topic Re: Citi increased APR in Credit Cards

Citi increased APR

alkaline — Thu, 24 Dec 2015 18:28:48 GMT

My December Citi Double Cash statement showed a new purchase APR... 14.24%, a 1% increase!

Live chat told me that "due to federal guidelines the government raised the prime interest from 3.25 to 3.50... This would be the cause of this."

And so it begins

Re: Citi increased APR

Anonymous — Thu, 24 Dec 2015 18:32:11 GMT

They raised you a whole 1%? Not just .25%? Darn Citi!

Re: Citi increased APR

alkaline — Thu, 24 Dec 2015 18:40:27 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
They raised you a whole 1%? Not just .25%? Darn Citi!

Actually, you're right.. I was at 13.99%.. For some reason I thought I was at 13.24% with them

Re: Citi increased APR

Anonymous — Thu, 24 Dec 2015 18:43:55 GMT

Citi raised my APR 1% from 13.99 to 14.99. Although I'm at 99% utilization on this card lol. The funny thing is that I don't remember seeing a notice, I just checked online and it wasn't that high last statement.

My Chase hasn't changed, though, remaining at 13.49%, but I'm not maxed.

That's why I went ahead and applied for that lending club loan because if they're bumping it that much per quarter percent Fed hike, what will it be like in a year if the Fed continues bumping rates?

Re: Citi increased APR

Anonymous — Thu, 24 Dec 2015 19:17:17 GMT

I think Fed is expected to bump at least 1% for the next year. Oh well.. I hope these 1% BT offers will still be around.

Re: Citi increased APR

Imperfectfuture — Thu, 24 Dec 2015 20:47:02 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I think Fed is expected to bump at least 1% for the next year. Oh well.. I hope these 1% BT offers will still be around.

Um, according to financial news, probably not.

Re: Citi increased APR

NRB525 — Thu, 24 Dec 2015 21:30:27 GMT

@Imperfectfuture wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
I think Fed is expected to bump at least 1% for the next year. Oh well.. I hope these 1% BT offers will still be around.
Um, according to financial news, probably not.

if they want to bring the global economy to it's knees, they will raise by 1% over the next year. There is a gajillion U.S. dollar denominated new debt out there around the world expecting to stay at low rates. Particularly in emerging markets.

Re: Citi increased APR

Anonymous — Thu, 24 Dec 2015 22:42:02 GMT

Who knows what the Fed is going to do. We're kind of in uncharted territory in regards to the length and breadth of the extremely low rates.

I think one of the main reasons they want to raise rates now is to regain same quantitative tools that "helped" us out of the last Great Recession. In other words, if rates are effectively zero, the Fed doesn't have much in its Arsenal should another recession come and come it will.

By moving rates up, this allows them to reload that capability, a tool they have used with great effect ever since it was created. Not raising rates kind of negates that ability as there's nothing to lower.

Although ironically, by them raising rates might force that very recession. But that recession will happen, it's just a matter of how big and how long. However, hopefully it won't be enough to force those rates back and they can slowly reload should a big one hit.

Re: Citi increased APR

UncleB — Fri, 25 Dec 2015 04:40:44 GMT

My Amex BCP statement dropped yesterday, and I just checked it out online a few minutes ago.

I'm currently on a new account promo, but my 'non-promo' rate has increased 0.25% as well, so like Citi, Amex also didn't waste any time making the adjustment.

Re: Citi increased APR

Anonymous — Fri, 25 Dec 2015 04:46:29 GMT

@UncleB wrote:
My Amex BCP statement dropped yesterday, and I just checked it out online a few minutes ago.

I'm currently on a new account promo, but my 'non-promo' rate has increased 0.25% as well, so like Citi, Amex also didn't waste any time making the adjustment.

I suspect that on all variable rate cards the new interest rate will appear on statement cut. The T&Cs usually reference something like the prime rate as published in the WS&J at a certain day (e.g. Amex "Variable APRs for each billing period are based on the Prime Rate published in The Wall Street Journal2 days before the Closing Date of the billing period.") So depending when your statement closed relative to the rate increase, you will see it either in the first or second statement after the rate hike.

Re: Citi increased APR

UncleB — Fri, 25 Dec 2015 05:12:14 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@UncleB wrote:
My Amex BCP statement dropped yesterday, and I just checked it out online a few minutes ago.

I'm currently on a new account promo, but my 'non-promo' rate has increased 0.25% as well, so like Citi, Amex also didn't waste any time making the adjustment.

I suspect that on all variable rate cards the new interest rate will appear on statement cut. The T&Cs usually reference something like the prime rate as published in the WS&J at a certain day (e.g. Amex "Variable APRs for each billing period are based on the Prime Rate published in The Wall Street Journal2 days before the Closing Date of the billing period.") So depending when your statement closed relative to the rate increase, you will see it either in the first or second statement after the rate hike.

Yeah, they aren't wasting any time, but I do find it interesting that the rate hasn't even been increased for an entire month yet, and of course there's no 'pro-ration' on the statement.

I PIF each month anyway so it doesn't matter to me (and it's a relatively small increase anyway) but multiplied over the millions of accounts that are paying interest, for many customers Amex/Citi will be charging a higher rate for an entire statement period while the new rate actually only applied to a part of it (depending on the statement date). We're talking pennies here (for most folks who are impacted) but I'm sure somebody with a sharp pencil at Amex/Citi/etc. accounted for the extra revenue. This also begs the question, when the rate goes down (which hasn't happened in a while) do the issuers lower it for customers just as quickly? If so, my complaint is likely 'moot' since the over/short would mostly cancel-out over time. (Disclaimer: this is academic for me; like I mentioned, I have no 'dog in this fight'... it's just fun to think about).

There's a lot of truth to, "If you watch the pennies, the dollars will take care of themselves..." Apparently Amex and Citi agree... LOL

Side note: It's too bad they can't update the rewards balance as quickly as they update the interest rates... for some reason the last two months it has taken several days longer for my BCP cash rewards balance to update to match the new statement. This 'several days' is in addition to the usual delay we have learned to love with Amex. Since this is a Citi thread (sorry for hijacking), I'll simply add that I hope Citi is faster with their rewards than Amex.

Re: Citi increased APR

Imperfectfuture — Fri, 25 Dec 2015 06:33:23 GMT

Interesting, mine update to match within a week.

Re: Citi increased APR

UncleB — Fri, 25 Dec 2015 06:53:07 GMT

@Imperfectfuture wrote:
Interesting, mine update to match within a week.

Yeah, that's what's happening for me now... but up until last month it never even took that long - as soon as the new statement was available, my rewards on the website always matched the number on the new statement at least by the next day. I watched it closely for a while since I was figuring out what counted as what category to maximize my rewards.

It's not really a big deal, just more of a nuisance, really. Now that I know to expect the delay going forward, I'll simply adjust to it, and if/when they update simultaneously as they once did I'll just consider it a treat. (First-world problems... LOL).

At least we know they are on top of making sure there's no delay in updating the APR!

BTW, Happy Holidays!/Merry Christmas!/Happy Hanukkah!

Re: Citi increased APR

Mike360 — Fri, 25 Dec 2015 12:49:48 GMT

Chase is also doing this. They raised my APR on my Chase Freedom and Amazon.com VISA yesterday. Luckily for me I pay it off every month so it doesn't effect me.

Re: Citi increased APR

lg8302ch — Fri, 25 Dec 2015 13:12:41 GMT

oh wow..... I have a new record APR 23.24% on Chase Freedom

Re: Citi increased APR

Anonymous — Fri, 25 Dec 2015 16:37:21 GMT

@UncleB wrote:
@Imperfectfuture wrote:
Interesting, mine update to match within a week.
Yeah, that's what's happening for me now... but up until last month it never even took that long - as soon as the new statement was available, my rewards on the website always matched the number on the new statement at least by the next day. I watched it closely for a while since I was figuring out what counted as what category to maximize my rewards.

It's not really a big deal, just more of a nuisance, really. Now that I know to expect the delay going forward, I'll simply adjust to it, and if/when they update simultaneously as they once did I'll just consider it a treat. (First-world problems... LOL).

At least we know they are on top of making sure there's no delay in updating the APR!

BTW, Happy Holidays!/Merry Christmas!/Happy Hanukkah!

Yes, this is discussed on the OBC thread on FlyerTalk. Seems to be taking up to three weeks compared to the usual 0-2 days. More savings for them I guess!

Re: Citi increased APR

Imperfectfuture — Fri, 25 Dec 2015 23:08:00 GMT

@lg8302ch wrote:
oh wow..... I have a new record APR 23.24% on Chase Freedom

That's mine on the quicksilver. Still have it, just not in sig. My Freedom (though 0%) is where my cancelled Chase Amazon was, 19.24. Wonders if they will evaluate later on for lower apr's? Would make them competitive with citi. Also, if approved for 16.24 AFTER rates raised, wonder if will go up, too tired to read TOS right now.