Rate Jacking Sucesses/failures

ramblingtree

Hi SeanyP321
I'm not an expert at all here, but as its not a rate increase its an end of offer I don't think you can freeze it. Have you talked to the company about it? You might be able to freeze at a more reasonable rate. Or are you in a position to get a new life of balance offer from someone else?
Sorry to not be more positive, but I doubt you will get a freeze at 0%.
good luck!

thecasementkid

jesspolo wrote: »

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.

Did I not read somewhere banks had agreed NOT to increase rates within the first year of a new account??

Xbigman

I have a Halifax one card. The 0% deal ran out in April but just before that I put my house on the market so I kept the debt going at 15.9%, in order to have a lump sum on hand in case of problems. After 4 months I withdrew my house from sale and paid off the card, just as they rate jacked me to 20.95%.
Boy did I enjoy the call that closed that card.
Regards



X

bantamboy1

my wife has a Debenhams Mastercard. She has received a letter to say they are increasing interest rate. She phoned and asked why and the advisor said they could. She asked for a detailed explanation of why hers is being increased. The advisor said they could and Martin Lewis is wrong about them not having to explain.

chocolate-eater

To update further on my previous post they finally replied to my letter.

It was written addressing various points but not all points and mostly avoided the issues I raised. They said that they believe the rate of 29.9% is fair based on minimum payments and external agencies. They only addressed my query about minimum payments not exceeding interest by picking one month where it did and ignored the other months that interest exceeded minimum payments.

They claimed calls are not recorded and therefore my call could not be listened to.

At the end of the letter they said that was their final decision and they would ignore any futher correspondance with me.

So in effect they have not given a proper explaination and said basically "tough" and don't contact us again.

The amazing thing is on the same day I opened another letter from Virgin which has now hiked my rate even further upto 34.9% dispite the fact that in the mean time while waiting for their response paid off more than minimum balance plus added an extra £200 to them so their assesment of me does not make sense.

I am now going to write to financial ombudsman regarding this and I am in the mist of creating a website to further expose this tactic of them which is no more than loan sharking.

ramblingtree

Chocolate-eater,
Thanks for the update. We're currently waiting on a reply from Virgin about a rate hike, ours is now at 34.9, hiked from 29.9. I'm guessing we'll get the same response. Our plan is also to go to the Ombudsman, we've got the complaints form ready to go as we know we'll get nowhere with the initial complaint to virgin. We now just pay minimum payments as we can't afford any more, when the rate was lower we always paid over, but I'm presuming they'll ignore that!

Would be interested to know your website address when its done!
Thanks.

Be_Happy

Think I've just been hit by the rate rise from Hell. Luckily it doesn't affect me as I always pay off the amount owing each month, otherwise, I'd be flat on the floor in a faint.

I've a Capital One credit card which I asked to keep at a limit of £1000 and use only for internet purchases to avoid any problem with my main card with another bank that has a limit of £10,000 (any amount on this is also paid off in full each month).

Mortgage is paid off, good income, no debts now or in past, in fact no credit problems ever.

Card rate was 30.9%, letter just received says rate will rise to 39.4% in December. Only good side is that twice in the last year Capital One have contacted me about fraudlent attempts on card (ie small test purchases) and have immediately taken steps to issue new card, so they do seem to be on the ball with security.

zoony67

Having read through some of the posts here have I missed something ? If a customer has a life of balance deal with a card provider i.e that a card provider states that they will provide a balance transfer at say 6.9% can they then cancel this agreement and ratejack to whatever rate they pick out of the air ?

I am Confused

zoony67

I also have a virgin card and found out a few days ago that they were charging me an incredible 34.9% APR !!!!!!! Sick , I rang them and the best I could get it reduced to was 29.9% hardly groundbreaking but the best I could do.

No wonder Branson is a millionaire ! with interest rates at their lowest these compaines are extorting money at ridiculous rates how do they get away with it ?

NickX

zoony67 wrote: »

Having read through some of the posts here have I missed something ? If a customer has a life of balance deal with a card provider i.e that a card provider states that they will provide a balance transfer at say 6.9% can they then cancel this agreement and ratejack to whatever rate they pick out of the air ?

No, Life of Balance deals will remain at the agreed rate provided the customer remains within the Terms and Conditions. That is the deal.

It is the standard variable rate that gets jacked up. This would apply to any new borrowing or the existing balance should the Terms and Conditions be breached.