All right, you all got me wondering so I looked at my history with them. I have had my card since 1997, started as a store card now a Visa. When I first got this card it was with a purchase at the register, never use it again unless I had to! After my credit scare (uncontrollable credit) I did a consolidation loan and NEVER used credit again. This Target store card was my first one and I LOVED my 200.00 limit (couldn't get into trouble with that). I started using the card again in 2001 after my divorce, by end of 2001 they cli to $500.00. I remember the cli, I was upset because now they gave me more room to get into trouble. Throughout 2002 cl stayed the same and my apr was still at 21%. 2003 statements are filed somewhere else so I don't know what happened there but sometime in 03 or beginning of 2004 they gave me the Visa and a credit limit of 800.00 with apr at 21.90%. Ouch, I hated increases and I'm embarrassed over the apr.
It was at this time I started paying attention, OMG the lates I had! I use to call them and say "I made a payment, I pay you every month!" That's when I discovered that just because I made a payment didn't mean it fell in thier cycle of "making a payment". The statement closes on the 10th of the month and my due date is the 4th. I use to pay them before the 25th and it didn't count, there was a small window where the payment actually counted so if I paid them before the 25th I had to pay them again by the 4th otherwise I would be charged a late fee. I first started making payments twice a month to make sure I got it right until I figured it out and now I make my payment every month between the 1st and the 3rd online and have never had a problem since. I don't know if this makes any sense but its what they told me back then and I surely didn't know better but my system works now.
Check this out ... in 2005 cl is still 800.00 but apr's are ...
July & August 22.99%
Sept 23.24%
Oct 23.49%
Nov missing
Dec 23.74%
slowly creaping up OMG I can't belive my eyes!
Jan 23.99%
Feb & March 24.24%
April 24.49%
May & June 24.74%
July 24.99%
Aug 06 - March 07 25.24%
In Aug 06 I started PIF at least every other month I guess I finally got tired of finance charges!!
Guess what happens in April????
April of 2007 CLI to 5000.00 (cash limit 250.00)
Everything stays the same until November 2007 - CL stays the same but cash limit is now 2500.00 and apr finally starts moving down 24.74%
Jan 08 24.49%
Feb 24.24%
Mar, Apr & May 22.99%
June 22.24%
July 21.99%
I have never had more then 2500.00 on this card (since new cl) until this month ... I guess they were counting on that! But guess what ... I'm paying this off and its SOCK draw time! I'm really embrassed and was going to delete this email but hit send instead 
Sorry this got so long it wasn't my intent.
Sorry this got so long it wasn't my intent.Veee
I know, didn't know they could do that! I was hoping someone would make a comment to my pathtic post stating something like "they can't do that" I'm like you in the sense I never paid much attention but I will now!
I'm like you in the sense I never paid much attention but I will now!
Laurenlou wrote:Wow.... Veee, your post made me go check my statements... Ive never paid much attention to my APRs since I carry a small balance, but when I just looked I'm astounded!Right now my APR is 23.99%, which I initially thought was extremely high. Then I started looking back to before I found this forum, when I had late pays and my card was maxed out----- 28.49% APR! I've never even heard of an APR that high!!
Unfortunately, they really can. Somewhere in the microscopic print on the terms and conditions statement that they mail with new accounts (and we all read those, don't we? 
), they state this.
This is one of the biggest reasons not to carry balances that you can't pay off immediately, if necessary. Not only do high balances trigger rate increases --think of them saying, a-ha! we can make some money off of THIS one! --but you're at their mercy until you can somehow pay them off.
msn's ConsumerMan has a good description of the "Credit Card Holders' Bill of Rights," one of the features of which would require lenders to state in the initial documentation what triggers would set off a rate hike.
ConsumerMan Article
Interesting discussion, and there are links in there to the actual bill and to a summary. We had a brisk debate going about this on the Credit in the News board a while back.
), they state this.This is one of the biggest reasons not to carry balances that you can't pay off immediately, if necessary. Not only do high balances trigger rate increases --think of them saying, a-ha! we can make some money off of THIS one! --but you're at their mercy until you can somehow pay them off.
msn's ConsumerMan has a good description of the "Credit Card Holders' Bill of Rights," one of the features of which would require lenders to state in the initial documentation what triggers would set off a rate hike.
ConsumerMan Article
Interesting discussion, and there are links in there to the actual bill and to a summary. We had a brisk debate going about this on the Credit in the News board a while back.
Unbelieveable!! Thanks for the response, I just can't believe they can do something like that. Hopefully they are getting somewhere with those bill of rights.
haulingthescoreup wrote:
Unfortunately, they really can. Somewhere in the microscopic print on the terms and conditions statement that they mail with new accounts (and we all read those, don't we?
This is one of the biggest reasons not to carry balances that you can't pay off immediately, if necessary. Not only do high balances trigger rate increases --think of them saying, a-ha! we can make some money off of THIS one! --but you're at their mercy until you can somehow pay them off.
msn's ConsumerMan has a good description of the "Credit Card Holders' Bill of Rights," one of the features of which would require lenders to state in the initial documentation what triggers would set off a rate hike.
ConsumerMan Article
Interesting discussion, and there are links in there to the actual bill and to a summary. We had a brisk debate going about this on the Credit in the News board a while back.