What to Do When a Credit Card Jacks Up Your Rate

I’ve just recently been in the situation that you hear about all the time. Well, not actually me, but my significant other who also happens to live with me. He has a credit card with about a $6,000 limit on it, and just recently received a bill for a minimum amount due that was much higher than it was previously just last month.

So lo and behold, when he looked at the details of his statement, he found that they had jacked his rate up from his special low APR of 13% to 29.99%, over a double jump from what it was before. Granted, they did not guarantee this special rate would last forever when he last negotiated that rate with them over the phone since they talked him into staying last year by offering the lower rate (he never uses the card any more, so they just make revolving interest on his current balance, why this wasn’t enough for them, I don’t know).

If you read the fine print, any credit card will tell you when you sign up that the offer for the APR they disclose is only good for so long, and that after that, based on many different criteria and reasons, including whether there was rainbow over the nearest lake (I kid of course, but you get the point), they reserve the right to do whatever they want with that rate, meaning they usually jack it up. It’s almost never the other way around where they just lower your APR interest rate without letting you know ahead of time unfortunately.

What you can do about this sort of increase in your APR is to call your creditor and see if they can work with you to again lower the rate. If they say they can’t do anything, let them know that you need to compare other companies then. This may prompt them to make an exception in some cases.

If not, then you’re just going to either look for a low APR balance transfer credit card, or maybe even get a low fixed APR loan if you intend to pay it off as my significant other did since he was not using the card any more. At any rate, if your rate goes up so high that your monthly payment would be ridiculous, and wouln’t even be making a dent, it’s in your best interst to explore you options.