Washington Mutual - WAMU raised my interest rate to 24.99% for no good reason Dallas Texas

I have had a Washington Mutual credit card account for several years now at a rate of 14.99% and a promo rate on some of the balance at 13.99%. On my last statement, I noticed the entire rate went up to 24.99%.

I thought maybe I had missed a payment or something was wrong so I called customer service. They told me they had sent me a notice, which I never received unless it looked like junk mail in the statement.

They confirmed that I had never been late on my payments to them but they could raise the rate because of a periodic credit review which showed that I was up to the limit on one of my other credit cards. I explained that I have had to use my card more than normal because of the recession and economy.

They said that there was nothing I could do except close the account or wait 6-9 months for them to reevaluate my account. Wait for what, so they could raise it more to 30 or 40%? I know that closing accounts will lower your FICO score but I closed the account, which hopefully doesn't cause the rate on any of my other cards to go up.

These banks are getting greedy and out of control with their shady practices of ripping consumers off. When is the government going to step in and regulate them more?

T Cornish
Port Orange, Florida
U.S.A.