45% of consumers have seen negative changes in their credit card this month (survey)

[PinkOwl]

Survey by credit.com

It's not too clear from the article whether this is from October alone or since the law passed in February, 2009. But it's still a lot of people. Here are some details.



Also, 56% want the credit card Bill of Righs to start in December this year rather than next year.




http://www.credit.com/credit_information/research_reports/Higher-Interest-Rates-Lower-Credit-Limits.jsp

[demigoddess]

1. pay off your credit cards and never use them again. Starve these guys.

We have handed them just too much money. Ps. you can use a credit card and pay it off at the end of the month and pay no interest. That is how we have always done it.

[grace0418]

7. Yep, we pay them off every month and reap the rewards of frequent flier miles

to boot. Thank you very much Citibank, we're flying first class to Hawaii in December to celebrate turning 40 with those miles. You can take your interest rates and shove em up your ass. :)

[roguevalley]

9. too bad the entire country doesn't take a two month holiday from

paying bills. It would serve them notice. Two months, November and December.

[JimWis]

2. So I am not the only one who got an interest increase. Interesting

info - thanks for sharing.

[ChickenHawk]

4. You're not alone

We had two cards get an increase. Our Capital One went up about 10% and our Wells Fargo just went up about 8%. We never carry a balance on either one so I cancelled Capital One with a note as to why. Thinking about doing the same with Wells Fargo, but thats the card we use for rewards points, so I'll have to see what else is out there that can get us the same return in points.

[Igel]

11. Lots of people have.

We have, on both cards. Mostly, I think, because the credit card company realized that it really needed to do anything it might want to do after February now. So it did.

Some things had snarky comments (well, not intentionally snarky). For example, the minimum payment increased because, as the info said, Congress required minimum payments that would actually result in paying down the debt. I.e., no more interest-only loans. But if you have a lot of debt, that makes for a lot of minimum payment.

Our credit limit wasn't lowered. They probably should have, we never use it. But since the reserve requirements went up it means that our credit limit costs the CC company more. We use the cards enough that the company's still turning a handy profit. (And we pay off the balance due each month.)

[hedgehog]

3. People used credit cards to make up for the freeze in wages.

In that respect, the banks are playing right into our hands by forcing the issue. Without reasonable credit, people will be demanding higher wages.

[rucky]

8. But with unemployment the way it is, people are accepting lower wages.

Catch 22 that leads me to believe we won't see higher wages anytime soon (or increased credit card use) - simply people struggling more and living with less.

[Q3JR4]

5. Two things;

both the senate and the house had to know that credit issuers would be doing this. Now the push to http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/09/business/09credit.html">move up the enforcement date means that the credit card companies are going to attempt to push these egregious changes through even sooner. If the house and the senate want to punish the credit card industry, while ensuring that Americans collectively have more disposable income, then I'd humbly like to propose that they legislatively cancel the outstanding credit card debt owed by every citizen in this country.

Q3JR4
Never happen in a million years, but I can dream...

[Q3JR4]

6. I saw the writing on the wall

about three months ago and closed my credit account with the intent of locking in my interest rate and denying myself the ability to continue to borrow on the account.

Now I don't have a credit account and am actively looking at options that will effectively allow me to deal with the debt that I currently have.

Q3JR4.

[gratuitous]

10. Got my visa card through my credit union

I've not noticed any negative changes. But then, my credit union is in business to serve me and the rest of its account holders, not to show a profit. It doesn't make bucketfuls of money, but it doesn't lose bucketfuls of money, either. It's a nice, vanilla kind of place catering to the needs of small depositors, writing loans and paying a little bit of interest on deposits.

There used to be a niche (a great, big niche) in the financial services market for such an institution. High flyers could run wild with their venture capital and score big or take it in the shorts, and it really didn't affect the rest of the financial market place. Now, everyone's a high-flying venture capitalist, and when the herd mentality packs all kinds of investments into the same slaughterhouse pen, a lot of value vanishes when bubbles burst.