credit card entrapment

From Colorado, I have a credit card with NBMA, and I was sent
checks with bills, urging me to pay off other cards, or use them
for christmas spending, or whatever. I now have a high balance
on that card, and the company says they are going to up my
interest rate to 20% because I have a high balance. I have
good credit, I have always paid on time. I suppose this practice
is legal, but at the least it is not customer friendly. I feel it is
entrapment. I recently received a offer from them to pay of the
card with an account at 9.90% but the small print said, they
could up that interest rate to 24% if they desired. How can
credit card companies get away with??

[bigun]

They get away with it because consumers continue to borrow money at record levels. It's time to say no. Go on a cash only diet. If you can't pay cash for it, you can't afford it. Start looking for balance transfer offers and start paying them off.
Reread the letter from MBNA. Does it say if you agree to freeze your account that they will maintain the orginal interest rate.? If not, you might call and ask if that can be arranged. In other words, you make no more charges onthat card and just pay it down.

I have been an MBNA card member for some time and never had a problem with them. In fact, they recently lowered the original interest rate that I currently had, which was pretty low. Are you sure that the 24% increase doesn't refer to overdue accounts? That is usually the norm for most credit cards, not just MBNA.

get away with what-it stated they could raise the rate to 24%

Bigun, you were right, I closed the account to keep the interest
rate low. The other two responders apparently didnt read the
question, just wanted to make rude comments.

Originally posted by gaylee
Bigun, you were right, I closed the account to keep the interest
rate low. The other two responders apparently didnt read the
question, just wanted to make rude comments.

after re reading your original question i realized my mistake and retract my misguided answer and with that said
also remind readers to this forum that alot of contributers to this forum use what i like to believe is common sense and sometimes err in their answers but if you take the advice of the senior members you can take it to the bank-those people KNOW the answers and i don't think they get the appreciation they deserve all of the time but i,for one, thank them for the thier efforts as should the rest of us

The comments weren't meant to be rude - I was trying to point out the fact that MBNA is reputable and perhaps you didn't read the fineprint - credit card companies raise rates to as high as 28% for accounts that are past due. I was trying to direct you to read the terms regarding the 24% increase, since this is normal for credit card companies to do when a customer is overdue. There was nothing malicious or rude about my response.