Well, I too got the change in terms letter from Merrick Bank regarding both my 3K Merrick Visa and 5K Hooter's Mastercard. Increasing annual fee to $4 on the Visa and adding the $4 annual fee to the Hooter's MC and ratejacking to 21.5%. I was pretty loyal to Merrick, since they were the first to offer me credit after my BK7 back in 2003 and then approved me for the 5K Hooter's in 2007 with a decent rate 13.64 and no annual fee.
While I was debating what to do with these cards, a local credit union (Kemba) has been running TV ads soliciting business from credit card holders that have been ratejacked and abused by the big banks... offering a 7.99 Visa Platinum Rewards with no balance transfer and double rewards for BT by 11/30. Too difficult to resist, so applied online last evening and got nice message and email indicating that my app was being processed and a loan officer would contact me today to finalize. Approved for 15K... yahoo! Sorry they have a limited market, but if you're in OH, check out their offer at www.kemba.org. Very friendly and professional.
Guess what I did with my Hooter's MC and Merrick Visa? Bingo, they were officially closed this evening. Credit unions are the way to go these days. I also have NFCU 40K Visa and Alliant 10K Visa.
11/2009
TU - 710
EQ - 685
Ex - 700(?)
