Christine's Story
Boy am I angry right now. I am having the same problems with WaMu that everyone else seems to be having.
I too have been a loyal customer for 2 years and have always paid my bills ontime. I take pride in having perfect credit. During the past 2 months my APR has kept going up! In July my APR was 13.99%. My August bill arrived with a 23.99% APR. My September bill was 25.99%. My bill was 193.00. Of that, 135.00 was finance charges! I called WaMu's customer service and all they said was that there was nothing they could do because there was a change in the terms and they were sorry for the inconvenience. I asked to speak with a manager and he also told me the same story. I asked him if WaMu rewards their on-time paying customers by raising their rates to ridiculous levels. All he said is that they sent me a letter regarding this change and that they will send me another one. I got absolutely nowhere with them. I am in the process right now of applying for other cards so that I can transfer the balance and cancel my card with WaMu. I will never do business with them again and I urge others not too either.
The manager that I spoke with said that they considered me more of a risk to pay my bill because I have a high balance on my card. I owe 5,000 on my card. I also make 65,000+ per year. I told him that was ridiculous. I have never been late on my payments. Also I don't charge on this card. I only pay it down. That is probably why they are raising my rates. I asked him why they would raise the rates on someone because they thought they might be a risk. He said, "because that is what WaMu does". So, if WaMu considers you more of a risk to pay your bills because you carry a high balance, aren't they making you more of a risk by making your payments higher????? Sounds like they are setting you up to fail. So anyone who has a WaMu credit card, be forewarned!!! Don't make any purchases on your card. If you do, you will be considered more of a payment risk because your balance is higher. And if WaMu considers you more of a risk....they will raise your rates! I DON'T GET IT!!!!