Will rejecting a credit card annual percentage rate increase amendment change my current repayment terms?

I have recently recieved annual percentage rate increase amendments from three seperate credit cards. Two of them raising the rate to 28.49%! Obviously I do not want to accept these changes and plan to contact the credit card companies to tell them so, but I am just wondering if this will change how quickly I will have to pay these cards balances back. I have never closed a credit card with which I still had a balance, so I did not know, will %26#039;rejecting these terms%26#039; (thus closing the card), cause my minimum payments to increase?


Logically to me, I would think that if a card is %26#039;closed%26#039; they wouldnt want me to have a balance with them and I would have a limited time to pay it back, but I have no clue if there is any truth to my thought.





Also I didnt know if because I am %26#039;rejecting the new terms%26#039; if that means they have to honor my old minimum payment agreement, so I would have normal payments- even if I would not if I closing this card on my own for no apparent reason. If that makes sense.





Also I know that closing a card can be bad for your credit score, but I think it is probably not as bad as having two cards with almost 29% interest rates. Plus I wasn%26#039;t sure if %26#039;rejecting these terms%26#039; would show up the same on a credit report as say just plain closing a card.





I am also just curious how this is legal. I know in the past congress had discussed (and I believe banned) the issue of credit cards putting you on the default rate for you defaulting with other unrelated credit cards, well this to me seems worse. I have paid all my cards on time, none are over the limit %26amp; I always pay more than the minimum balance. In fact on all three of these cards the rates had been dropping by a half to a whole percent every month for several months, I presumed this was because of fed rate changes, but not all my cards do that, actually just these three have been lowering. I don%26#039;t understand why they%26#039;ve been lowering my rates, just raise them back %26amp; then some!





Thanks!|||This is the current trend happening with most major credit card companies. If you read the fine print, refusal of the new terms will terminate your account and require payment in full.





Congress is STILL sitting on the bill and looks like the lobbyist will keep the vote in limbo for some time. Until then we are all pawns in this credit chess game.





Just do not use them anymore, make monthly payments and when the balance reaches $0 then close them. It will cause a small drop in your score by closing them, but it will not damage you for life.





Hope this answers your question|||I called my credit card company and cited the %26quot;Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights Act of 2008%26quot; in which it clearly states that I have the option to opt out and pay at my old rate of 9.99 and they still stated that there was nothing they could do to decrease my 15.99. RBS doesn%26#039;t fall under this act!

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|||Reject the terms, then re-consolidate at zero percent with another credit card company. 29% is insane.|||They always write the contracts in their favor.


They have put in there that they can change rates whenever they like.


If you don%26#039;t like it you will have to pay it off and close the account.


Usually they will increase your rate if something else happened on your credit such as being late or something that lowered your credit score.





They do have a right to do this because they gave you the rate as an introductory offer. Or because you had a decent credit score you got a better rate, so if that changes they can change the rate.