Complaint Review: Bankcard Services - Suntrust Platinum

I had a similar problem with MBNA. They had offered me a new credit card tht had 0% apr on balance transfers for 1yr. After that balance transfer and purchases were 7.9% apr. It was such a great deal I transfered the balance from another card and did nothing but pay down my balance for a year. After that year was up, my husband accepted a job in another state and we had to move. We needed to charge some things due to the move so I used my MBNA card since it has such a great rate. A week or two later they sent me a letter saying they were increasing the apr to something like 24%. I had never been late or missed a payment and I was furious.

Here's what I did to help with this. This may or may not work for you:

1. Called the company and demanded an explanation. (They suddenly decided I was a credit risk since the amount of the purchase was almost the amount I had paid in the last year.)

2. I asked what my options were since I had never missed a payment or paid late.

MBNA offered to reexamine the situation if I supplied them with the same info I provided when I applied for the card (ie annual salary). This was a bad idea for me since I was moving.

MBNA offered to consolidate all my credit cards at an interest rate of 11%. Not a bad offer but I was still mad since I thought I had 7.9% when I made the purchases.

I could also write a letter to the company refusing the change. I went with this option HOWEVER this is not the best choice for everyone. By doing this I "locked in" my 7.9% however I can not make any more purchases on my card. As soon as I purchase something my rate will immediately go up. The company can also cancel my account and demand payment in full if they choose. They haven't done this yet and it's been a year now but I never forget that it's possible.

* I'm a big fan of Suze Orman. She's written a lot of books on financial matters and probably has a website. One thing I heard her suggest is to call the credit cards company and DEMAND they lower your rate. Threaten to switch to another company if they won't comply and follow through on that threat.

Not sure if any of this helps but good luck and best wishes.

Credit card companies have every right to pull a credit report at any time they wish and you give them that authorization to do so when applying for the card. More & more companies are pulling reports because they are allowed in thier disclosure (that no one reads) to increase your interest rate if there are any changes to your credit report i.e late payments on any accounts, loss of income, judgements etc... It matters not the cost of pulling the report because if they see something they will profit from raising your interest rate - the consumer who needs credit is at the mercy of the credit card companies
I feel for you Alice unfortuantely I cannot offer any suggestions on how to resolve this.

I have a feeling the interest rate jump is merely coincidental. First of all, in order to run a credit report, they would need your authorization to do so. On top of that, running a credit report costs money. Do you think they are just going to pull random people's reports when it costs money? Absolutely not.
The most important thing is that there is no income information listed on credit reports! Do you think everytime someone got a raise or a promotion that it's reported to the credit bureaus? Stop blaming ridiculous things and read the fine print when you take out a loan/credit card.