Morgan Stanley Interest Rate Robbery

genial_host

Hi Everyone, although I often check these boards out this is my first post so be gentle with me! I hope someone can help.

I've had a Morgan Stanley platinum card for several years now and although I had payment difficulties a couple of years ago I have been paying them fine since then.

I have been paying 16.9% APR for purchases which I know is not competitive but I cannot currently get a better card elsewhere so I am stuck with it for now.

They have just written to me to say that my APR for purchases is going up to 20.9%!!!! How can they justify a 4% hike just like that?

As I said I pay the minimum payment each month on time and am usually near my credit limit but this hike will mean nearly all of my payment each month is interest.

Is it worth me challenging this rise and if so whats the best way to go about it? Has anyone else tried it - did it work?

terriermama

I've had this happen to me very recently but on a different card. I was furious and rang the credit card company and complained about the extortionate rate increase from 14.9%-24.9%, and they immediately reduced it to the original rate. You could give it a go.

From my experience however, Morgan Stanley has never been one to compromise in the years I've had their card. Hence I will be closing my account as soon as my anniversary cashback comes through.

Milarky

Why not try to move the debt from MS by one means or another. For instance:

1) By applying for a personal loan [be careful with these but at least the rate is fixed from the start and is should a lot lower that you are paying now and loans tend to offered at higher levels than available credit limits on new cards etc]

2) By applying for a different credit card - one with a 0% period and a low 'go to' rate [what are the better 'go to' rates anyone?]

3) Alternatively, by applying for a 'life of balance' [LOB] new card - even Barclaycard will give you 6.9%

But remember before doing anything like this that you must be able to cover all contractual payments. At the moment, you say you are able to pay these on the MS card [2%?] So if you are going to restructure you probably need to be able to pay a bit more than this [say3-5%] and not all credit cards do min payments at 2%, and those that do today might change that in future [say to 3%] anyway.

Ideally, you would consolidate your existing debt onto a combination of fixed rate loan and low rate life of balance credit card AND then just use your MS card to make day to day purchases AND pay those off in full every month.

So, an even more basic requirement is that you can show that you are not actually spending more on MS than you can afford to pay - which is probably how you got here.

HTH