Thread: If your card interest rate had remained at the original rate you signed for, wouldn't you have paid it off by now?

Hi everyone,

One of the reasons so many of us are in debt, I'm sure, is due to the fact that the interest rates we ended up paying for our credit cards are way beyond what we could have envisaged when we signed up for 9%, 11%, whatever. Most of these cards are now charging two or three times that. We can't pay them off, we incur late payment charges, then we get more interest on the lot and the chance of paying them off gets further and further away.

I am not good at maths or spreadsheets but I know some of you are an absolute whizz, so possibly you could work out how much your credit cards have cost you in reality against how much it would have cost you if the interest rate had stayed at the amount it was when you took out the card.

When we owe them money unless we have the cash to pay off the whole balance we are totally at their mercy when they increase the rates.

I think we will all be staggered by the results. I think there would be some very good illustrations for the media here.

We may also be able to write to the card companies and point out that they have had their money back at the interest rate we first signed for. I know it will say in the t & cs that we agree to these increases but I still think there is an argument here against such huge increases.

Also, remember that when the banks/building societies were told to cut their interest rates the card companies carried on regardless. Why were they able to do that?

What do you think?

DD

And don't forget the PPI they've stuck on, sometimes without our knowledge.

But I see your point. They forced us to pay higher rates, we didn't agree to them.

Exactly. When I signed up for 9%, I wasn't expecting 20-something.

Yes. A few years ago we'd just transfer to an interest free card for 9 months and then keep transferring so we'd never pay interest, but they put a stop to that by charging a percentage for transferring although the APR was either low or 0 for a set period.

Wonder if Competition Agency was onto the fact that they all changed it around same time? Course they don't liaise!!!

Jeeza..This would be a nitemare to work out and I'm a bit of a whiz with spreadsheets, although not really with how APR works. But I'm sure there are many of us who's APR has increased 100-200-300%, I note new rules announced would put a stop to this, would be cool if this could be backdated

Andy

Hi andy,

It should be backdated. We've been ripped off for years and put into horrendous debt because we had no choice. It can't be right that so many of us who haven't been irresponsible spenders are in this mess right now.

I don't know how it would work with the APR either but if you give it a try maybe we could get some idea.

DD

I'm with you all the way on this!

My credit card started life as a lovely 12.9% when I paid the minimum it reduced the balance - then it turn into a 34.9 % nightmare with charges and interest - the minimum payment only just covered the the monthly interest charge

If my card had been at the original interest rate I signed for and going forward from the point they withdrew my facilities, I would now have approximately 1/3 of balance to pay, which is strange because they offered a Full and final discount of 65%


So they have had there money but - now they want to do what ever they can to squeeze that last little bit by whatever means.

Is there a way forward from this ?


Squidward

Hi Squidward,

I started this and another thread at about the same time, and the other one has attracted more attention. Yet Another Suicide through Debt. We're going to fight back NOW!!

I am dealing with another nightmare at the moment, so can't devote too much time to it, but on that thread we really do want to take action to stand up against credit card interest rates rising in this appalling way, huge late charges by everyone from the card companies, utility companies, etc., and it really is about time we just decided not to pay and got some publicity for it.

Most of the money British Gas want from me is for the £14 letters telling me I am late paying them. How can this be justified? It can't. But of course the government are more concerned about the shareholders of these institutions than about those of us who are really suffering as a result of their actions.

Do go to the other thread too, as that one seems to be getting more support, but essentially they are both about the same thing.

DDxx

subbed

The thing is they want you in as much debt as possible and they want to credit default list you so you cant move away. I personally think that credit cards are like cocaine. The absolute product of the devil himself. No wonder the two are used together.

The way the goalposts keep being moved by the Banks is scandalous, but as said, who in authority takes any notice?

One of my cards is now at 20% and when I questioned why the advertised rate, even now, was around 12% I was told that this was the “typical APR”, individual customers rates may vary. How does that work then?

With rates at 0.5% and interbank lending around the 10% how do they justify interest rates of 20% plus? It makes a complete mockery of the importance of Bank of England base rates as they now bear no relation to interest rates paid by customers.

Has anyone asked the Government/Treasury for a response to this?