Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Georgia
lenders buying fixed-rate accounts and raising interest rates
3 years ago,I maxed out a 9.9% fixed-rate Fleet card at $7,500. I desroyed it & made on-time,more-than-minimum payments for @ 12 mos. Fleet sold my account to FNBOmaha & I began paying them in the same fashion. After a few mos, they doubled my rate to 19.99% & I protested & they put it back to 9.9 with the understanding that if I always made my payments on time,it would remain that way.
In Nov.2004, tho I had never been late on a payment,they raised the rate to 10.28, then in Dec. they raised it to 10.42. Then in Jan., they raised it to 16.61. I had been making real headway with this debt but the way they have raised the interest rate, it could take me an extra 7-10 years to pay it off.
I called to protest & the lady told me they ran a credit check on me & found incidents of late payments to OTHER creditors, so they raised my interest rate.
I called & vented vowing to stop paying them as I did the last time they doubled it but she only said that was my perogative. I have never signed anything with FNBO & the account they bought from Fleet was fixed-rate. Can they legally do this? Do I have any reasonable recourse?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: lenders buying fixed-rate accounts and raising interest rates
Whether you have recourse depends on the terms of your agreement with the credit card company. Ordinarily, they reserve the right to transfer your account and vary the interest rate. I would go back and look at your agreement to determine if they breached any terms by selling your account and raising the rate. Trying to hold them to the oral agreement would be difficult, especially if they deny its terms.
If you would like to discuss any issues further, please feel free to contact my office. My contact information is below. Thank you.
The foregoing is general information only, not specific legal advice. No attorney/client relation has been created or should be implied.
Glenn M. Lyon, Esq
MacGregor Lyon, LLC
Promenade II
1230 Peachtree Street NE
Suite 1900
Atlanta Georgia 30309
Phone 404.942.3545
Fax 404.795.0993
www.macgregorlyon.com
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