Has Your Minimum Payment Increased?
I recently got a phone call from a credit card holder who said that his bank increased the minimum payment due each month on his card even though his balance had not increased. He could not understand why.
This morning, I came across an item in the Consumerist blog that piqued my interest. The author, Phil Villarreal, writes about how his father was notified by Chase that his minimum monthly payment would go from 2.5 percent of his total balance to 5 percent. That could be a budget breaker for his dad, Villarreal writes.
I'm now wondering if this is a trend. It's something I plan to look into. Have any of you out there had a similar experience? If so, please let me know.
By
Nancy Trejos
|
June 30, 2009; 1:53 PM ET
Categories:
Credit Cards
,
Nancy Trejos
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Posted by: ally75 | July 1, 2009 10:42 AM | Report abuse
The dad can't afford to pay 5% of his bill? He needs to cut up his cards NOW and eliminate every single excess expenditure before he spends another dime. And his son needs to stop making excuses for him.
Posted by: Yankeesfan1 | July 1, 2009 9:48 PM | Report abuse
This happened to me from Chase. I had transferred a large sum to one of those 3.99% until paid off credit card offers. The 2% minimum is moving to 5%. The minimum payment of $290 from a balance of around $14,000 will soon be around $710.
Chase isn't making enough money and wants these loans off the books. Or they want people to mess up the payment so they can jack up the interest rate.
Posted by: cesullivan | July 2, 2009 1:06 PM | Report abuse
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I got a similar notice from Chase on Saturday. It noted that the increase in minimum due was because I had low interest rates from balance transfers. It will strain my budget, but now I've got extra incentive to pay that card off.