MBNA Help!!!
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MBNA Help!!!
| Fri, 09-17-2004 - 2:06pm |
AS you saw with the other poster, MBNA rates have jumped to ridiculous heights. Mine included. I am not at a whopping 29.99%. WTF! Oops, I stand corrected. I just checked, it says 25.99% as if that's much of a difference when you think about it.
I need to get this card GONE ASAP.
Is there anyway to get this done? It's also my BIGGEST debt. It's about $7k. I can't transfer it as I can't get anymore cc's (too many already). Should I just start my budget there instead? And worry about the rest?
Ugh. I hate them. lol. I'm not sure what choices I have....but I think I have none.
Maybe this is just a vent then. lol
~Cher


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That's pretty much what I did. My DH had received an offer a few weeks ago for an AT&T MasterCard that was for 0% for 1 year. We applied, and did not get it, so that's when I had to get 'creative' with it all.
I'd say try to knock out some of your smaller ones first to get the snowball rolling, especially if MBNA will take awhile. Otherwise, you might get discouraged because you're not seeing any or very little progress.
Nah, you have choices, but sometimes they are hard to see in the middle of it all. Call MBNA and ask them to lower the rate, and that you have no intention of using the card again. Maybe that will help-maybe not...
It sounds like you have lots of *interesting* money things going on right now-don't lose hope!
Lisa
I would, however wait to call them to ask them to lower the interest rate. I agree, pay off as much as you can on other cc's to surf what you can of MBNA.
Another option (what worked for us): I called and asked them to lower my rate (it was at 19.98%). They said they could to 18.99% or I could pay off 10% of what I owed and they would lower it even more (you can call them after you have surfed the amount you owe them to other cards). Once they lower the rate they won't even consider lowering it again for a year. We paid off more than the 10% and I had DH call and they lowered it to 13.99%.
If you do that and they ask if you want to do a balance transfer at 0% turn them down flat. What they do is put all your money to the 0% first and rack up the interest on the rest of what you owe (they didn't tell us that when we accepted their offer).
It was a hard lesson for us to learn with MBNA. What made me even madder was after we had to fight to get them to lower our interest rate, they jacked the line of credit up to $12,500--like I needed that. They want to get your money through interest and when they either lower the interest rate or see you aren't using their card anymore, they give you a higher credit line to encourage you to use the card--and I admit I fell for it time and again, until I got smart on the whole credit thing.
I am so glad I NEVER will do business with those people again.
Good luck and I hope I have helped even a little bit.
Kellie
Kellie and Lisa,
Just want to make sure what I"m hearing is correct.
You both are saying, to pay down the other cards, that have lower interest, and use those other cards to pay off the MBNA to get the balance off of that?
Makes sense. =) Just wanna make sure that's what you meant.
~Cher
When I first started getting serious about the snowball, we had some cards with outrageous APR's-like in the 19.99% range. I'd been getting offers for lower ones, but since I didn't want to open more cards, I chucked them. Finally, it broke through to me that the companies I owed did NOT care HOW I paid them, just that they got paid. The next reasonable credit card offer I got in the mail was for 0% for a year. I applied, got it, transferred as much as I possibly could to it, and haven't looked back since!
So, yes, pay down a lower APR card as fast as you can, and transfer a big chunk of MBNA over to it. Beat them at their own game. When you do transfer everything (or as much as you can)to that lower APR card, THEN go back to the MBNA and throw everything you have at the remaining balance. Then close it!
Good luck-
Lisa
Cher - you've received great advice so far.
All my best,
Danni
I'm a balance transfer fanatic, but if you can't get another cc yet- here's what I would do.
Call them up real nice and ask them to lower your rate. If they say no, tell them you can't use their card anymore with that high of a rate and that you will ultimately have to transfer your balance somewhere else. (They won't know if you can't yet)
In the meantime, pay everything on time and get that $7k down some so you could transfer it. You said you have too many cards- do they all have balances on them? Find one that you could get that $7K onto- but first call them and ask for a good transfer rate. If your limits aren't that high ask to raise it. I would rather you use an open card than apply for a new one. It will help your credit.
A few times I've applied for a low rate cc with free transfer and when I got my new card my limit was not high enough to cover the transfer!!! Then I'd be stuck with 2 cards with balances instead of 1!!
Good Luck and let us know what happens!! Nicki
I would be careful of saying I will transfer the balance to other cards, if you can't. CC companies can tap into an amazing amount of information very quickly. While DH was talking about a balance transfer he simply mentioned the company he was going to transfer to the MBNA card. Within seconds they gave us the account number and all of the info we had for that company, so be very careful.
Also be careful of debt consolidation offers you get in the mail, especially when they look like they come from a company you trust. I have gotten several through my DH's student loan company, and one for an outdoor company he does business with. It isn't the companies we trust generating the mail, it is MBNA. Some companies have partnered with MBNA and they get a kick back (or a guess commission would be a better word) everytime you open an account with MBNA. Just watch out for the small print.
Good luck and HTH.
Kellie
Unfortunately, all my cards are maxed out, so that won't work off the bat. But once I start to pay things down, I can at least get some of it off of that HUGE apr one.
I couldn't even come up with $200 for school on ANY card. ouch!
~Cher
One last question.
I'm on the MBNA website, and from the looks of it, I can't pay using another credit card. I dno't have my statement with
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