Complaint Review: Bank One Aka First USA Aka Wachovia

I have 10 years of 100% on time payments on my Wachovia credit card(now either known as, or serviced by, Bank One a/k/a First USA.) I have 100% triple A credit. I took advantage of a low rate offer to create the amount owed which I was given because of my excellent credit.

Without notice (although Bank One claims to have sent notice 90 days in advance) the interest rate on my card was raised from their best rate of 5.99 % to 12.99%. This translates to a 230% increase.

When questioned they first said it was because I failed to close the account after being notified of the increase. Later they claimed it was because a "periodic review" of my credit showed "too many inquires, a "high amount owed on revolving accounts" and "balance of percent of limit is too high". These are just pretext reasons to arbitrarily raise the rate. In fact there have been no changes in my credit pattern since the inception of the account. The balance owed to these thieves has only gone down since the low rate was first given. All offers of explanation were turned down by the -ugh- customer service and I was told that the best rate they would now offer was 8.99%-a mere 159% increase over the original rate!

This is an attempt to lure a customer in with a low rate and arbitrarily raise it in the hope they will catch the victim short. I will close and pay off this account and never do business with any of these companies again - others may not be so lucky. I suspect that the sharks in these companies have crews of bottom suckers out to nail many others. Perhaps they have buried in the fine print some justification and perhaps not. No one is going to read a credit card contract for this type of nuance. It is my hope that they bring down upon their heads the government regulation they so richly deserve for engaging in such deceptive business practices.

Stephen
Millerton, New York
U.S.A.