Back in December I reported on “rate jacking” by CitiBank at the same time that they were getting a $20 Billion bail-out compliments of US taxpayers.
Earlier this month I reported that regulations have been passed to clamp down on rate jacking and other “deceptive practices.” That’s the Federal Reserve’s phrase, not mine. I also said that, since those regulations wouldn’t take effect until July of 2010, the issuers would take advantage of the 18 months and start hiking rates now.
I hate it when I’m right. I just got two notices from Chase. The first was to officially announce that they had taken over my WaMu account. In so doing, my new interest rate was pegged at about 2% higher.
The second notice was a form letter about my existing Chase account.
“We are sending you this notice to let you know that we will be making some changes to your credit card account in response to market conditions and to maintain profitability on your account.”
That response to market conditions amounted to a 4.75% increase in interest. I always pay the full balance every month so this doesn’t really affect me. It just shows that Chase is another issuer who is scrambling to jack up their rates before the regulations won’t let them do it.
I can, of course, decline the rate hike – I just need to close the account. Chase isn’t the only game in town so I might do that after I figure out what that would do to my credit score. On the other hand, both of the other issuers that I have cards from will probably do the same thing and since I pay in full, what’s the saving?
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Just got a notice from Chse that they are raiseing the intrest rates by 4% and lowering my credit limits, this will put me overlimit on these. I have contacted them but they would not help. Iwill get anothercard and pay them off. They got the bail out so we are paying them twice.
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