Reply #55: they're doing this to knock off the teaser rate suckers (like me)

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i just got a credit card for 0% through june 2006! i mean, free money, right? well if my minimum payment is 4%, then i'll have paid back nearly half of it by then, so it's not as much of a deal as i thought it was (still free money, just not as much of it, or at least, for not as long).

the money the collect via these increases will get lent out again, but at higher rates because the fed rate hike cycle means prime rate and then credit card rates go up, nearly in lockstep. so they're maximizing their money lent at the newest, highest rates by doing this.

in short, they make it harder to simply carry a balance at a lower rate.