Raise holy hell with the CSRs to get the fee waived, and if that fails, go to Consumerist and find the CEO’s e-mail. I did exactly his and had my most recent fee waived.
I also have a minimum payment from my bank account that goes out on the first of month. Something of a PITA but necessary.
Removed due to request of Husband, who doesn’t like me swearing.
Iggins and Projammer, thanks for the info. I’m glad the only “credit card” I use these days is the VISA logo on my ATM card.
I cancelled my Sears card last year. I’d had it for 20 frickin’ years. But I hadn’t used it and didn’t plan to use it ever ever again. Do you know how freeing it is to be able to smugly reply to the “retention specialist” who’s trying to convince you not to cancel the card? Oh, if I ever wanted one again I would have to resubmit a credit application.
Bwaahahahahahaha! I’m not playing your games anymore!
I hadn’t heard that. Can you elaborate?
Annual fees. Higher base interest rates. Lower limits.
As may know, hippies are widely admired for our financial acumen and meta-economic insight. I think the credit card companies are in deep kim chee, and squeezing every dime they can before the grey dawn breaks. Perhaps they just realized that wide-spread unemployment means that their highly rated debt isn’t an asset any more.
Boy, sure a lucky break that they got those new bankruptcy rules in place just in time, huh? Huh?
Rate increases don’t affect you when you don’t carry a balance, so they aren’t much of a problem for me.
The three big weapons are:
#3 I don’t really care about. #1 and #2 result in me giving them the finger and cancelling my cards.
One card moved my date by eight days. I had it on auto-pay from the bank and hadn’t opened the bill. I had taken a cash advance on that card because they offered me 3.9 for the life of the balance, so I used it as a car loan. I could pay it off faster, pay a lower rate, and not have to mess with having a lien on the title. So I’m paying on time, on track to pay it off within 24 months, and they move my date, hit me with a late fee, and cancel my promotional interest rate, upping me to my standard purchase rate(9%). I call them and speak to a supervisor. The first thing we did was lock in a payment date, no more changes. Then they refunded the charge, extra interest, and reset my promotional rate. Then a couple months later I get a note saying they’re going to re-instate a monthly fee of $10 and raise my purchase rate to ~12%. Three weeks later I get a letter with an apology in it(I didn’t do anything, I was just quietly making arrangements to pay it off and cancel the card) and a refund of the monthly fee. They had flagged my account incorrectly as one which the new terms applied to. I’m glad I’ll be out from under this card in less than four months. Then it can rot as far as I’m concerned. I’ll use it to buy a pack of gum every other year because it helps my credit score to have the available credit.
The main card we use is a Discover card. We pay almost everything with it. Utilities, gas, dining, groceries, pretty much everything that takes plastic. We pay in full every month and have taken about 400 out of it in their cashback bonuses in the past year. Of course this means they’ve made about four times that in merchant fees, but nothing compared to what they’d have made if we carried balances. Still, they tried the “change the due date by four to five days” thing too. They didn’t get us this time, but they’re bastards anyway.
What makes me mad about it is there is almost no non-fuckheaded reasons for it. Shortening the time between statement close and due date may help their cashflow some, but not much. Why would they do this EXCEPT to trap people with late fees and jack up their interest rates?
Enjoy,
Steven