Rate Jacking Article Discussion

Mrsunseeker

Just had statement from Natwest. In a small box on the left hand side it says the interest rate is going up in 2 months time. So it looks like they are doing it to get back the reduction of interest they get having to credit the highest rate first.

tzee10

I have only recently discovered money saving expert but I thought it was worth phoning HSBC to query why my credit card rate had been increased from 16.9% to 21.9% a year ago. Following a quick conversation and being transferred to 2 different departments they were able to reduce my rate to 6.9% for a 6 month period and told me to phone them again in 6 month to get another deal. Should save me a fair bit of money!

NellyM029

Hello,

Egg have rate jacked me without an email. I emailed them to say this was incorrect. I am worried about thr intelligence levels of the staff. Another issue. I said I hadnt had any email notification and come to think of it noe email to tell me my statement was ready. Since I complained I have recieved two emails from them one saying my statement ready and another stating I had t and cs changed. I am awaiting a complaint response. Anyone heard of something similar?

preable

There staff must be pretty dumb

NellyM029

Renovatio wrote: »

Egg have recently tried rate Jacking me with a 5% increase in their standard rate at the end of a 0% deal; i was stoozing anyway and already intended to move it to a new barclay card platinum, but i still decided to send this reply to Egg:

"Hi,

Thank you for your email on 9th of March 2010, where you outlined your intentions to "rate jack" my account; you know full well that a 5% increase is excessive!

Needless to say i will be paying off my balance, so if your intention was to actually make more profit from me, well done in shooting yourself in the foot.

Egg used to be a good card company, a market leader even, so i will retain the card and consider using it in the future when you see sense.

I have no trouble getting large limit credit cards, so for me to continue using your services it really comes down to your old advertising slogan, "what's in it for me?"

I think egg are utterly evil. Maybe it all started when they were taken over by the even more evil Citi.

NellyM029

preable wrote: »

There staff must be pretty dumb

Here is an e-mail I got from egg. Makes sense?

In line with the Opt Out process we can't opt you out if you've read the notification or not because it's too late past the cut off date.

We can prove that we sent you the email but even if that was the case would you still pursue your complaint to the FOS?

If that is the case I can escalate your complaint for you to our Customer Relations Office now to save delay and they will handle your complaint in line with FSA guidelines.

Everyone customer that says they've not received the notification is facing the same situation as you because although we need to Treat Customers Fairly they have to be treated equally.

Thanks for your message and I look forward to your reply.

klint

NellyM029 wrote: »

Here is an e-mail I got from egg. Makes sense?

In one word, no.

rosadee

Hi, just thought I would ask for some advice, again. I have a M&S card with a limit of 3600 on it, balance now 2750. They increased my APR by 5 or 6 % but never gave me the option of an optout, ie so that I would not spend on it but just pay off the balance.

Egg card-complete crooks- also hiked my APR from 16.9-26.9%! the problem is that I didn't receive an email specifically regarding this, and I don't know was it included somewhere in the login section of the egg account because for a couple of months I could not log in and was too busy to sort it out. I have checked my Agreement which state 16.9% but the rate is showing up as 26.9%. I really feel Egg are the worst because they do not even send out letters telling you of any options.

In fact all my cards have been rate jacked and as far as I can see because I have not used them in over 1 year and pay off over the minimum. I am trying to become debt free and have bee offred a loan meaning the debts would be paid off by DEc 2012. I live in N. Ireland btw, so I am not sure if any rules are different.

any comments would be gratefully received.

mozzer251

Hi,

I believe the change in rules where in future your highest interest rate balance being paid off first is to blame. It's not your fault.........

The card providers will start to suffer (shame!) so I reckon they are uping standard rates to claw back some of the interest revenue being lost by people's cash balances now going first.

On a plus side it does mean that if you have any cash balance it will be going first so it might not be that bad for you.

It's only my opinion but it does seem to make sense.

roythebus

I just noticed today Barclaycard have upped the interest rate by a whopping 25% from 13.9% to 17.9. I had a lengthy conversation with a "supervisor" from their Indian call centre who just kept bleating on about credit reference agencies.

Basically, they's do better to say pay up and pi** off. BTW, I've been with them over 10 years, have a limit of about 13k, have always paid up more than the minimum amount usually within days of receiving the statement. So much for customer loyalty.

Similar with Natwest, upped their rate by 33.3% for no reason at all. A very strong letter of complaint has gone into them, having banked with them for over 40 years.

What on earth justifies these rises when the base rate has remained stable for over a year, aprt from the need to pay their exec bonuses?