Credit Card Debt Gets More Expensive

If your credit card company has just informed you that they are raising your interest rate because you have too much debt and therefore are a credit risk, you can take action. Say you had a Citibank card that was at 8.9% interest and now they want to raise it to 19.99% because you have high balances on your other cards. You can ask them to close the account and demand that you stay at the 8.9%. You continue to make payments, but at the original rate and not the horrific new rate. If your rate is adjustable, you will still get small bumps in your rate just as you would have had you stayed at the 8.9% rate. Many of these rates are based on the prime rate. The prime rate has been steadily been going up over the past two years.