Totally confused by BofA and curious if WaMu was honest

[Anonymous]

I got some really great advice on this board to call my CCs and ask them to lower my interest rate.
I was successful with 2 of them: Dell and 1FBUSA. They both dropped 4 points.

WaMu told me that they periodically review accounts for CL increases and rate reductions and that there is no way for me to request them. Is this true?

BofA has me very confused. A few months ago they increased my APR from 16.99 to 26.99. I wrote CS an email asking why and received no response. Honestly I just forgot about it until recently. Well, I called and asked them to reduce my interest rate and they looked at my account and said that it's not possible. The rep told me my rate was raised due to my EQ credit score on a pull they did in Jan. The thing that confuses me is I haven't had any baddies since 2003. No new delinquencies. They only thing I can think of is that my utilization has gone up a bit. Would this cause them to jack up the APR?

[Anonymous]

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greenpea104 wrote:
I got some really great advice on this board to call my CCs and ask them to lower my interest rate.
I was successful with 2 of them: Dell and 1FBUSA. They both dropped 4 points.

WaMu told me that they periodically review accounts for CL increases and rate reductions and that there is no way for me to request them. Is this true?

BofA has me very confused. A few months ago they increased my APR from 16.99 to 26.99. I wrote CS an email asking why and received no response. Honestly I just forgot about it until recently. Well, I called and asked them to reduce my interest rate and they looked at my account and said that it's not possible. The rep told me my rate was raised due to my EQ credit score on a pull they did in Jan. The thing that confuses me is I haven't had any baddies since 2003. No new delinquencies. They only thing I can think of is that my utilization has gone up a bit. Would this cause them to jack up the APR?

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I hate BOA!!!!  I had fixed rate when BOA bought out Bank One....int. started going up each month. They might do soft pulls...but they never did with mine. You can not deal with them at all!! If you can transfer to another card & get them paid off  do so asap.

  int. went up to 29%    It was orig.7% fixed

They cancelled my account with no explanation....... I never had a late payment with them or any creditor.

[Anonymous]

Wow, what a nightmare! I'm attempting to get another CL to transfer the BofA balance. Maybe after I transfer they'll actually lower my APR.

[Anonymous]

Most creditors do account reviews throughout the year and assess your credit worthiness as your account ages to determine what if any benefits they can offer you. (read: CLIs or APR reductions) They also use this time to determine if your credit worthiness has declined whether or not to apply "motivational changes" as I like to call them to your account. (read: APR increases or CLI decreases) An APR increase usually does a couple of things it either forces credit challenged over the edge or forces you to call them. I've found out a few things that might help and I've listed them here.

1. An APR increase can be reviewed by the CCC credit department and reversed as they determine it. APR changes happen as an account ages but your original application doesn't. Lets say you put on your app you made 20K a year but in the three years you've had the card your income has gone up to 60K. They don't know that so they base their decisions on your old income statement. The look at debt to income and when they see someone who makes 20K with 20K in debt they see a 100 percent debt to income and your account will usually be changed to reflect the reluctance of the CCC to extend further credit without some strong input from you. So call your CCC and discuss these points with them and usually they are more than willing to work with you.

2. Always make large payments when possible. The CCC track your payment history and the more money they see coming from you the more likely they are willing to leave your account alone. Always pay more than the minimum due a good rule of thumb is double the minimum payment. These keeps your credit card principle balance always changing and the CCC like to see that. Also Experian tracks balances in their reports, creditors can see exactly what you're paying and charging by doing simple math. Don't let yourself think that your monthly charges are private because the balances aren't.

3. Take time off from your credit cards. CCC's like to see stability and responsible usage. If you can create a balance and then take time to pay that balance before using your card they'll see you as a credit conscious.

4. Watch your other balances if you carry more than one credit card. A single CCC will use your entire outstanding debt to determine your debt to income percentage. Keep usage low to avoid problems.

5. Having more than two or three open lines of credit with balances can cause problems too. CCC like to see one or two lines of credit open more than that alerts them to a problem of over extending.

Hope that helps. By no means am I insinuating that anyone might be having credit issues. I am however relating just what I've found that creditors view as responsible credit management and I'm sure there are others like keep your balances below 30 percent and so on.

- AZQ

[Anonymous]

Good synopsis. Btw- the CCC are in court right now trying to defend their practices and hopefully they lose.