Certain Credit Card Companies SUCK
April 17, 2006Never open your credit card bills just before bed. Now I cannot sleep as I feel absolutely sick over bill I just opened from our Chase account. Now let me first say I am well aware I am miring away in my sh*t that I have created. Originally this card was owned by Bank One and when we used it to finance our daughter’s adoption, it had an 8.9% interest rate. As of today’s statement, it is now at 29.99% and we have $9500 on it, with no way to pay it off. Our minimum payment has now gone up an additional $75 and is MORE than we pay on our car. The interest rate has more than tripled since August when Chase officially took over handling our account.
Yes, we had have two late payments but not within six months and one was because I screwed up and was $4 short in my monthly payment, which I discovered and paid online at their site the day after it was due. The majority of the payment was early but nope, apparently, we now have to pay 30% interest.
Let me also say that we have only been 30 days late once on a bill in the entire time we have been paying bills- it was not to Chase but to a different company and that was because we never got a statement.
Our other credit card companies have NOT treated our account this way, even though we are overextended and I have been a day or two late on payments recently due to how we get paid.
I have thought about full-time work but now that I know how much daycare in my area costs for full-time (most of them require at least 3 days and at the rate you pay for less than full-time, you might as well use full-time), plus the rising cost of gas, lunches, clothing, etc, I would have to make greater than $28,000 gross to come out ahead of what I make working two days a week and not paying child care. My current pay rate does not get me that much if I worked full-time and there isn’t full-time work in my job, so I would have to find one that is willing to pay me more than I have made per hour on avg. for the last 3 years. I had just barely hit that mark when I left working full-time in 2003, so I doubt I could land a job that paid what I need very easily. And no, I don’t have child care for even one more day a week as I cannot rely on my mother (particularly since she is having a lot of back pain that is not improving even with the physical therapy and muscle relaxants she has been on).
How on earth do they expect us to try and pay this off?? Oh wait, they don’t want us to so we can pay scads and scads of interest….
My rule of thumb – if they are willing to give me a credit card, they better give me two…..I’ll need the second one to pay the first one off.
Although I agree, credit cards suck, I had a different question… May I ask what your devotional life looks like? I ask, because I’m trying to grow closer to God. “Trying” being the operative word here – and I’m trying to get an idea from other Christians on how they work it into their lives. Thanks!
Oh dear! Credit cards – a slough of despond!
Erin… probably stuff you’ve thought of already, but… have you looked into transferring the balance to a different card? Have you tried calling Chase and giving ‘em hell, threatening to change card companies if they don’t lower your interest rate? Also… do you own your home? Often home equity loans are lower interest rates than credit cards… or, you could check into refinancing your home (if you haven’t done it in the past few years, you may end up with a better rate on your mortgage loan, too) and consolidate the credit card debt into the refinancing (this is how M and I paid our credit card off).
God, I’m sorry. I know that sinking, pit-in-the-stomach, can’t sleep, feeling. ((hugs))
N
Did that…They gave me the run around and said “try back in six months”. Of course, we aren’t in a place to transfer it to another card. We are considering refinance our mortgage and pulling a little extra out to get rid of a loan that has a large monthly payment (we have enough equity to do that but not enough to deal with this card).
Dealing with money sucks
Hey! Chase did the same thing to me TOO! Suddenly I’m paying 29.99% for no reason. I called to ask why, as I have NEVER made a late payment to them, and haven’t paid any other credit card bills late in over 3 years. They said, “Uhh, we periodically review your credit report, and something in December on your Experian report, uhhh, blah blah.”
So they can’t even tell me WHY, but no, they can’t lower my interest rate either. I was hopping mad about this for about 2 months.
WARNING: Just the other day I got a notice about “change in terms” from them — apparently I am now going to have to pay 31.99%! I’ve had enough — I’m going to opt out and close the account. At least I’ll get to keep paying my balance off at 29.99%. I know, I know, ooooh, what a privilege.