Apr interest doubled

Buzz12chris

I’ve been with my credit card provider for about 10 years. And had the same credit card with a low 8.5% APR (yes I’ve been lucky) 

The Apr has slight increased over the last few years due to the Bank of England rate going up which i expected.

I’ve now been written a letter to tell me my APR is going Upto 22%….”in line with other products they have”

my credit score is excellent and I’ve never missed a payment and cleared  a couple of balance transfers I did a number of years ago.

I could understand doing a couple of % but not over double.

I’m lucky not to have a big balance but surely they should have a limit of how much it can jump by?

If they are a “responsible lender” a person with a bigger balance would not hit very hard.

is there anything I can do. I’ve called to “negotiate” but it’s a case of like it and lump it.

SuperAllyB

Most, if not all, credit cards allow you to close the card to new spending and any outstanding balance will remain at the current interest rate until paid off.

[Deleted User]

If you're not on their 'save' list , there's nothing you can do.

Your credit score isn't a factor in your risk - you're assessed on the default rate of customers like you and priced accordingly, as well as their general costs.

If you're carrying a balance, especially one that's attracting interest, then you're in a higher risk category. If you can't clear it, you might want to reject the increase and have the account closed.

[Deleted User]

Responsible lending is about taking action to get customers to pay off debt and stopping customers getting into more. If you are carrying a balance on your card that you cannot afford to pay off even with that low rate and are paying interest then they have decided to discourage you from spending too much by bumping the APR which also negates the financial risk to them of people defaulting.

The fact you have an "excellent" credit score but can't pay off your card in full just shows how worthless these things are.

born_again

Which card has been offering a low rate like that?

[Deleted User]

You can ask; I would personally to see what they can offer you. Personally Halifax messed around with my Clarity APR by linking/delinking/relinking it to the BOE base rate and then bumped the APR from 12.9% to 19.9%. I opted to close the account as all they offered was a 0% purchase offer for 9 months.

As issuers have decreased penalty charges and increased consumer friendly practices, they have slowly increased the standard APRs to compensate for lost revenue and many very low APR cards have been withdrawn to new business.