Today, I got a notice in the mail regarding my Citibank credit card. Mind you, I chose this card a few years ago because of how its travel rewards worked. It paid off. We went to Hawaii this year. Combined with some hotel reward points, three plane tickets and a week in a nice resort hotel were all free. It was a great vacation.
However, I will be cancelling my Citibank card on Monday. Good thing we used up most of the points on the vacation.
My notice says that with interest rates plummeting over the last year and with banks and financial institutions all over the country struggling to find and keep good customers who have strong credit and pay their bills on time, Citibank will be RAISING the interest rate on my credit card.
Frankly, given the state of the economy and the fact that I get a dozen credit card offers a week despite having opted out of everything we can, it is insulting to have ANY rate increase at all. But, Citibank decided to make it so insulting that all their financially savvy customers will be cancelling their cards as well.
The new rate, if you are wondering, will be Prime + 10.99%. I have credit cards with interest rates lower than the plus part of the new rate, let alone the rest of it. 16.99% is the kind of rate people with “not so good” of credit pay. So, Citibank and I part ways next week. I guess the billions of dollars the government will be giving them means that they don’t really need to keep their good customers anymore.
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Tags: Citibank, Credit Cards, interest rate
[...] Citibank raised the interest rates for customers with high credit scores who had never missed a payment. Virtually every credit card company opposed the very tame reforms recently passed into law by Congress. The sad truth is that is isn’t a matter of if your credit card issuer will try something sneaky, it’s a matter of when, and how bad will it be. [...]