Friday, January 16, 2009

A sigh! of the times.

I have had a credit card for the past six years. I charge my entire life to it every month -- McDonald's, groceries, gas, online and offline purchases, standing bills (like TIVO). Since my sister and I still have my mother's house, and I still have my aunt's house, the credit card bill usually runs several thousand each month (sometimes more).

Each month, the credit card company sends an eBill to my bank. My bank pays the balance due, which is therefore outstanding a few nanoseconds at most each month.

The paper statement came yesterday -- the credit card company raised the annual interest rate to 27.5%. I called them. Since I have been such a good customer, they agreed to lower the rate to 22.5%. I said goodbye and good luck, and cancelled the card. It's a bank that got $25 billion in TARP tax dollars so I guess they don't need to be too customer focused.

The new card that I signed up for today has an interest rate in the low single digits.

1 comment:

moni said...

That was a really sad experience. It seems that when you behave like a good customer, you would be rewarded, not punished.