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It is sad to say that there is nothing you can do about the increase in minimum payment. This is a result of our elected officials passing a meaningless bill to try and control creditors. Now everybody is going to pay for that. They are in the business of making money so they will find anyway to screw the public to get it. Did they offer to do a repayment program and keep your account active? If so your score should not be affected. If they offered a repayment plan and are going to close your account, then YES your score will go down because you now have a lower total credit line which alters your debt utilization ratio. (meaning how much your line of credit is compared to what you currently owe). Your only other option would be to try and get a personal line of credit at a credit union and pay off the card or if possible, as the other poster stated, get an account with 0% interest and pay it off before the low APR program expires. CAUTION, those 0% offers can and do change in you are late just one time on that account or any of your other accounts You will save on the interest and get a much lower APR through a credit union. Hope this helps answer your question.

by Sgt Big Red

6 months ago

Asker's Rating: 

i would not spread it out over 5 years because then you would pay them plenty in interest. i would to a "transfer balance" to another credit card that offers 0 interest for a year. i would divide what you owe into 12 payments and pay it off because the interest kicks in again. sometimes after that 0 interest, the interest is pretty high if you do not have it paid off.

by oh, i see....- 6 months ago

I am dying to have them do that to me or simply raise my interest. I would call them that day and tell them to deactivate my card and mail them a check for the balance. But since you can't do that, you can take your business to another credit card company and transfer all your balance, then cancel the card. But be careful when transferring. Some companies charge 3% of the amount transferred. Your score will not change unless you default on the payments.

by cajundude1- 6 months ago

I got a great deal from the Pentagon Federal Credit Union. If you have ever been in the military, or have a family member who has ever been in the military, you can join. They offer a 2.99% for life of balance transfer, and cap the balance transfer fee at $100. I would go online and sign up for that deal (I just had to state I had a family member in the Army - which is true - but they didn't do anything to verify). Then, transfer your balance to these folks, save a little money, and leave your other account open but with a $0 balance so it doesn't cause your credit to suffer. Good luck!

by Lauren F- 6 months ago

Not much you can do other than figure out how to pay it, or go on their "repayment plan". Companies are tightening down on credit cards a lot these days. Good luck.

by Judy- 6 months ago

Sorry.......the only thing you can do is get a lower rate loan........the credit card people don't care.............

by kapn- 6 months ago

I very much doubt it that it will hurt your credit score. In fact it may help your credit score. From my calculations, you owe about $5,500 on your credit card. If the minimum monthly payment remains at 2% or $15 which ever is more, it would take about 20 years to pay off the debt if you didn't add any more to the credit card. This is because the decreasing payments that would occur as you paid off the debt. It appears that the bank is willing to offer you a personal loan that will cost you about $114 per month for 5 years to pay off your credit card debt. To pay off the debt with 60 equal payments of $114 per month, the interest rate that they would be offering will be significantly more than the 3.99% that you are currently paying. From my calculations, the interest rate will be 9%. The bank wins because it gets 9% interest rate and is more likely to be paid back and you win since you get a payment that you can afford. However you lose in that you will be paying a higher interest rate which will add about $780 of additional interest payments as compared to a 3.99% interest rate for the same period of time. So the choice it yours. Do you want to risk missing one of the higher $285 payments hurting your credit score and possibly causing the interest rate on your credit cards to rise or would you prefer paying a $114 monthly payment that you can probably afford but pay more in interest?

by Michael T- 6 months ago

unfortunately, there is nothing you can do - cc companies are also lowering credit limits on people - even if you are also paid on time - they are trying to limit their risk and if you are late with 2 payments in a 12 month period by even 1 day - you can kiss that 3.99% rate goodbye forever - it will probably jump to 20% - you kind of can't worry about what changing the payment plan to 5 yrs will do to your credit - it can't be anywhere near as bad if you wind up being late with payments or just not having enough money to make the payment - I would take it and then when things improve - see if you can pay extra to pay it off sooner than later

by Doctor Deth- 6 months ago