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LizzieHead asked:


I have recently recieved annual percentage rate increase amendments from three seperate credit cards. Two of them raising the rate to 28.49%! Obviously I do not want to accept these changes and plan to contact the credit card companies to tell them so, but I am just wondering if this will change how quickly I will have to pay these cards balances back. I have never closed a credit card with which I still had a balance, so I did not know, will ‘rejecting these terms’ (thus closing the card), cause my minimum payments to increase?
Logically to me, I would think that if a card is ‘closed’ they wouldnt want me to have a balance with them and I would have a limited time to pay it back, but I have no clue if there is any truth to my thought.

Also I didnt know if because I am ‘rejecting the new terms’ if that means they have to honor my old minimum payment agreement, so I would have normal payments- even if I would not if I closing this card on my own for no apparent reason. If that makes sense.

Also I know that closing a card can be bad for your credit score, but I think it is probably not as bad as having two cards with almost 29% interest rates. Plus I wasn’t sure if ‘rejecting these terms’ would show up the same on a credit report as say just plain closing a card.

I am also just curious how this is legal. I know in the past congress had discussed (and I believe banned) the issue of credit cards putting you on the default rate for you defaulting with other unrelated credit cards, well this to me seems worse. I have paid all my cards on time, none are over the limit & I always pay more than the minimum balance. In fact on all three of these cards the rates had been dropping by a half to a whole percent every month for several months, I presumed this was because of fed rate changes, but not all my cards do that, actually just these three have been lowering. I don’t understand why they’ve been lowering my rates, just raise them back & then some!

Thanks!
Just to let people know, I called the credit card co. & they told me a different answer to this question.
He said my rejection of the terms wouldnt actually ‘close’ the card in regards to how its listed on my credit report. It would technically be open with what he called a ‘bookmark’ recording the date of rejection & if I ever had a charge again on the card, I would then be considered accepting of the new terms & changed to the high rate.
BC the card wont be closed, I can continue to repay the card as I have before, W/O any change in the calculation of the min payment.
So that is what I went ahead and did.
I made sure to record the guy’s name & ID # and got a confirmation #. I also took detailed notes of what exactly he said & recorded the date, time & length of the call.
I had already changed all my automatic payments on the card, but I also asked him to cancel the cards just in case something accidentally charged.
Hopefully this will work out okay but I never know with these guys.

Nadine Vaissiere