Consumers are finally saying no to costly retail credit cards

[Thomas_Thumb]

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@Linnaea wrote:

Also,  to anyone that knows... if they can raise you.... do you think they will lower us significantly?  Or do you think the Prime credit cards will stick it to the consumers and keep it high?  I just never seen credit card companies lower significantly on a whole.  

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I had to request a lower rate. Card issuers tend to raise easily but lower reluctantly. I always PIF but when some APRs seemed insultingly high I asked for them to be lowered. I went on an APR lowering spree in 2014 and was quite successful in getting rates lowered.

As SJ often mentions, Credit Unions have some of the lowest rates.

[Pppoolboy]

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@Linnaea wrote:

I have done Affirm and its never reported to and Credit Bureau.  I know and heard others have.... it's a hit and a miss.  

Also,  to anyone that knows... if they can raise you.... do you think they will lower us significantly?  Or do you think the Prime credit cards will stick it to the consumers and keep it high?  I just never seen credit card companies lower significantly on a whole.  

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I mistakenly did Affirm once and it did post to experian but since it was less than $100 it's not counted in the scoree

[Linnaea]

Mine have been more than 100 .. but it's weird that they pick and choose who to report for with Affirm. 

[Linnaea]

I have one credit union and its Navy... that interest rate is decent.  But the prime cards is crazy.  

[Brian_Earl_Spilner]

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@Linnaea wrote:

I have done Affirm and its never reported to and Credit Bureau.  I know and heard others have.... it's a hit and a miss.  

Also,  to anyone that knows... if they can raise you.... do you think they will lower us significantly?  Or do you think the Prime credit cards will stick it to the consumers and keep it high?  I just never seen credit card companies lower significantly on a whole.  

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The reason rates have been going up is they're usually tied to the prime rate. When looking at your cardmember agreement it will say something along the lines of prime rate + 8.75%. when the prime rate goes down, so will the credit card rates. As mentioned elsewhere you can also request they lower the rate. It's usually the only way to get to their lowest advertised rate.

As for affirm, it's unknown why they don't always report their loans. 

[CorpCrMgr1]

Must admit the draw of the retail is powerful. I purchased an on sale $125 ladder at Home Depot for under $30 including tax. Similar savings the first time at JC Penney. Yes, high interest rates if I didn't PIF. 

Now HD sends me discount coupons with points and additional discount at JCP.  Must admit the few other retail cards get little to no use. How often does one buy tires at Goodyear?

[Andypanda]

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@Anonymalous wrote:

I don't think most people check the interest rate before they apply, so I doubt that's a factor. But the reduction in opportunities to push cards at the counter probably has a big effect, because it's an impulse buy targeted at a moment of weakness.

It's not mentioned at all, but I wonder if the finfluencers have had any effect, because they relentlessly promote bank cards while disparaging retail cards.

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I don't check the interest rate on any of my cards, nor do I care since I pay in full every month.

[youngandcreditwrthy]

@Linnaea @MarkintheHV  

linnaea, I thnk you post on another credit site Im on lol name looks familiar!

that said, yeah the affirm reporting is hit or miss. I know for sure Afterpay does NOT report at (and you can really get a solid two months or three months of zero interest if you pay your biweekly payments with a card that has a zero balance and then pay that in full too LOL although some cards wont allow you to use their card on that site for payments LOL)

I commented this somewhere else too but Affirm reporting a little baby 300 loan I took to help rebuild my credit, but now that I got back into the high 600s, this kind of stuff is hurting it.

however, with a 1500 loan I took to buy some jewelry, they did not report that one at all! lol So weird right! I paid the 300 one off early, and the 1500 loan is a few month away from being paid off. I think my interest rates were 14% or something, but weighted average I paid like 20$ in interest on the 300 first class plane ticket which weights out to less than 10%.

their math on those affirm loans is fuzzy and if you pif within a few months on a 12 mo loan, you save interest.

[SwimGuy]

With these APR levels I am not surprised.

Rebuilding my NFCU bank relationship to move to lower APR's.

[Horseshoez]

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@SwimGuy wrote:

With these APR levels I am not surprised.

Rebuilding my NFCU bank relationship to move to lower APR's.

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What is your plan on rebuilding your relationship?