer. Maybe get clear, then take out one card with a low limit, and that'll be it.

psyangel

Hullo, Capital One rate jacked me 6 weeks ago, they have doubled my purchase rate to just below 26% and upped balance transfers to 12.9%. I was furious. Rang them, demanded to speak to a manager and told them they were thieving so and so's, especially bearing in mind the rate at which they buy funds. I refused the rate increase, so have kept my old rates, cut the card up and as soon as possible will balance transfer away - but have already got Virgin so need to find another. I have always paid much more than the minimum and well before the payment deadline. In a way they did me a favour, i am working hard at getting rid of as much debt as possible for the next year and i was going to get rid of them anyway - just not yet!

chocolate-eater

Had a row with virgin (MBNA). Rate has increased to 29.9% and first I heard of it was on the phone during a heated argument witht the rep after I complained why my interest was almost £100 on £4k debt.

Told all about being a high risk as have other high credit card balances. I had never been written to or informed otherwise. I asked her to explain how putting my interest rate up due to other high commitments helps and this is just counter productive. They offered to go through a budget exercise but said this would not guarantee any rate reduction and it will be recorded on my credit file (another negative mark against me). So I refused and wrote to them. She also said that my minimum payment will always be more than my interest if no other spending has been made. Well in three months there has been no other spending and minimum payment requested by dd has been less than interest charged.

I wrote to them accusing them of profiteering at the expense of vunerable people, asked them to listen to the transcript of the telephone call and regarding minimum payment not exceeding interest.

I asked to explain the logic in increasing a rate to someone struggling to pay off debts but have never missed a payment.

I also questioned how if the decision is based on what is owed to all credit cards how they can give an accurate credit score if they do not know my savings and income. In fact when I updated details in above call they had an employer down who I left over 10 years back and my income was probably half then of what it is now.

I have told them I will take things further and to ombudsman if I do not get my rate decreased.

I wrote 22nd Aug and received a letter dated sept 4th saying that they will make a response in writing by 22nd sept and they take it very seriously. As of today 20th no response and looking online my interest rate remains the same.

I had a seperate spat with them about being constantly phoned by an indian call centre regarding making a balance transfer on my MBNA card. They phoned about 10 times and I finally made a transfer by internet. This was on a card with a 3k limit. After I did this they wrote to me saying it had been refused as they were reducing the limit and therefore i had no spare limit to transfer money. So not very pleased about this. However after this happened I still had indian call centre phoning me to make transfers and saying that I had a 3k limiti when in fact limit was reduced to 1.8k so they are not kept abreast with updated accounts.

kingboyk

I was caught out in the infamous Cahoot Flexi-Loan rate hike, and have recently put in a complaint to the FSO. I have a case number but no movement as of yet.

Gerashi

I have been with HSBC since 1985, all my banking and insurance is with them, never missed a payment. In May 09 they increased my rate from 19.9 to 21.9% without notification. I called them to reduce the rate, they were adamant about not reducing it despite all my and my family banking with them. I formally complained to HSBC and now waiting for an answer. I have closed the account and threatened to move all our banking to another, but they did not seem to be bothered about it.

Now the question is, do I have any grounds for compensation, if any offered, because I closed the account.

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Updated: 22/09/09 1030 hrs

HSBC Complaints department called me in les than 36 hourse of me complaining, and offered to reopen the account and offered a much lower rate I even had initially.

Complaining works. Most of the time.

dushanko

:mad:
I have been online checking my Barclaycard and I have been left astonished. My APR purchase rate is showing 19.9%, which is a 10% jump from 9.9% which I have had for few years. I have not received any letter about the rate change. Is this acceptable way to inform customers about the rate change?

This is particularly strange as have had my credit limit increased by about 25% recently. Does anyone know what's best to do? Wait for the letter or ring them now?

SeanyP321

my apr is about to jukmp from 0% offer to 35%. This isn't technically a rate jack coz it was an offer, but could I still call and ask to have my account closed and pay off at current rate? PLEASE SAY YES??? ANYONE?