American Express Membership Rewards - Citibank AA Mastercard - Vent Thread

So... Citibank send me new terms and conditions with opt-out in January. I think... usual stuff why bother reading in detail, can't fight the system. My bad... I see my interest rate go from 8.2% to 14.99%:eek:

I am an excellent customer, 20 years of continuous use, always on time payment, never ever never late, etc. I email customer service asking what's up. Get the canned replied... it's in the new conditions. Send a reply asking to escalate... waste of time... get a canned reply so "so sorry."

I called today to politely vent. A lady at customer service was very nice, understanding but said sorry, nothing can be done. I ask for the retention department. Same reply, sorry. Has to do with cost of doing business, etc.

I get politely more upset. We the taxpayers are footing the bailout $s, and now we are double footing (feeting?) this by getting hit with significantly higher interest rates. Mine jumped by almost 100%. There's no reason for that high a rate!

I've typically been up and down with my balances... sometimes a period of high balance, then a period of zero balance but always did well getting the balance down. I had a zero balance for the past year then charged a new car to the card, now have a $30k balance.

The retention agent listened as I politely vented. I indicated that only Citibank is doing this. My other cards, Chase and AMEX, have kept their rates low, but I do not charge to them and haven't in years. I can easily do a balance transfer to Chase with a 0% rate for 6 months, then up to about 9.9%. I told the retention agent to escalate to management to make an exception in my case. I don't consider myself to be special, but I am a good long-term customer who charges about $100k annually. If they want to lose my business, ok but shame on them. Doesn't make sense to do this. Chase would love to have me as a customer. Granted I don't need United points but points is points and I'm in this game for points. I might even consider going to the Dodge card because I want a Challenger before they stop building them with Hemis :p

My wife doesn't understand why I even bother with this and tells me to dump Citibank. I like AA points, I have a very high limit with them, and I want to give them this one chance. I even told the retention agent that if they drop it back down, I would not do a balance transfer to Chase. I've been asked to wait 5 days for a reply to my request. We'll see...

That's my story and I'm sticking to it... thanks for listening (reading) :)

Opps... just noticed this is in AMEX, s/b other cards. Please move, Mr/Ms Moderator :)

Where have you been? All issuers are doing this to everyone.

Where have you been? All issuers are doing this to everyone.

As I stated, my other card have NOT been changed, Chase or AMEX have not done this to me.

As I stated, it has been common knowledge across the web that these types of actions have become common. I myself have had Citi and CapOne double my interest rates. I don't care since I never carry a balance, but they did raise my rates. Just because other issuers haven't raised you rates yet, doesn't mean you are safe. Welcome to the post financial meltdown lending environment.


While AMEX may have not raised your rate, they have been slashing and burning credit limits of many users without just cause other than they must decrease their exposure. a quick look at the first page in this forum will take you to such a thread, so if you think AMEX is going to save you think again.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/american-express-membership-rewards/922661-amex-again-new-credit-line-reduction.html

Most people that have had the Citi interest rate increaseshave a history of at least 1 late payment on the account (as in one day late) or going over the credit limit.

I have several Citi cards. Once I forgot to make an early payment on one account, and didn't make the payment until the due date, so it didn't post until the next day (1 day late). Citi waived all the fees, and there was no immediate APR increase, but there was still a 1 day late payment somewhere in the account's history. That's the only account of mine that later received the APR increase. All of my other Citi cards actually had an APR decrease.

Don't get me wrong, it sucks, especially since Citi took TARP funds to make more credit available to consumers.