Comments on: Has Your Credit Card Offered You an Incentive?

By: Katie

Katie — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 10:42:27 +0000

I had a Providian/WaMu card that had been at 9 percent for the last 5 years. I have never missed a payment. I have never been late. Chase bought it out, and as soon as they took over, my 9 percent interest rate went to 22.24 percent. For what? Didn’t part of my tax dollars ALREADY go to Chase to “bail” them out? I guess the billions of tax payer money isn’t enough…

I have used those fixed 4.99% for the life of the balance deals before. I am actually using one right now. I just use it to transfer balances over and don’t use the card for anything. Once the balance is paid, I transfer more over. That way, the only thing the card is being used for is the 4.99%.

By: Girl Getting out of Debt

Girl Getting out of Debt — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 02:20:19 +0000

I mean, 9% thereafter.

By: Girl Getting out of Debt

Girl Getting out of Debt — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 02:19:47 +0000

I paid off 2500 all at once on a nearly-maxed-out card that was charging me 19% APR finally, and once it cleared, I called them and asked them to lower the APR. I had done that before the economy crash and they denied me. This time, they happily lowered the APR to 0% for two months, then 9$ thereafter. Short answer: YES! And call them if you feel your APR is high!

By: Flip

Flip — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 18:48:13 +0000

I was offered the AMEX deal. Just got it in the mail the other day, as I have a large amount in there (my largest in the snowball and a very low rate I locked them into a while back). On initial viewing, the gift card wouldn’t help me pay down my balance by the dates required, so I’m not going to do it.

But I’m going to go look at all the fine print, b/c I don’t want to find out I missed something and something worse happens later.

By: pfmoron

pfmoron — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 16:28:29 +0000

Yes, I’ve been offered an HUGE incentive to reduce my balance and close my account. It’s called a 16.99% Interest Rate!

By: TheVanMan

TheVanMan — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 15:49:41 +0000

I must get at least four or five offers on credit cards each week. I think my existing card supplier is selling my details to the competition. How mad is that?

By: Pev

Pev — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 02:29:58 +0000

I have a credit card a nordstroms and it’s cool getting nordstrom notes in the mail and bringing it in to get free stuff

By: Ninja

Ninja — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 22:32:22 +0000

I have one CC balance left. It WAS with Discover, til today when a balance transfer went through. I moved the full balance to a 0% for 6 months card through BB&T where I bank. My personal banker helped me do this (and I also have a great credit score, which helped). So–my goal is to pay off this last card by August and then all I will have left is my car loan.

Never again with credit cards! EVER! =)

By: craig

craig — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 22:09:01 +0000

No incentive but they have raised my limit, not sure if there was an economic reason or that’s just the standard.

By: Judy

Judy — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 18:20:17 +0000

I was offered the Citibank deal (upto $550 cashback when paying over the minimum balance). I am using the snowball to tackle it now so I figured, why not?

By: Susan

Susan — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 18:11:10 +0000

I don’t have a credit card balance (well, right now I owe $24.50 for gas I bought this morning, but I’m paying that at the end of the week) – no change in my interest rate, credit line, rewards, etc.

I’m so glad I’ve paid off my credit card debt! It took 3 years and a LOT of struggle and sacrifice, but thankfully, we’re there.

Now – if only we could tackle the mortgage and home equity loan…

By: Junior

Junior — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 17:49:47 +0000

Mr P’s note on the low-rate balance transfer offers, is something I have seen also. I expect, the reason that they would make this low-rate offer on a high-interest card is, this way they can keep you paying the highest rate on your existing high-interest balance, all the while they will be taking your every payment dollar to pay back their little low-rate loan to you! I.e., it’s just another sucker-pitch. Don’t swing on it.

By: Jim ~ mydebtblog.com

Jim ~ mydebtblog.com — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 17:49:22 +0000

I have an old AmEx card I wouldn’t mind closing for $300. They can be assured that I will never be their customer or do business with them ever again too. It’s a shift to move credit lines to people who have balances, so the credit card companies can stop writing off debt (ironic isn’t it?) and actually show a profit.

The thing that pisses me off more and more is raising the APR on people who are paying their accounts. My wife got jacked by Citi, and seeing that 18.99% just makes me want to get rid of them faster. If Chase is starting to do it, that’s not going to be a good thing for their business. I remember when Capital One axed their 4.9% ‘flat rate’ cards, anyone who had one got suckered on that deal. We’ll never be their customer ever again, I guarantee that.

These credit card companies are leaving us no choice but to pay them off and never use them again. If we don’t fall in the trap, no need to struggle to get out.

By: Nicole

Nicole — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 17:47:07 +0000

We’ve been given a dis-incentive. We received a letter changing the terms of our credit card rewards, basically saying they can take the card and all accumulated unredeemed rewards away at any time. Fearing they will, I’m redeeming our rewards ASAP for a cheaper gift than I was planning on, then canceling the card

By: Mr Plasectomy

Mr Plasectomy — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 14:22:57 +0000

Nothing here either other than the occasional balance transfer offer on a few of the cards that were recently paid off. I wouldn’t mind getting a $300 gift certificate to go away and never come back. Either way what the companies are doing is dirty as they are the ones that got themselves into the mess they are in by lending credit to anything with a pulse.

I have to agree that Chase is pretty shady and thankfully the one card that I do have a balance transfer balance at 3.99% as yet to be effected by their new policy. However, that didn’t stop them from jacking my rate to 36% on another one of their cards, http://www.myplasectomy.com/?p=150 . Which is odd considering they still send me those balance transfer checks for that account in the mail once month for the 3.99%, 4.99%, or 5.99% interest rate.

By: Kev

Kev — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 13:15:35 +0000

Nope – nothing in the way of incentives here. Two of CC companies have jacked my interest rate up in the last few months though. Both card issuers did the same thing – they switched me to a variable rate (14.65% + Prime). It’s ridiculous and it ticks me off b/c I did nothing wrong. I haven’t been late – I don’t even have a balance. I’m just glad I got them paid off before they pulled that crap.

I read the same article and agree that Chase is one of the shadiest of them all. I’ve dealt with them in the past and have since cut all ties. I absolutely refuse to do business with them in any manner – credit card or otherwise.