subject: Credit Cards and Interest Rate Changes [print this page] Credit Cards and Interest Rate Changes Credit Cards and Interest Rate Changes
Credit card applicants often assume that the credit card rates that they get when they first get their credit cards will remain the same forever, or at the least stay the same for years to come. Once they become cardholders though, they are soon disabused of the notion and fast become unhappy with their cards. They not only wonder why their credit card rates change, but why it happened so fast, and almost always immediately blame the credit card company for misleading them with the facts.
The truth though is that credit card companies are very careful about making sure that they publish the fact about changing credit card rates. After all, if they do not, they know that the law won't allow them to operate much longer, so that if you look at the ads of credit cards Ireland companies offer, the truth is all in the disclaimer.
The problem is that people often do not really bother to understand the disclaimers, if they even read them at all. In many instances, the truth can even be discerned without reading the disclaimer, if you just bother to pause for a second and think about the wording of the advertisement.
A good example are the introductory or promotional rates. Obviously, any introductory or promotional rates will last only during the introductory or promotional period. The least that someone applying for a credit card should do is to find out what that period is, and to know if and by how much their credit card rates will change after that period. Instead of doing this, a lot of people simply assume that the introductory rates will last forever, and are very much surprised at having their rates change in a few months time. Or at the least, are dismayed by the difference in the rates after the period, especially if they applied for cards that offer 0 balance transfer.
Aside from the introductory rates, one of the reasons why your credit card rates change over time is that, most often than not, your contract states that the initial rate you get is a variable interest rate. As the word variable implies, your interest rate can change anytime. This fact is listed not only in the contract, but should also be indicated in the advertisement. Again, people often just brush aside the word "variable" when they see it, supposing that it varies for each person, when it fact it means not only that it can vary per person, but that the rate itself can change anytime.
