by Kelly on February 20, 2010
in credit
On 2/22 at 2pm (easy to remember), CreditCards.com will be hosting a live townhall with Austan Goolsbee, an economist who serves on the president’s Council of Economic Advisers. This is your chance to hear more about the Credit CARD Act, and credit card reform, and ask any questions that you may have.
Questions can be submitted to Mr. Goolsbee in advance at CreditCards.com and on Facebook and Twitter (hashtag #cardlaw).
The town hall webcast will be hosted by CreditCards.com on the Web page: CreditCards.com/askthewhitehouse.
For more from Credit Card.com visit their website.
CreditCards.com President and CEO Elisabeth DeMarse had this to say about the reform act:
“The Credit CARD Act gives cardholders new rights and protections, and fundamentally changes the relationship between cardholders and card issuers. We’re excited to work with the White House to ensure that the reform message reaches American consumers.”
For more info on how the reform act will change your credit and credit cards, visit CreditCards.com for more info.
PNC, formerly National City, sent us a letter this week that they are raising our interest rate on our credit card. The reason for our rate being raised included this reason:
“Limited relationship with National City/PNC Bank”
PNC is now owner of National City (where we originally had our card). I was wary of PNC taking over our account because we banked with them previously and their fees were brutal and their service was awful.
We’ve been with National City for over 6 years. First with a home equity loan for our previous home, and with this credit account that we have had for the same 6 years. I think 6 years is a long time, but apparently they do not.
This is the 3rd time that a credit card company has raised our rates in the last 6 months. Both other times I fought back and won. I detailed my experience with Chase raising our rates, and then reinstating them, and then reducing our credit limit.
Why not just pay it off? We are working on paying off our credit card debt. Our goal is to be free of all our debt (that isn’t our home) in December 2011. This card is not at the top of our list on our debt snowball, but it may have to move up.
It seems every time we take a step forward, we get penalized by credit card companies. Higher minimum payments, higher interest rates, and lowered limits. It’s enough to make me want to forgo credit cards for good. Like Matt from Debt Free Adevnture, I’m considering using Lending Club (a peer to peer lending organization) for a credit card consolidation loan to pay off our cards once and for all.
Stay tuned, I’ll let you know if I have success with PNC.
Kelly
photo credit: daveynin
NOTE: Submissions and comments must be made at The Credit Card Chaser site to win.
Do you love your credit card? Do you hate it? Tell Credit Card Chaser why, and you could win a $500 AMEX gift card!
![]()
This is my entry so I’ll tell you why I hate my Chase card. You may already know that I HATE Chase Cards.
First they tried to jack up our interest rate, so I fought back, and won! Then they cut our credit limit by exactly what we had paid off so our utilization went to nearly 90% of our limit!
Recently they sent us ANOTHER note saying our interest rate was going up again. Thankfully we are locked in at a low rate while we pay it off. (note: this is not the highest interest rate card we have so that is why we are still paying it off, it’s #3 right now)
Another thing I hate about Chase? We had another account with them (since paid off! WOOT!), but it STILL shows up on my list of accounts online. What’s worse, they changed the account number right before we closed it so we have TWO accounts listed, and BOTH are listed as having $1 balances even though I’ve confirmed that the account is closed and we owe nothing.
I look forward to paying off my Chase card completely so I NEVER have to deal with their crappy service again!
You can enter the contest too! You don’t even need a blog.
The rules
Tell Credit Card Chaser why you LOVE a particular credit card or credit card company/bank. NOTE: If you do not use a credit card then feel free to make your story about a debit card instead. OR Tell Credit Card Chaser why you HATE a particular credit card or credit card company/bank (i.e. “I hate Chase because they jacked up my interest rate and decreased my credit limit even though I have never made a late payment”). <—They said that not me! But it’s true!
There are two ways to submit your entry and two different prize levels:
A) Submit your entry by writing a blog post about this contest and telling your LOVE/HATE story to have a chance at winning a $500 American Express gift card
B) Leave a comment on the site telling your LOVE/HATE story to have a chance at winning a $100 American Express gift card.
Good luck!
Kelly
photo credit: TheTruthAbout
Remember how much I love Chase? They’re at it again! Chase sent a letter today stating they are reducing our balance by $700. This dumb move will make our credit utilization 90% of the card.
The reason why? Because we charged too much too fast. Um, huh? We haven’t charged anything on that account in eons, and while we did charge some expenses for our recent trip, we paid them off pretty quickly.links,
I suppose it’s their way of punishing us for not using our card.
They’ve moved to the top of my kill the debt list. I just can’t stand the way they run their business.
In other news, check out the recent Carnival of Pecuniary Delights over at Wisebread. If you aren’t reading Wisebread, you should. They have one of the best looking, well-written and interesting personal fiance sites on the web. I was honored to have my Fraud Alert! post included in the carnival.
Winners of the Feed the Pig Giveaway will be announced this evening, and I’ll send you an email. I’m extending the entry time to tonight at 7pm EST! To enter, write a comment, tweet or become a fan of The Centsible Life on Facebook!
Kelly
Despite the fact that we are still digging our way out of debt (we’re down 17%!), we recently started using a credit card for our everyday purchases.
photo credit: Andres Rueda
I’ve always been a big believer in using my debit card AS a credit card. Especially since our bank charges a $1 fee after you make more than 9 ATM or debit purchases in a month.
Many personal finance experts will recommend against using a debit card as credit card since it does not offer the same benefits. Yet when my account number was stolen my bank quickly deactivated my card when a $600+ purchase at a Walmart (ew) in California (never been), was attempted. The $130 they did manage to take was immediately put back in my account. Maybe my bank is just that awesome, but a recent experience has me singing a different tune.
When going out to eat for a “date” with my girls my credit/debit card had a hold placed on it for $65 when the server accidently rang through another table’s purchase. The hold happened on a Saturday, and was there until Thursday of the following week. Nothing to worry about, but definitely inconvienient.
Since we had just paid off one of our cards that we intend to keep I decided it was time to try to use the skills we’ve learned about managing money (don’t overspend!) with the benefits and protection of using a credit card.
We did an experiment last month when I purchased my plane ticket for San Francisco, and a mattress for my son one the card and paid it off immediately and in full this month. I can honestly say it’s the first time I’ve ever paid a card in full and not used my credit card as a tool for affording things we couldn’t.
We’ll see how we do this month. I’ll update you at the end of our “month” (really 28 days ending mid May), here’s hoping my experiment works! So far I like having money in savings, and an empty credit card. It actually feels pretty good!
Kelly
