| Thursday, April 06, 2006 |
| So Long Suckers |
So, I was paying bills last night, and I opened a credit card statement. Last Christmas, or maybe two years ago now, I signed up for an Amazon.com credit card because you got all kinds of free shipping, discounts, and for every $xx dollars you spent, you got credit towards Amazon.com. Hey, some people collect airline miles, I put it towards my book habit. Like a responsible person, I was careful to make sure the balance was paid in full every month, so I never really paid attention to the interest rate.
So, this month's statement had a big CONGRATULATIONS across the top of it that informed me that they were raising my credit limit to something ridiculously high, like $20,000. Well, how nice of them to trust me, since my balance is like $250. Then I finally looked at the APR, and nearly choked. It's 21.49%!!!!
I immediately called them and said, "Listen, I appreciate the credit line increase, but (a) I don't want/need it, and (b) even if I did, I'm not insane enough to pay this rate - so why don't we lower both?? What do you say?"
She was very nice and asked what my lowest rate was on another card, and I told her it was less than 8%.
Silence.
"Well, ma'am, the best I can do at this time is lower it to 18%."
"Well ma'am", I replied, "then this will be my last payment in full - please close the account".
I guess if they aren't raping reaping huge amounts of interest off of you, they aren't very incentivized to treat you well.
God, I hate credit card companies, and it's no wonder America is up to its eyeballs in debt. |
posted by Broadsheet @ 6:15 PM   |
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| 7 Editorial Opinions: |
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I've heard some states have relaxed their usury statutes to allow credit companies to charge up to 26%. It's a good thing that we tightened up the bankruptcy laws, huh?
I've got 8% beat, though, I've got a student loan at %2.75.
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Pardon my ignorance, but if you pay the outstanding balance every month what does the interest rate matter, especially if you like the perks the card gives you (which I'm guessing you only accrue for purchases and not interest paid anyway)? If you cancelled the card out of principal, aren't you just spiting yourself by missing out on the free shipping, discounts, etc?
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tfg: You're right. You're practically making money by not paying that off any time soon.
SC: You're not entirely wrong sir. I basically used the credit card strictly for groceries. I mean, you never want to go into a revolving credit line for groceries, right? So it was easily paid off every month, and I was likely to rack up the "mileage" pretty easily. Plus it was real easy to keep track of my grocery expenses that way. The interest started out at 0% for 6 months or something, and it probably jumped along the way because I was a day or two late somewhere. I cancelled it primarily on principal, but I would have lost ANY advantages the card provided with just a few months of interest payments at that rate if I decided to take advantage of the card over Christmas to buy things on Amazon, which is why I got the card in the first place. It would be a wash, and the arrogance of Chase Bank just left me cold.
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It doesn't take much to get into trouble with credit cards. I knew a married couple who had to take out a equity home loan to pay off their credit cards. The were deep in debt at the time and a year later they were back in debt with their credit cards and still had to pay the loan off.
Credit card companies piss me off.
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I have 0% interest on my Amazon.com credit card for another four or five months.
Also, with a $20k credit line, I'd do something stupid. (Like, buy a Jeep).
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SNAY: Drop the gun. Drop the gun and back away. NOW
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I don't HAVE a $20k credit line, Broadsheet!!!!
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I've heard some states have relaxed their usury statutes to allow credit companies to charge up to 26%. It's a good thing that we tightened up the bankruptcy laws, huh?
I've got 8% beat, though, I've got a student loan at %2.75.