MBNA America ripoff claims sent notification of credit cards fixed rate now becoming variable MAJOR SCAM Wilmington Delaware

Dave's concept is entirely correct, as long as you keep your payments timely and your balances below half of your credit line you will continually be barraged with offers for low rate cards and low rate transfers, some fixed, others term...

...the upshot is that sooner or later any given card will need to make money from you.

The solution is to go ahead and apply for a low intro card or take a BT every few months--don't do it more often or your credit report will suffer from too many enquiries. Take your 5,000 and bounce it, closing the old account IMMEDIATELY, do not get trapped into keeping it and starting a balance. Pay as much as possible on the new 0% account and after four months or so apply for another, bounce the 4,500 to the new closing the old one. Every other card you may want to go ahead and keep as they will offer low BT rates to get you to 'come back' to their card--this is great insurance against predators like Orchard, MBNA, and CapitalZero.

The best result is no balance, and if you do it right you'll get there so much faster, as opposed to paying 75% to the card and 25% on the actual balance.

Switch to cash whenever possible and when you think you need to buy soemthing, put it back on the shelf, the crap wont make you happy/thin/sexy/rich or anything else you've been trained to think you need to be.

"For the rest, there's..."

"...Leave home without it."

I'm sorry Louise, but you are completely wrong. I have a Chase card, and I received the same offer, 2.9 APR for the LIFE OF THE TRANSFER. It is very clear and concise on their contract. They have tried to increase the APR by 1 - 3% in the past year, and every time I call them and offer to fax them their contract which clearly states that the 2.9% APR is for the LIFE OF THE TRANSFER, they re-adjust the card and give me a credit.

The CC companies do, in fact, raise their interest rates if you have a higher balance, why? so they can collect more interest of course. This is highly suspect, but probably not intirely illegal, although in my opinion, it should be.

The best way to avoid this kind of treatment is to keep switching cards. Get another card with 0% for 6mos to a year, transfer the balances, and then cut up the card. If you still owe when the interest goes up, get a different 0% card. Keep doing this until you have minimal balances.

Dear Louise - Gorham,

We know you are getting paid from our ripped dollars.

It is OK for you to say that you are just doing your job.

No Credit card company increases the rate from 5.8% to 20% apr.

Especially your never made any late payment,

It is called bait and switch.

I am familiar with MBNA's 5.9% fixed rate offer. Familiar to the point where i know that those offers never stated they were fixed for life. They are fixed yes but ll that means is the rate is not subject to change on a monthly basis with the prime rate like a variable rate does. it seems that all of you with high interest rates are not understanding your terms or how interest rate work.

You can make your min monthly payment every month, be on time, but the longer you revolve high balances the more of a risk you become. MBNA is not the only card who does this they all do. Seems like you need to educate yourself a bit more on the terms of the credit card and pay attention to change in terms notices thaqt are sent regarding your account. I have been a long time customer with MBNA with multiple accounts and I will not change to another company.

Suriender:

As a fellow Illinoian to another, I'll admit that these guys are sticking it to me too. My APR was supposed to be a fixed 7.99% APR for purchases and balance transfers. In March I recieved a notice saying that my APR was going to a variable rate of Prime + 5.99% which now is about 10.99%. It hasn't hurt me as much since I carry a low average daily balance but I'm peeved at them too. I'm changing my MBNA worldpoints MC to an MBNA American Express card and see if that works a bit better. You should try it too if you can.