Credit Card Issue: Advice

[Meresgi]

So I had taken out a credit card to help pay bills a few years ago (dumb mistake I know but I was younger and stupid) and missed a payment so naturally my APR jumped to almost max allowed by law...so fast forward to now I had set up a payment arrangement with Citi Card and they told me after the arrangement was done, and I showed I could pay my bill on time each month through my checking account I could have my card reopened and my APR lowered. Now I didn't want to use my card anymore but I went along with it just for the APR to be lowered, which they said would be all the way down to like 8-9% from the 28% that it's at right now...

So I asked them what was going on with that as I noticed on my bill that my APR was still at the max rate this past April, they told me it took a few months for them to reopen the account and blah blah blah so I figured it was that and let it go. I called them back again today because its still at max and they tell me "Oh we never even tried to reopen that account here let me try it now...ok yeah it cant be reopened at this time".


Now in the meantime ive been trying to get a CC that I can transfer my balance to with 0% introductory APR or something really low to pay this shit off. My balance is only 3,200$ but any CC I try to get declines me even after sending me mailing to my house about opening with them (which I know is spam but I would have thought there would be a credit filter or something).

So now im in a month by month plan with Citi paying 125$ a month which is mostly going to interest payoffs while i'm trying to figure a way out. Anyone have any experience with this shit and their CC company straight out lying to them over something like this? I thought of contacting my local congressman but I doubt that would accomplish anything. I have the names of a few people I talked to and dates but they just tell me those people have never worked there as they use fake names anyways.

[Ksandra]

oh man OH MAN, ya Iv'e told my citicard horror story a ton of times on the forum, so I apologize to anyone having to read this yet again, but god damn even after like 5 years it still pisses me off. My first card was a citicard and I had it for about 6 years. It was just the normal basic card. Then, suddenly, they changed it to a business card. Higher rate and I got these statements to see how my "business" was doing it. I wanted to keep that card because I had such a good history on it. But had to constantly battle with citicard over it. Apparently they sent out one letter saying they created a business card and if you didn't respond back to them your card was automatically getting transferred to it. Which to me is shady as fuck and I said so. (I also think it's further bullshit because after all these years no one I've met knows what I'm talking about so it wasn't a "everyone got a letter" thing) I said they should have gotten permission to switch not a permission to not switch. The guy on the phone actually laughed hard and said, "well then no one would have gotten any business cards."....They kept trying to get me to just open another card and all kinds of retarded shit but no matter how high up I went I couldn't get them to switch it back to normal, so ya I paid it off right away and cancelled it.

So ya they suck.

AS to you trying to get another card, keep in mind everytime you apply for a card it dings your credit a little this is the downward cycle of attempting to build credit shit. Sign up for one of those credit report places and monitor your credit for awhile until it goes up a bunch, then apply again for a card. but ya stay away from citi they are awful.

[Cleverness]

Constant applications that review your credit score do lower it, this is true. It's gonna be real hard to get anything credit related while you owe them money, best bet is try to pay it off asap to lessen the amount that actually goes to interest. Pretty much plan to live at my parents place for a year or 2 to pay off all my student loans + credit and such after I graduate.

[Meresgi]

AS to you trying to get another card, keep in mind everytime you apply for a card it dings your credit a little this is the downward cycle of attempting to build credit shit. Sign up for one of those credit report places and monitor your credit for awhile until it goes up a bunch, then apply again for a card. but ya stay away from citi they are awful.

I didn't know that....what the fuck is that shit...god I hate the credit system. Yeah, I plan to pay this off fully, it's just trying to get the money together to take a huge bite out of it has been difficult with moving. Luckily i'm doing electrical/construction work now around Columbia MD, so getting to overcharge rich people will help a little in that.

@Cleverness: Yeah me and my fiance ended up moving in with her parents because of our situation and the debt staring at us. I have student loans still, as I had major issues with my college, long story not getting into it. Gonna finish just a 2yr in electrical tech and be done. It's so fucking tough in this day and age trying to get out from under any of this and make something for yourself if you didn't happen to have a trust fund fall in your lap, not to say that hardwork and a little luck doesn't help...but def need that luck.

[Melena]

Yea, Citi fucked me hard as well. Had a 20k limit card with them at 4.24% interest. Well long ago I had some bad financial issues caused by an X and I took a loan to pay that off + my high interest student loans that were unsecured. Few months after the loan Citi offers me a balance transfer at 0% for 6 months then my normal APR, so i'm like cool, i'll move that 14k loan that's at 14% interest to this. 6 months later my interest for no reason goes from 4.24% to 14.99% I called them up to call them on there bullshit and they said they sent me a letter (they didn't) and I could choose to opt out of the raised interest which they said was due to them losing money (again bullshit) but if I did, they would not be required to renew my card when it ended this past january. I tell them there's no way i'm taking a near 400% interest rate hike when I've been with them for 9+ years so yea, i'm opting out. Don't think anything of it, end up adding more money to it due to moving my then gf now wife out + other stuff so it's up to 20k and bastards decided to close it. Still paying it off at 4.24% but I was not happy as it killed my credit history since now my longest open account according to my credit reports are my sallie mae loans at 6 years and my car which is at 3 years. So yea, Citi sucks and I hope they go out of business.

[Tekki]

Ive been struggling with my credit, and I'm open to advice.

I've opened a credit monitoring account through zendough and for the past 6 months my credit went from high 400s x3 to 604, 587, 611

I've gotten all but 2 baddies off, and one of them was a $1700 loan I paid via school. I JUST got my letter today saying it will be marked as paid on my credit (which I should see first week of July) The last thing is a comcast bill that is also paid, and im just waiting for it to fall off.

Despite that, I have a car loan ive been paying on time that is co-signed. My fiancee's ring which I somehow got approved for that ive been paying on for 3-4 months and will have paid off in the next couple. I also have $3400 on a student loan (my last one) that will come kick in this sept.

My "hard checks" include a car dealership spam from about a month ago.(Denied) Dell/HP check from yesterday.(Denied) Orchard bank (which im waiting for results for) from last week.

Right now I need a new laptop, and bad. But I was denied through Dell, which seemed to have been the best option. Would it be unhealthy for my credit if I try again next month when my baddies fall? Is there anywhere else that I could go for a loan for a laptop? Seems like I should get month somewhere... My credit isnt great, but it isnt shit...

[Zieara]

Right now I need a new laptop, and bad. But I was denied through Dell, which seemed to have been the best option. Would it be unhealthy for my credit if I try again next month when my baddies fall? Is there anywhere else that I could go for a loan for a laptop?

My credit isn't fantastic and I opened a credit account on newegg to get myself a PC and my wife a laptop. Can try that.

[aurik]

Bad news: they gonna rape you.

Nobody really wants to give you an interest free loan of $3k, because if that was easy then a lot of people would just bounce from card to card to card to avoid paying interest while in debt. And unfortunately, the credit card companies love to feast on people who can't pay off their debt.

Your best bet is probably to pawn some shit you don't need and pay off as much of the principal as you can because as you mentioned, most of your payment is going to pay off the insane fucking interest. Like think about if you have a car, sell it and ride the bus for a few months.

28% on $3k must be like 75$+ per month in pure interest payments, that's almost $3 a day you're paying purely in interest.

[greenhills]

Your best bet is probably to pawn some shit you don't need and pay off as much of the principal as you can because as you mentioned, most of your payment is going to pay off the insane fucking interest. Like think about if you have a car, sell it and ride the bus for a few months.

^ pretty much the only good answer here. also, if you open a new account you have to wait a period of time before you will be able to open any new ones. if i remember right it was around 90 days. same goes for if you try and get refused, it is in your best interest to not try again. that is unless you are very well off with noted assets, since the same rules don't apply then.

[Mikelee0351]

I had managed to rack up 7k in credit card debt between 2 cards, paying for school, books, wife's ring, charging b-day and x-mas gifts among other things. One was a Bestbuy card, one was a Capitol One card which the cranked from like 11% to 25% for no reason, never made a late payment ever. The BB card wasn't much better on the little purchases, but most of the big stuff was on deferred interest deals.

I was paying like $240 a month and not making any real headway on either card. What I finally did is join a credit union and buy a new, to me, car. I shopped around and got a really good deal, then, with my shitty trade-in I got it for almost 7k under blue book. Then, I talked to some folks at the credit union and borrowed against the equity in my car and used the money to pay off the high-interest CC's. It only raised my car payment by about a $110 a month, so I'm saving over $100 a month and am still paying off the debt, but at ~4% instead of retarded CC rates. Worth looking into.

[Meresgi]

Yeah since im living with the future wife's folks right now and probably will be for another year, we're paying utilities + our own food and shit, i'm going to just stockpile all my checks each month and toss 500-1k at the card. I might pawn some shit, though I don't really own much other then the computer that's worth more then 20~$.

[archibaldcrane]

everytime you apply for a card it dings your credit a little

While this is true, it's kind of like saying "every time you get into an accident it makes your insurance go up". Hard credit inquiries do hurt your credit score, but only ones in the past two years, it's not a permanent "ding" as they fall off over time - it's just bad if you're rapid-fire applying for loans/credit cards and keep getting denied.

[Xno Kappa]

Ever thought of getting a temporary second job part-time?

[Skyylya]

While this is true, it's kind of like saying "every time you get into an accident it makes your insurance go up". Hard credit inquiries do hurt your credit score, but only ones in the past two years, it's not a permanent "ding" as they fall off over time - it's just bad if you're rapid-fire applying for loans/credit cards and keep getting denied.

partially true, but not a great analogy. Things like car insurance take much longer than 2 years to start decreasing. While inquiries do fall off after 2 years almost any check on your credit can drop your score by 2-4 points. There are good and bad inquiries, if you're doing credit card/retail card/personal loan etc.. type checks then each one will hurt you for that 2 year period. If you go car shopping/mortgage they will lump all the inquiries into a single 'knock' for any done within a short window may 2-5 days. Typically when car shopping they'll run your credit through anywhere from one to over a dozen different banks to get different interest rates.


Credit is a devious game. NEVER get a retail credit card, ever for any reason. That 10-20% off they say you'll get with your first purchase will end up costing you 100x more in the long run. Because not only does the inquiry hurt your credit, but if you open up a new credit account that also hurts your credit. It shows a lack of financial stability which is one of the main things credit indicates. Longevity and paying everything on time (within grace periods to avoid being reported late) are the best ways to improve your credit.

Tack on with a 3-report agency (I use www.truecredit.com) to track your credit. I've been with them for years and it's 14.95 a month to check your transunion report every 24 hours and all 3 reports every 30 days. It's an invaluable way to start getting yourself into a decent credit situation.

Anything below a 660ish is pretty bad. Anything below a 620 and you enter the range of even being difficult to get a mortgage or rental property depending on if it's private or with a commercial company. You're really not in good shape until you have at least a 7** score.

If you have a significant amount of debt. Stop looking for new sources of credit, you are only hurting yourself further because you're showing that you can't handle the credit you've already been given. Find whatever way you can to curb other expenses and pay off each card to below 30% or so to really start helping fix your score. Don't cancel any credit cards. Especially if it's one you've had for a long time as that will shorten your credit history and further hurt your credit.

It's a game the credit business. Do some research, learn as much as you can and play it better than you did ffxi and after a few years you can probably see an enormous difference. Credit fixing takes a lot of time, you can't do anything instantly or even over a 2-5 month period. Learn where you're at now and start fixing it as best you can.

[Meresgi]

So would I be better off for my credit score in paying off the ENTIRE balance on my CC and then not using it again, or paying it off till there's like 300-400 left on it and then making monthly payments or what not? Does paying large portions at once help my credit score any?

[Orden]

God damn, I'm so glad I have usaa. They don't make a habit of fucking their customers. I think they want my cock on the sly. Feelsgoodman. They are just amazing.

[Ksandra]

While this is true, it's kind of like saying "every time you get into an accident it makes your insurance go up". Hard credit inquiries do hurt your credit score, but only ones in the past two years, it's not a permanent "ding" as they fall off over time - it's just bad if you're rapid-fire applying for loans/credit cards and keep getting denied.

uhh that's why I said wait for it to go back up again

edit, but assky said it's a lot more complicated than that. The more you ding your credit though temporary the more it goes down which makes it harder for it to go back up. In other words, lets say it takes two months after a ding for it to go back to normal (not real, just to make example simple) l. Two dings (cc apps) won't necessarily make it 4 months, the further you go down usually the longer it takes for your cc to go up as they start to monitor it even more. Especially if they see that you've tried opening up credit a bunch in a short amount of time, because it looks like you are desparate for money which means you might not be able to afford to pay it off.

[Zigma]

Damn son... My average expenses on my charge card are $2500-$3000 a month. I suggest you just stop taking out credit if you cannot afford to pay it in the long run.

[archibaldcrane]

I put everything on my two cards too, $2k+ a month is common. Get dat cash back son!

[Headspace]

I have a question. I paid off my credit card (wasn't a big credit card or balance), and all i had on it was like .50 cents of interest chillin on it. Next month comes around and I have 30$ charged to my account. They card issuer said it was a $30 "gift credit" that I was given but did not use. I didn't get anything in the mail about it, or any type of email. Has anyone else had this happen? I paid the $30 again, and once that went off my account, and was sitting with another .50 cent in interest, I just decided to send in another $1 because fuck it.

But if I see another god damn "gift credit" pop up once i pay off my card this time i'm gonna be pissed.