Nationwide increasing credit card interest rate by 50%

[Deleted User]

retiredbanker1 said:

I have had the same letter.
Whilst 14.9% is indeed 50% more than it was - 15% is still half the cost of most of the other cards I hold should I ever need to pay interest!

If I was you, I would do the same - Mutuality pays at 'Nationwide Bank' if you're an old customer.  
Nationwide are essentially charging new customers a 10% premium with a standard APR of 24.9%.

Se1Lad

[Deleted User] said:

david72 said:

MorningcoffeeIV said:

I don't think 'exploitative' means what you think it means... 

I think it's pretty fair to say that credit card rates over 20%, and overdraft rates of 40% are pretty exploitative. These are almost banana-republic rates, and the UK hasn't quite reached that stage…

These rates are now completely out of kilter with what it costs lenders to lend money, and, if anything, are just making things even harder for people who might need to spread costs for a few months. It's just greedy profiteering.

The UK banking system is oligopolistic - only challengers Starling, Monzo and Virgin Money offer standard overdraft rates of 15-20% APR. Everyone else including Nationwide is close to 40%.

Not quite all - my Barclays overdraft is 10.8%

https://www.barclays.co.uk/current-accounts/bank-account/overdrafts/wealth-overdraft-charges/

[Deleted User]

Se1Lad said:

[Deleted User] said:

david72 said:

MorningcoffeeIV said:

I don't think 'exploitative' means what you think it means... 

I think it's pretty fair to say that credit card rates over 20%, and overdraft rates of 40% are pretty exploitative. These are almost banana-republic rates, and the UK hasn't quite reached that stage…

These rates are now completely out of kilter with what it costs lenders to lend money, and, if anything, are just making things even harder for people who might need to spread costs for a few months. It's just greedy profiteering.

The UK banking system is oligopolistic - only challengers Starling, Monzo and Virgin Money offer standard overdraft rates of 15-20% APR. Everyone else including Nationwide is close to 40%.

Not quite all - my Barclays overdraft is 10.8%

https://www.barclays.co.uk/current-accounts/bank-account/overdrafts/wealth-overdraft-charges/

You can get better high net worth deals than awful Barclays. However, that would be off in a tangent from the thread. 

inthezeroroom

Surely the interest rate is irrelevant because all the expert CC users pay off in full every month, right? Lol

brizzie_2

Nationwide put my member only interest rate up from 19.9% to 24.9% just recently. It was a good trigger. Adding on other cards the total on cards came to around £9200. One at 5%, another at 11%, etc. All slowly decreasing balances.

I've avoided taking out more credit to repay credit. I have had a phobia about credit cards for some time. I don't use them now other than for big ticket item part payments and spending abroad, immediately repaid.

But I had built up my Experian score to 999. So I gave the MSE card eligibility tools a go. It came back with 27 months on Virgin Money with a credit limit sufficient to clear the lot. So I transferred the Nationwide one last week and the rest this morning. I have divided the £9200 by 27 and that is my direct debit payment. The repayments are more than I was paying but affordable. I calculate that not only will I save around £2200 in interest over the 27 months, which is coming off the balances, but at the end of the process I will have reduced my credit card debt to nil for the first time in 45 years. My Experian score dropped to 988 - big deal.

So I want to say thanks to Martin for persistently pushing the concept of transferring balances until eventually I listened, and to Nationwide whose ridiculous rate hike was the final straw. I couldn't feel happier about greedy banks (including Nationwide) seeing their profit from me fall by at least £2200 (and more had I let the balances ride). My only regret is not listening earlier. 

MorningcoffeeIV

brizzie_2 said:

My Experian score dropped to 988 - big deal.

Indeed. It's never a big deal.  As you could see from having a 999 score from having acquired a bunch of debt!

TonyM2

The Nationwide credit card rate of 9.9% that I have currently was FOR LIFE.  I always thought that this was an exceptionally good rate when most of the others were far higher.  Being for life and has been since 2011 I did not expect it to suddenly go up to 14.9%.  Of course, Nationwide have no records of this being for life but I shall be writing up to complain (but not holding my breath)  If it is on an Agreement then how can they change it? I will have the papers somewhere that say this,  but this will mean delving into the darkest depths of my ever increasing paper filing stash.

Hoenir

TonyM2 said:

The Nationwide credit card rate of 9.9% that I have currently was FOR LIFE.  I always thought that this was an exceptionally good rate when most of the others were far higher.  Being for life and has been since 2011 I did not expect it to suddenly go up to 14.9%.  Of course, Nationwide have no records of this being for life but I shall be writing up to complain (but not holding my breath)  If it is on an Agreement then how can they change it? I will have the papers somewhere that say this,  but this will mean delving into the darkest depths of my ever increasing paper filing stash.

Be somewhat surprising to find a financial product that was actually "for life".  At the very least the card could be withdrawn at the lenders discretion. 

[Deleted User]

TonyM2 said:

The Nationwide credit card rate of 9.9% that I have currently was FOR LIFE.  I always thought that this was an exceptionally good rate when most of the others were far higher.  Being for life and has been since 2011 I did not expect it to suddenly go up to 14.9%.  Of course, Nationwide have no records of this being for life but I shall be writing up to complain (but not holding my breath)  If it is on an Agreement then how can they change it? I will have the papers somewhere that say this,  but this will mean delving into the darkest depths of my ever increasing paper filing stash.

You probably should check section E (i, ii & iii) of your credit agreement - before wasting your time writing a complaint.

enthusiasticsaver

I very much doubt it was for life.  There will be some clause somewhere saying they can withdraw the product or it could have an end date somewhere in the small print.