I provide legal representation to folks whose interest rates are hiked. Mark Bonner; 127 NW 10th St.; OKC, OK 73103. (Anywhere in the nation through local counsel.) Feel free to write or send an e-mail if you are looking for financial relief. lmb@nemw.com.

Chase just did the same thing to me. The opt out forces you to closes your account which affects you credit score.

I still don't understand why people waste so much money on weddings. That money (if they had it) would better go into savings as a down payment for a house. $35K is just a lot of debt to put on cards. $15K, even, is still a lot of debt. I applaud them for getting down $20K, but damn.

But seriously, if you're in debt, having 7 cards is irresponsible. That's WHY you're in debt.

Wow, that was stupid.

I would agree that many people don't put that much thought into what credit cards are, ie: bank PRODUCTS that, like all products, generate profit... but, I think that there are plenty of responsible people out there that need or even just want a sort of loan under agreed upon terms that they know they can afford.

You walk into a restaurant and you know you can't afford the steak, so you order the burger. The problem is when the check comes and the price changed to the price of the steak AFTER you ate.

Finance, even. Duh.

And if you spent half the time reading the post that you spent typing out that sanctimonious response, you'd see that they didn't "finanace a 35k wedding".

Yep. The credit card company makes some nice easy money in merchant fees, and assume less risk by far than they do with a customer who carries a balance from month to month. And it's no skin off their nose to reduce the APR for someone who never carries a balance, as it they weren't going to make any money off the increased APR in the first place. But by agreeing to decrease the APR they're keeping the goodwill of the customer, rather than pissing them off and having them take their nice, safe, sensible spending habits elsewhere.

I think Citi's approach has pretty much been to do an across-the-board, blanket APR hike for most, if not all, of their customers. They probably figure that a huge number won't even notice (and so if those are customers who carry balances, that's $$$ for Citi), most of those who do notice won't think they have any choice in the matter and won't question the increase (yet more $$$ for Citi), and the customers who do notice, and do call to complain will be the ones that actually get a decision made on an individual basis. Either they'll get the "ooh, you're such a valued customer, I can only apologize - here, let me reduce your rate to something better" response, or they'll be told "tough titty" if Citi doesn't value their business quite so much.

After reading untold complaints about Chase raising the APR on their unwitting customers I've already decided not to ever hold one of their credit cards just on general principle. Now it may be time to reevaluate my relationship with Citi. Why give them my money and business if they're just out to screw us all?

Oh, and has anyone else been ushered to the side offices at Chase when going in to conduct simple transactions? This has happened to me three times now and I'm getting sick of it. They drag me back and try to evaluate my accounts to see if I've got the "right type of accounts," and then try to get me one of their credit cards. I hate this shit and it eats up my time. I fell for it once (just the "routine" evaluation, not the credit card), I ain't falling for it again. It's like a used car lot in there.

@supercereal: Not true. Whether you carry a balance or not you make money for the credit card company every time you use the card. Merchants pay a fee, anywhere from 1% to 5% of the purchase price, for the privilege of accepting credit card payments. Ergo, the CC companies get their percentage even if they don't get it from the customer.

@jimconsumer: There are degrees of stupid.

Five years ago I bought a used car with a credit card. I actually started with a bank loan for $7500, at 8.5%. A couple of months later I got balance transfer promotion check for 2.99% fixed with no fee: I sent the check to the bank and paid off my car loan at 2.99%. That was a pretty good use of a credit card, since I didn't have $7500 in cash to start with.

In my opinion, if you have to take on long-term debt to finance a wedding your wedding is too expensive. Anyone can get married for the $50 or whatever a marriage license costs. Anything beyond that is a discretionary expenditure. Either scale back the wedding or postpone it until you can pay for the event you want.

I had to laugh when one of my Credit Company A called me up to "offer" me my credit balance in order to pay off other higher-interest credit cards. I told Credit Co. A that it was, in fact, my highest interest credit card, so any balance I had on another card, I sure wouldn't transfer it to Credit Co. A.

Make sure your balance is zero when the nine months is up. They refuse to lower it, tell them to screw off and you get off scott free. They lower, it, cool.

The cards are from both my wife and I and honestly, a good amount of those cards are duplicate cards that were sent to remind us that we have credit cards. 6 of them were the same exact Washington Mutual card--all 6 were NOT expired.

I wrote Chase last night. Those that are being affected by an APR raise should write their company a similar question...

"As I'm sure you are aware, raising the APR on existing balances will be illegal in July 2010. I would like to know why a practice that has been deemed unfair to Americans and will be illegal next year is perfectly acceptable for Chase Bank today?"

I always leave my activation sticker on my cards. I don't really have a great reason but several minor and probably insignificant ones. Still, I do leave it on there. Just saying.

@CFinWV: @janetcarol:

do what I did.. Forego the reception "ball" and take your family and close friends to a nice dinner after the wedding.

I was able to build my own Menu at a nice resteraunt that I know wouldnt break my bank, even if everyone bought the most expensive thing on my menu. I limited drinks to non-alcoholic and everyone had a blast. it was much more intimate and personal.

Anyone else notice that the credit card in the bottom center of the picture still has the 'Call this number to activate' sticker on it? Makes me think some of those 'credit cards' are either freshly ordered, or the fake cardboard cards that you are sent with 'your name here' to 'current residents' of an address.

I smell something fishy here....

This is what credit card issuers do, my friend. These people are evil. They will screw you. Virtually everyone who has ever had a credit card has been screwed in one way or another. Citibank once lost an electronic payment I made. I had a confirmation number from them saying it was paid, but they decided I didn't make my payment and jacked my fixed 4.9% rate to 28%. I get my next bill and there's $700 in interest and late fees!!! It took several months, calls to an attorney, and complaints with the BBB to fix it, but they STILL refused to admit their mistake, claiming I'm the one who screwed up. Bastards, all of them.

Do yourself a favor, my friend: Never, ever, ever use credit cards again. You cut them up, leave them that way. Close all of the accounts. Don't go back into debt - pay cash or use a debit card.

One more thing: You can get your APRs put back. Call the banks and DEMAND it. They will close your account (that's fine by you, right?), but they MUST let you finish paying it off under the original terms of the contract. That's the law. If they refuse, sue their asses for breach of contract. You won't have to do that - even telling them you'll do that will get this fixed.

who the hell pays for a wedding on a CC? Dont these people know that money issues are the #1 cause of marital problems??

Whats with all these people thinking they deserve a $35-50k wedding when they only make like $35k a year? If you dont have the money dont spend it! I could think of 100 different things that much money could be used for a couple whos just starting out.

It does seem like you had waaaaay too many cards though. Keep 1 Visa, 1 Mastercard and 1 Discover (and 1 Amex if you just have to).

Dedicate 1 card to gasoline, 1 card to groceries, and 1 card to all other purchases. Use all 3 cards for all purchases, and pay off all 3 cards every month.

Credit scores / history are more about how responsible you are with your credit and how good you are at using it / paying it.

If you *never* use credit, they your credit score will be terrible. The more you use credit responsibly, the better your score should be.

Can we come to some consensus?

I was upgraded from a platinum to a diamond preferred card a few months prior to the letter coming in the mail btw

@Allen Harkleroad:

Thanks for subsidizing me, I appreciate it. The more cash buyers the more people paying higher prices to merchants that compensate for the lower prices that I pay.

I don't see how leaving a bunch of credit card accounts open with zero balances improves one's creditworthiness, but I'm not one of those actuarial expert types at Experian.

Including:

Have a daytime reception rather than a night time one. The food costs less, the rental fee for where the reception is is cheaper, and your guests will hate you less for it. Wedding guests hate hate hate the day night double header.

Stick to the guest list. If your parents want to bring 80 additional people from work, they can pay for the 80 additional people from work.

Have a reception someplace non-traditional. I find nothing more disheartening than finding out a reception is at a reception hall. The food sucks, the decor is crappy, the entertainment is lame. Non traditional is appreciated by your guests and less expensive.

And my two favorites:

Elope and have a small party later and

Don't get married to begin with.

A friend of mine had a firehouse ballroom reception. No amount of decoration will convince anyone that it isn't a firehouse ballroom. There are more creative ways to have a nice, less expensive wedding.

@FatLynn: I got a similar letter stating thet the APR would not fall below 7% and I could opt out. By "opt out" they stated that I would be closing the account.

I called in and asked, "did I somehow miss a payment, or something, what did I do to deserve this?"...the CSR responded, saying thee was nothing she could do, that "due to the economic climate" citi's cost of lending had gone up, and they were experiencing a higher than normal default rate, "so they had to raise the rate on some of their cards". She reassured me, "It's not because of anything you have done, you are a valued customer to us, blah blah blah".

To me, an increase from 6.99% to 8.99% might help cover increased costs, but from 6.99% > 24.99% with nary an explanation was ridiculous. She told me that I could either a) accept the new rate, to keep my card active, or b) leave the interest rate at the old rate, but my card would expire at the end of the year and would not be renewed. I told her, I'll go with a third option, cancel now and let them lose me as a customer altogether. (yes, I know how to play the retentions game)

Got a very helpful "account specialist" who understood that a ~300% increase in my APR was unacceptible, and offered me a promotional rate of 3.99% for the next nine months for my balance and new purchases, at which point the card will go back up to 24.99% (the "old" (new) rate), and so, come September, I'll call back and wrangle with them again, if they want to keep my account.

I cut up my personal and business cards about three years ago. I manage to run my business and personal stuff with debit cards, cash and checks.

Screw the credit card companies (all of them). I nor anyone in my family will ever use one again.

@Kryndis: They could also have had some empty Visa gift cards that they added for effect. It looks like one or two cards have activation stickers, so they would have probably had the old cards too.

Citibank just raised my APR this week too. I've had the card for over ten years and haven't had a balance on it for the last three. I keep it because it's my longest standing credit card account so it's good for my credit score, but they've just solidified that when we buy a fridge in the next few months, it's going on our Credit Union credit card instead of on there.

I called in to cancel my card and was immediately transferred an agent who asked why I was cancelling. I got as far as, "I received a letter telling me that my APR was increasing..."

He interrupted me with "Let me see what I can do for you...How does 8.49% sound? And you can disregard that letter."

Not bad. I didn't even have to ask for it.

Wow they cut up their cards big deal, looks like they had way too many in the first place.

If I cut up my payment book for my mortgage or my car I wonder if any one would care.

WAAAAAAY too many. I'm glad they're paying down their debt but 1 card should be enough.

I realize it would affect the credit score, but it would save them money. I hope the OP sees this.

You're right though, if they don't keep a couple accounts open (even if they don't use them/pay them off EVERY month), their credit score will suffer due to the drastic reduction in available credit. The CC companies really have people in a bind, don't they?

However, it means that they may cancel/close your account. You can't charge anything new on your account, and must continue to make payments on your existing debt.

Also, most CC companies take your next payment as approval and acceptance of the change in contract terms. So be sure you call them to 'opt out' before you pay your next bill!

Same here and it only has a $1000.00 limit.

i have zero sympathy for anyone that would use credit cards to finance a 35k wedding. if they spent half the time reading the credit card agreements they signed as they probably spent picking out flowers for the reception they'd have known what a bad idea that is.

Keep in mind that your ratio of debt to credit will also be affected since you will still have the same amount of debt but less credit.

Goood luck.

Keep those credit card shards away from my Trader Joe's Mango smoothie!

WOW! I count at the very least eight cards there. Those and getting into major debt in the first place is the big problem. Also, most credit card companies put you in different categories/levels of, let's call them, "users" depending on your style of use of the cards. So, it's likely that now that they're paying off their cards they've been put in a different bracket and for the time being that's going to hurt them. Not using the cards is the smart thing to do. If there were eight then at least five of them should have been cut up when they started paying their debt off to begin with.

I wish them good luck on repairing their credit score and starting to see that living on high interest short term loans is not the way to get your fancy wedding. Hopefully, they won't make the same mistakes with buying a house or they'll end up like everyone else who wasn't edcuated about mortgages and debt.

This picture and story reminds me of why I love being an all cash kind of gal.

Is such fine print common, and might the OP have the same option?

Wow, that is way too many cards but congrats on stepping up and making a hard decision.