Credit card interest rates

PAH1

Yeah how stupid of you to live within your means and then complain when the card companies hike their rates to extortionate levels (30% APR when the base rate is less than 1%, who are the loan sharks in this business!) so you can no longer afford to pay. :rolleyes:

I'm currently in the frame of mind that only honest 'hard-working' people are being taken advantage of, trying to 'do the right thing' and pay down the debt that has gotten out of control (at no small part due to the finance companies themselves), where other less honest people find ways of telling them to stick it where the sun doesn't shine. Just like the bankers have done!

It's up to you to decide how much of a mug you're feeling and take appropriate action. Plenty of advice and anecdotes on here and other similar sites to help you find an approach you feel is right.

Sir_Woody

I am of course aware that banks and credit card companies can do what they want under the terms we all eagerly sign up to but that doesn't make the practice fair particularly if the cardholder has paid the bills on time and not been overlimit. Isn't this what the OFT is for?

Imagine the outcry that would ensue if councils or utility companies did this. Suddenly your council tax doubles and your leccy gets disconnected. And remember the fuel tax protestors of 2000 who brought the country to a halt over a few pence increase in petrol and diesel.

Unless someone does something about them, banks will continue to steal money from us and we may as well go back to bartering. I would have thought that MSE is the place to start this. I repeat, it isn't about charges but the costs that get many people to the brink before charges.

Anyone got a goat for an old settee?

Sir_Woody

Just a question - are there many apologists for the way banks run themselves on MSE fora?

Does anyone actually agree that people who preside over buying dodgy assets, bully boardrooms and staff then walk away with fat pensions are the good guys?

I can't see why anyone can suggest that doubling someones costs who has tried to do the right thing is a good idea and it is all mea culpa and caveat emptor. I thought we were supposed to be a little more civilised. Or has the loads-a-money culture come back?

Still haven't heard about the goat.

PAH1

Yes it looks like lots of people have massive debts largely due to dodgy practices of the finance industry.

You see people saying it's their own fault for taking on the debt, but like drug dealers the finance industry has ways of tempting you in for that first hit. Then you're at their mercy if your circumstances change or they decide to change them for you by changing the rules. Before long you're into the world of compound interest with no easy way out, especially with high apr rates.

There should be a limit to the maximum apr that can be charged.

NickX

opinions4u wrote: »

Get a grip on yourself. You have an obscene amount of unsecured debt that YOU chose to build up.

How do you define this amount of debt as obscene ?

Is £80k obscene, but perhaps £70k is not ?

What would you call £120k of unsecured debt ?

Personally I wish I could get my stooze pot up to that sort of level

However, I have to say to the OP, that if you are able to settle the debt and are dissmissing Balance Transfer deals, then you really should not be paying any interest on the debt, and it should actually be making you a tidy profit.

PAH1

NickX wrote: »

However, I have to say to the OP, that if you are able to settle the debt and are dissmissing Balance Transfer deals, then you really should not be paying any interest on the debt, and it should actually be making you a tidy profit.

Can you point me to the info on how to make money this way. Is it to do with borrowing at 0% and investing elsewhere so anything earning over 0% (or whatever the transfer charge is, typically 2.5%?) interest is profit?

Sir_Woody

PAH1 - look in en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoozing But you have to have good credit and be sharp about transfering balances. Bascially you borrow money at 0% and invest it elsewhere.

Hey - this sounds rather like the banks!:)

NickX

PAH1 wrote: »

Can you point me to the info on how to make money this way. Is it to do with borrowing at 0% and investing elsewhere so anything earning over 0% (or whatever the transfer charge is, typically 2.5%?) interest is profit?

Absoluely Correct

NickX

Sir_Woody wrote: »

PAH1 - look in en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoozing But you have to have good credit and be sharp about transfering balances. Bascially you borrow money at 0% and invest it elsewhere.

Hey - this sounds rather like the banks!:)

Stoozing, aka "Beating them at their own game"

ILW

Sir_Woody wrote: »

I am of course aware that banks and credit card companies can do what they want under the terms we all eagerly sign up to but that doesn't make the practice fair particularly if the cardholder has paid the bills on time and not been overlimit. Isn't this what the OFT is for?

Imagine the outcry that would ensue if councils or utility companies did this. Suddenly your council tax doubles and your leccy gets disconnected. And remember the fuel tax protestors of 2000 who brought the country to a halt over a few pence increase in petrol and diesel.

Unless someone does something about them, banks will continue to steal money from us and we may as well go back to bartering. I would have thought that MSE is the place to start this. I repeat, it isn't about charges but the costs that get many people to the brink before charges.

Anyone got a goat for an old settee?

Council tax has doubled over the last 10 years

Personally I think anyone who runs up 80k on credit cards (unless they are on a secure £250k plus salary) wants their head examined.

Are you Grant Bovey?