So, I get this notice from one of my credit card companies. It’s the usual, “we’re changing the terms, blah, blah, blah,” type things, which people I guess usually just toss since it’s typically written in a lot of legalese. I decide to peruse the thing, see if there’s anything that pops out, and lo and behold, in the middle of the first page:
Your APR for [pretty much everything] is chaning to a corresponding ANNUAL PERCENTAGE RATE of 24.99% (Daily Periodic Rate (DPR) of 0.068465%).
We increased your APR due to the balances and APRs on this account.
Exsqueeze me?!?! I always pay off this account every month, there’s never a balance on it. The ‘new’ rate is almost 1.5 times more than the current (10.99%), not that any rate matters much since I always pay it off, but yeah, no, I don’t think so. I guess I don’t make them enough money as it is, so they want to squeeze more blood out of this stone.
Further down there’s a procedure to ‘reject’ the change, which involves writing to them, they won’t take just calling them (which has, of course, always worked in the past - to call and object and get any interest rate changes reversed or lowered below the current). I guess I’ll be sending a letter next week. If they up the rate, that’s the end of using this card, rewards or no. I won’t close the account as it’s my oldest credit account, but I certainly won’t give them any more business.
I guess the point of this is that it pays to read those standard notices (financially, at least - I won’t mention what it’s done to my blood pressure today).
