Marbles whacked my interest rate up

oscar52

Just tried to phone these people up to discuss removing or lowering the interest but was met with a point blank no. Is it worth writing to their complaints dept - or does someone have a direct line to their customer loyalty dept (if it exists) - no point in talking to same calibre of staff at customer services that most credit cards employ.

guyrulius

MBNA doubled my APR to 24.9%. I rang them to tell them I wanted to settle my balance and close my account. Hey presto a return to my previous APR.

Unfortunately, I think this raising of rates is going to be feature of the gathering financial storm.

It doesn't seem to be related to your score, just whether you are going to accept the higher charges and are you in a position to do anything about it. :mad:

welshpaula

hiya lloyds have put my BF interest rate up to 24.9% ,theres not even a late payment on there ! we contacted his 4 card companys to ask to lower the rate permanent or temporary 3 said no point blank ! (we are snowballing at the moment ) lloyds told us to fall into arrears then they would look at it !!!! top advice NOT !!mint were the only ones to help lowering to 7.9% for 6 months ! we are going to pay over the minimum for the next few months we have hidden the cards and are not going to use them and then approach each company again ! paula x

Tr@cker

Might be a bit of relief in the new years with interest rates predicted to drop.

oscar52

Tr@cker wrote: »

Might be a bit of relief in the new years with interest rates predicted to drop.

they dropped this month - hasnt stopped most companies banging them up.

guyrulius

Tr@cker wrote: »

Might be a bit of relief in the new years with interest rates predicted to drop.

Unfortunately, I don't think that will have any effect on credit card and loan APRs which could be significantly higher for some time to come.

The financial institutions are putting up APRs to discourage further lending and to make bigger profits, off-setting the liabilites created by those who will go default or go bankrupt.

With the number of mortgage resets around Easter climbing, expect to see much more of this.

I hope I'm wrong. :eek:

In_Search_Of_Me

they're really entering into the christmas spirit arent they eh!! barstewards! I closed my marbles account oer a year ago and got a ststement from them today with a 500 limit on it! Pathetic! Will write this time & tell them AGAIN to close the account & update my credit file!

Tr@cker

No they arn't they lent me £6.5 k in 2 minutes yesterday and all on-line. Interest rates could drop below 5% next year according to economists.

guyrulius

Tr@cker wrote: »

Interest rates could drop below 5% next year according to economists.

Care to provide a link?

CPI is 2.1% but RPI is 4.2% this month. Fuel prices increases are running at 16.2% this year and food inflation is 5.3% (Source: House of Commons Library).

The Base rate is a crude way of controlling CPI inflation but increasingly there is a disjoint between the base rate and loan rates. If base rates are reduced then inflation is just a question of time. So, base rates are increasingly irrelevant.

This might appear to be a little off topic but let me put a little perspective on this. I earn 38k per year, have a perfect credit rating in so far as that is possible, have very little debt (£1600 over two cards) and my rate has still been adjusted to 24.9% until I questioned it.

Tr@cker

RPI has been around 4ish most of the year house prices have dropped and i really dont know your exact circumstances. But income is less than yours by some way and i had 6 cards prior to getting the loan plus another card.

guyrulius

I did find in another thread someone asking whether this raising of rates was a ploy to have people move the debt from credit cards to secured loans through a linked company.

It makes the company's balance sheet look much healthier. They are chancing their arm, hence the willingness to drop the rate if you complain.

All I can say is that you are a braver person than I am taking on that commitment at this point in time. Good luck.:xmassmile