I decided not to accept the increase in the interest rate on my Capital One Card. This means that beginning 60 days from today I will no longer be able to do any balance transfers to this card. I will also not be able to charge anything to it and will have to cancel any recurring bills that I have paid with this card.
I will be able to keep my current interest rate on the card and pay off the balance monthly as I have been doing. The thing Capital One say is that when the balance reaches zero the card will be automatically closed off by them.
Oh well. I know that having a card closed will lower my credit score a bit…but by the time I finally get that card down to zero that will not be an issue. Right now I am more interested in not paying any more money in interest than I am already paying right now.
I am a bit upset that this had to happen because I really liked that card….and it was my lowest interest rate card but I will just have to get rid of it or pay a higher interest rate…which I am not willing to do right now.
I am more concerned with getting all of this debt paid off. I do not have any intentions of applying for any more new credit right now….already have a car payment and I do not see myself buying a house any time soon.
I guess I will miss this card but I already have too many cards….I think 5 should be my maximum so in a way this is a blessing. So here I am taking a deep breath and getting ready to just pay, pay, pay and not add any charges to anything else.
Regarding Capitol One’s steep rate increase.. You are not alone. After years with Cap One and using it as my favorite card, I too got that letter. A 5% rate increase on an 8.9% rate (a 56% rate increase) is unimaginable. I suspect that after a couple years of relentless advertizing and signing up folks at a low rate they have now reached the threashold they envisioned and are sticking it to everyone. Greed – it’s what keeps america working, much like the indentured slaves of the past, credit is a cancer sucking the life out of our future.
So did you keep the card and take the increased rate or did you tell them take a hike?