Interest Rate On Credit Card

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Yes, this has happened to me, even though I always pay my balance in full. Your credit card company's raising your interest rate, so long as they give adequate advanced notice, is completely legal. It doesn't matter whether your rate is fixed or variable. In fact, your Terms and Conditions (i.e., the fine print) probably spell out exactly what they were allowed to do.

What they are doing is playing a game. They are testing you to see whether you will ignore the rate increase. Sadly, many people are afraid to confront an authority like a creditor. Even more are so ignorant of their rights, or can't understand fine print, that they do nothing except vent to everyone except the creditor.
Even worse, a few will try to punish the creditor by not paying, and these few end up seriously damaging their own credit history.

You may be subject to the dreaded Universal Default. Your creditor (call them A) tells you it is establishing a Universal Default clause as an addendum to your card's Terms and Conditions, reads your credit report regularly, finds some other negative information reported by a different creditor (call them B), and raises your rates even though you have excellent payment history with A. It can be anything that lowers your credit score, something so simple as maxing out a different (B's) card even though you pay it on time.

A secret: You may have a major advantage: if you've never missed a payment, you may have a high enough credit score to be able to transfer balances to another company. Use this as negotiation leverage with your creditor.

If you want to be an effective advocate for yourself: (1) Let go of your disbelief and negative emotions. (2) Call up the creditor and tell them that you are thinking of transferring your balance to another card. Ask "Is there anything you can do about my interest rates today?" Be polite, cheerful and unemotional. Believe it or not, the customer rep is trained to retain you as a valued customer, not get you annoyed. They want to keep you, especially your lovely balance. It's expensive for the marketing department to get another customer as good as you are. If they ask you to fill out a form so that the rate reviewers will look over your account, say "No, thank you." (It's a delay tactic.) If the customer rep says no to a rate drop, ask for his/her direct supervisor, pleasantly. Start over, pleasantly, naming the name of the first rep. Same routine: thinking-of-transferring and question. Take notes, people's names, and the time and date throughout. If the super gives you a no, ask for the Customer Retention Department. You'll get a rep, so do the same thing. And if you get another no, ask for his/her supervisor. If you get 4 no's, one from each person, thank them poilitely, no sarcasm. It's finally time to look for a balance transfer with another company. You've just tested them back: you now know beyond a doubt that your credit history doesn't meet their requirements for a...

this depends on your credit history, income and what other credit cards you currently have under your name, if any. in my opinion, "good" would be anything under 12%. something around 9 or 10% would be great..but most i see hoover around 15% - 20%...which isn't bad..its just average.

Look for a balance transfer for try to get a personal loan at a local bank. Cut up the card and never use it again.

The method of computing interest is explained over several pages. In short, you pay interest from the date of purchase until your balance is completely paid off. The interest is charged at the daily rate for each day of the month, then summed up at the end of the month.

If you completely payoff your balance each and every month, then you will not be charged interest.

VERY basically the simple interest over 1 year at 17.42 percent will be £17.42

At 6.9 percent it will be £6.90

Therefore you'd save £10.52 but it's not quite that straighforward as you have to take into account monthly payments etc which will alter these figures

It depends on when you took the card out, if it was before March 2006 then your answer is an easy one. Go to Credit Clear Services who offer a completely legal service which actually wipes out credit card debt on the basis that agreements issued prior to the ammended consumer credit act of 2006 means all credit card agreements are not legally binding and therfore not valid. CCS provide a full clearance service. If however your card was taken out after 2006 you should simply negotiate with your card company, most will accept affordable payment terms.