Best Buy and Hsbc raise their credit card APR to 55.49% if you?

Question

decided to pay off the balance on a promotion offer, does anyone
know if it is legal for them suddenly hike the APR to the rate and they even charge 55.49% as purchase rate on a dispute, this rate
was not disclosed, but if you pay off your balance, then they immediately hike the rate, is this legal??Should this kind of business practice be reported to Attorney general or where?

after I pay off of what I purchase at promotion, they add in cancellation fees ,then I dispute, and suddenly raise the APR to 55.49% as new purchase, they are very bad be aware of this kind of promotion, AG may be the answer, but who want to go though this headache,any ideas?

Answer 1

I dont think that 55% is legal on any loan or credit card. There is a leagal term known as Usury. It basically means charging too much interest.

Make sure that that is actually your APR. When you check out your account it may say 55.49% because of the penalty they added that month. Most lenders have a buyout penalty. It is more common on mortgages. They charge you a flat fee when you pay off the balance because they originally gave you the promotional offer expecting to make 3 or 4 x the loan amount in interest over the life of the loan. Closely examine your CC statement and check to see if they added a one time fee or if they actually increased your APR. The tell the difference just take the interest plus the fee and see if it adds up to 55.49% of your total.

Answer 2

If you had a small balance left on your account (15.00 for example) and the lender had a minimum finance charge of $2.50 per month if you carry a balance then it would look like your APR was way out of whack. Also, if you were late and they charged late fees that are disclosed in the APR then it would make your APR look really high. Or if you didn't quite payoff the promotional balance in time and they charged the full amount of interest due it could cause the APR to soar through the roof. There are a lot of explanations for why an APR might look high on your statement. You need to do some research and make sure you understand what the APR really means - the APR is not the same as the interest rate on the account.

Answer 3

Is this 55.49% something you calculated or is it actually listed on the statement? If it is something you calculated there are too many variables to determine how you got that percentage. But some possibilities are that there is either some fees that were considered Interest or since it was a promotional offer they charged you interest over the promotion at one time which caused it to look higher. This happens quite often with those 6 months same as cash offer. If you fail to have it paid off after 6 months, on the 7th month they add in all of the interest that would have been charged.

They can basically raise the rate at any time as that is going to be somewhere in the terms of the card. A default rate of around 30% is not uncommon if you fall behind or fail to make timly payments.

Answer 4

I dont think hat legal at all. It's ridiculous and should have reported to the Atty. Gen as you said and if you would. However, there is a way to avoid that. Don't even use their credit card. Master cards and Visa cards has more reasonable APR. So consider using those instead of using Best buy's credit cards and HSbc.

Answer 5

It does not matter cause in your question you are paying them off so you would have a ZERO balance so APR is not a factor on your account, or % rate

Answer 6

Their default rate is listed as 30.24%. I would contact the Attorney General if this is what is printed on your bill. This seems like predatory lending practices.

Answer 7

I cant imagine that being legal..I would report to the Attorney General office.

Answer 8

I think GUS has the best answer so far. Something is missing from your numbers. 55% is illegal nearly everywhere that has laws on the issue.