Help! Chase is jacking the rate on my balance transfer!

[Anonymous]

Hi.  I have $7,500 outstanding on a balance transfer with Chase.  My current rate is/was 4.82% until the balance is paid off.  I just received a letter today saying that all balance transfers will be raised to 10.99%.  I can close the account by Feb. 20th and I think my apr will remain the same but the card is now dead.  How will this effect my fico score?  Also, I have 2 other balance tranfers out with WAMU.  Do you think they are going to jack the rate on those accounts too?  Please let me know what you think.

[oracles]

can they do that? Is that legal? I don't think they can just change the balance transfer rate. I may be wrong but that just does not seem legal. That is a tough choice because if you decide to opt out, it will effect your util% which mean your score will be lowered and you may have adverse actions from other credit cards. If you do opt out, you will save money on that particular credit card, but may suffer from other cards increasing your apr due to AA. How is your score now? how is your util% now? will it increase it tremendously now having minus 7500 in credit and the total balance the same. Can you get CLI's on other cards or apply for other cards to make up for the credit limit lost if you opt out. If you can make up the limit being lost, then i say opt out of it. Food for thought, hope this helps

[Anonymous]

Terms can be chaged at anytime. 

[Anonymous]

ouch, if you payed only the minimum, thats like $2,000 more in interest payments!  Hope you arent paying just the minimum! 

I guess the should you keep it open, should you close it, depends on how quickly you can pay it off.  No BT is safe these days!

[oracles]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Terms can be changed at anytime. 

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I understand terms can be changed anytime but i thought that was for regular purchase apr or other charges but not Balance Transfers. Isn't that a legal contract? That means you can do a balance transfer for 1.9% good until 2010 but they can change it a month afterwards with you not doing anything wrong. That is terribly wrong.

[Anonymous]

Chase has been doing this on accounts that have low APR's for the life of the BT. Plus that $10 monthly fee they tack on. There is a huge thread discussing this somewhere.

OP, do the other accounts have similar terms and are you carrying balances on them as well?

I would try to see about BT'ing to another card (if you have one or can apply for one, there are a few with zero interest still roaming around if your credit is ok. I just got one with BoA for 0% until Feb 2010-Anne Geddes) Then I would sock drawer Chase.

[Anonymous]

Here's that monster thread and the explanation on why they are doing this.

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=creditcard&thread.id=127972&view=by_date_as...

[oracles]

Hey stef, but in his situation, they are automatically change the apr from 4.99 to 10.99. This is different from tacking on a monthly bill. This is actually something new if the OP stated everything correct. If this is legal, it is a scary time for all of us. How can we now trust these BT's that they send us. It is now the time to pay off all bills as quickly as possible.

[Anonymous]

Now is a scary time with all creditors. I have to say a prayer before checking my accounts daily just to make sure everything is ok. Especially Amex!

Now Chase is really worrying me. I do have a BT with them at 0% for 15 months and it will be PIF next month, only carried it 3, but still. I don't like seeing these post!

Sorry OP!

[Watchmann]

Are you sure you didn't miss a payment or anything similar, either on that account or some other account?  I have a Chase card with an old BT that I've been paying off at 3.99% for life.  It was cheaper than a normal car loan.  I'm down to the last few thousand dollars which I pay off at $500/mo.  I was notified of the $10/mo fee, but they didn't touch the APR.  I was under the impression the $10/mo was to compensate Chase for the low BT rates for long term BT's.  You might want to research a bit and find out what triggered the increase.