Can Credit Card Companies Raise Your Minimum Payments?
by Mr Credit CardI have a chase credit card that has a promotional interest of 5.99 2.99 3.99 . That was for the life of the loan. They send me a letter that now they are going to charge me 5% of the loan instead of the 2% which made the payment out of my reach. The option they gave me was that those interest rates listed above were going for 7.99% until 2011 then it will go up to 11.24% and my payment would stay the same I had no chose then to stay with the same payment amount. Can thy do that?
Ms. Lupe Gutierrez
Answers – Ms Gutierrez, yes credit card companies can do that because it states under the terms and conditions that they reserve the right to change your interest rates. The balance transfer for life offers (which used to be offered quite a bit) unfortunately is one of the things they wished they had not offered because it is probably unprofitable for them to do so.
Having said that, they are actually offering you a decent deal because they aren’t many folks who get approved for balance transfer deals these days. But raising your minimum payments may also affect your budget if you have no room at all. My advice would be to take their offer and redo your budget to factor in the extra minimum payments.
November 16th, 2009 at 13:34
Hi Mr. Credit Card.
What do you think of the following situation?
I have the following cards:
Schwab Visa – 2% cashback on everything, no forex fees, cash is automatically deposited in your account each month (saves a trip to the bank (time and money saved)).
Starwood Amex – Essentially a 2% cashback card since Starpoints are valued at .02 each. Though I got a fantastic sign-on bonus of 25000 (10k + 15k spending), which will be used for a honeymoon next year.
Ameriprise World Elite Mastercard – 1.5% cashback, premium level concierge, Priority Pass (a $99 value) free, no annual fee ever (normally $150 a year) due to the promo they were giving out. I got this card just to have a Mastercard in my wallet (I wanted a Visa, a Mastercard, a Discover, and a Amex), plus this was a supposedly “luxury” credit card. It was either this or the Citi World Elite Mastercard, but I didn’t like the annual fee of $75.
PenFed Platinum Rewards Cash Back Visa – 5% cashback on gas, 2% on groceries, 1.25% back on everything else, $300 limit on gas per month so the max you could get is $15. I like how the cash is automatically added to your statement each month.
Discover More – 5% cashback in rotating categories, but I usually get stuff like a 25 dollar gift card to Gap for 20 bucks, so it’s really like a 6.25% cashback card.
I’m looking for a card that I can get more than 2% back at with resturants. Also, what are your thoughts on the Hilton cards? I’m considering getting a Citi Hilton Visa, the only thing is that the Hilton points will be devalued early next year, and I’m not sure it’s worth getting that other than getting the Silver status for the Hilton hotels, which might give me more options for hotels besides the Sheraton (and since my main card is the Starwood Amex, it makes sense to stay at the Sheraton hotels and just keep everything on that card to rack up the rewards).
I saw the Costco TruEarnings Amex card, but do you think that 1% of cash back extra (3% cash back at resturants) is worth the price of getting that card? I don’t have a Costco near where I am, so it doesn’t make sense to get that.
November 16th, 2009 at 13:36
I would call Chase & see if I could close the account but pay off the loan according to the previous terms. If they refused I would say the payments are not affordable & I can’t pay. After about two months of non-payment I would think Chase would make some kind of arrangement. Of course you credit score will suffer with two missed payments.
This is a ploy by Chase to get out of the loan for life deal. They should have to honor their original agreement.