Watch you wallets sharenotes.com your cards might be taking a bigger chunk out of your funds now more than ever. I’ve posted more than a few time on here warning about the dangers of getting in too deep with credit cards. I’ve also mentioned that in many ways they are a necessary evil, you do need to build / have credit.
The Obama admin passed legislation this year (may) that is aiming to reduce the amount of rate / fee hikes and tricky contracts the credit card companies use, however it does not go into effect until Feb of next year. Since the bills passing, many cards have hiked dramatically. Credit issuers relay that in this hard economy, even they are struggling and as they take on higher risk customers they must react in turn. Their version of reacting is to hike rates across the board.
You may want to watch your statements closely if you are a credit user because the younger / higher risk crowds such as college students are the most likely targets. You may be surprised to find out that your rates have increased and you didn’t even realize it. Cards that were once 4% can now be 15% or in some cases as high as 30%!! Yeow!
So if it happens what can you do? Well if you have a good credit score and you notice rates and or fees being hiked on your account, pick up the phone and call the issuer. More than likely they will see that you are a excellent customer whom they do not want to lose. If they are unwilling to reduce their fees, you can always do a card balance to a card that has 0% interest or at least a lower rate.
If you have have a lower score you can still haggle some and at the very least reduce your useage if it comes to it. I know that’s hard however you’ll want to live you life without credit as you crutch so better to break it off now before it gets really ugly. You don’t necessarily want to completely cancel a long standing account as doing so can sometimes effect your credit score further. If you can reduce the usage its certainly a start.
As everyone on sharenotes.com knows, we students are already heading into a world of debt and repayment with our student loans, anything you can do now to watch out for yourself will help ten fold down the road. I know it’s a chore but if you’ve got cards, break out those statements and look them over closely, you just might be surprised at what you find!
