Saturday, November 17, 2007
WaMu Visa charging 26% interest, refused to lower rate
I’ve been ignoring that outrageous interest rate for half a year. I knew the likelihood of a “bad ending” if I called them. But, as I was paying my bills and had a horrible week (Focus discovery issues, Equifax VERIFYING a client’s collection after his 2nd dispute and sending the collector’s deletion letter, etc. etc.), I decided to make the call. How much worse can it get?
I was on the phone for 38 minutes. The first person was totally clueless and gave me a lot of false info, such as that I had until October to close the account and keep the old terms. In fact, I would have had to close the account in June. But, that’s neither here nor there. Not only did I not find out until after the deadline about the change in rate because I pay my bills online and there was NO notice at all, but I did NOT want to close the account.
I finally asked to be transferred to a supervisor. She explained that my rate increased due to my FICO score. According to their May notice, the increased rate was based on my TU report. Interestingly, I just recently posted my TU FICO scores as provided by WaMu (a former Providian account) at Another reason for the subprime crisis—my TU FICO scores for the last year
Accordingly, my score was 659 in May and in October it was 702. I’m not aware of any changes other than inquiries and accounts getting older.
I have no late payments, charge-offs, collections, judgments.
So why am I paying 26% interest?
I’m a high credit risk according to Fair Isaac. She told me that it has nothing to do with me personally, but people with my score tend to default more often. So they decided to increase my rate by about 125% and they almost doubled the minimum payment.
In 1/07, my rate was 11.74% with a $154 minimum payment.
In 9/07, my rate was 25.99% with a $278 minimum payment.
Obviously, it is more likely that I will default after the increase. And I got so angry, I finally told her that they won’t see another penny if they didn’t reduce the rate to the 11.74%. She wouldn’t lower the rate.
And that’s what I was afraid of. As long time readers know, I’ve spent years in court to get the credit I deserve. And if I stop paying WaMu, other credit cards will increase their rates. Most are also quite high, around 20%, and I should really contact them all to request the rates that I had earlier this year.
It’s so aggravating to have them tell you how they have the RIGHT to change the terms. And my only recourse is to invoke my right to stop paying them.
Credit scoring doesn’t predict defaults, but CAUSES defaults.
I’ve had the same amount of debt since late 2006, the money went to building my house and to litigation. I doubt I could qualify for a mortgage even if I was able to finish my house, which I can’t because I’m about $30k short (if I do most work myself). I just don’t earn enough. Just recently I decided to finally start an affiliate program for CreditFactors, but that is a lot of work too. Please contact me if you’re interested in being a commissioned affiliate/marketing manager.
Even if I continually work on personal consultations, I’m limited to about $2,000/month from consulting income, since I can only work with one new client at a time and the BEST case scenario is 2 new clients/week. With some clients it takes an entire week to get done because they’re slow to respond. So I can’t just increase my income.
But, I still have a plan, have $22k coming from the sale of my old place next July and chances are I’ll get some $$$ from my lawsuits, IF I have the cash to properly conduct discovery and as long as I have the cash and time to file appeals.
Just last week I got checks from Capital One with 2% and 5% rates for 3 of my 4 Capital One accounts. They average rate is around 20%, but I can’t use the checks until I pay at least one card off, it takes $7,500. Offered the buyers of my old place a 20% discount for a partial prepay, but apparently they don’t have the cash right now.
So I decided to sell the note at a discount, only to find out that Capital Title screwed up and the due date on the note is incorrect.
If they CAN screw it up, they WILL screw it up.
The entire escrow was a nightmare. Been waiting for a week to get the corrected note. That was another aggravating call, with that obnoxious idiot at Capital Title telling me that it did not matter. Only when I asked the guy whether HE would buy the note as it is, he finally offered to get it fixed.
It would probably cost me at least $5k for the discount, but I thought it would be worth it, being able to refi $20k with Cap One at this low rate and then try to get a little closer to finishing my house and pay for depositions.
I have a choice:
Pay for depositions or pay the credit cards. And it’s not even an all or nothing type situation. I would definitely want to keep and eventually pay off Advanta. They only offer business cards and they still only charge me 7.99%.
That card is maxed out too, but I feel that they DESERVE to get paid as long as they appreciate my payments and keep my interest rate reasonable.
In case you’re wondering, I really have nothing to lose. There’s nothing they can take from me. I’m not obligated to work 14 hours a day and 7 days a week.
I’ll have to work myself up to reviewing the recording of the WaMu call and then I’ll submit my written request for a lower rate. I’ll send out a press release and hopefully motivate others to also stop paying.
I mentioned in my WaMu call yesterday that there must be 10 million people who could file for bankruptcy right now. She acknowledged that this was probably true. Now that I have time to think about it, the number is probably much higher.
The ONLY way to get unscrupulous banks like WaMu to STOP charging these outrageous interest rates is to have millions of their customers default on credit cards.
The bankers take advantage of THEIR right to charge these insane interest rates and we have to take advantage of OUR right to not pay them.
MASSIVE defaults are the ONLY way to change this corrupt credit system.
I’ve posted here how they SETTLE delinquent and charged off accounts for huge discounts. They know that they can’t squeeze blood out of turnips.
