Credit card interest rates up again

[red750]

I read this morning that ANZ has joined other banks in putting up the interest rate on credit cards by 0.5% to 20.99%. Latitude Finance have a rate of up to 27.9% on some cards, pure extortion. It is not expected for rates to drop when the RBA reduces the Cash Rate.

[onetrack]

Someone has to pay for the takeover of Suncorp! - so it looks like the poverty-stricken, struggling credit card holders will be the suckers!

[old man emu]

It's nice to sit back and watch the suffering of those whose self-gratification is dependent on borrowing. My self-satisfaction comes from watching my meagre savings grow from the residual of the money put aside for "cost of living", from a pension. 

[nomadpete]

7 hours ago, onetrack said:

Someone has to pay for the takeover of Suncorp! - so it looks like the poverty-stricken, struggling credit card holders will be the suckers!

Can anyone recall what Suncorp was called before it became suncorp?

[willedoo]

36 minutes ago, nomadpete said:

Can anyone recall what Suncorp was called before it became suncorp?

Metway Bank. Before that it was the Metropolitan Permanent Building Society.

[willedoo]

It was Metway when I first started banking with them back in the 1980's.

[nomadpete]

I thought it was SGIO? Or am I confuddling it.

[willedoo]

Suncorp has closed all their branches in my district except one which is buried deep inside a major shopping centre. It's a nightmare to get to for anyone with mobility issues.

[willedoo]

10 minutes ago, nomadpete said:

I thought it was SGIO? Or am I confuddling it.

You're right Pete. Metropolitan Permanent  became Metway. SGIO ended up being called Suncorp and it and the QIDC merged with Metway to form Suncorp Metway which is now called just Suncorp.

 

It was I who confuddled.

 

Edited February 24 by willedoo

[nomadpete]

Willie, you have one in Twba and a full service branch @ Gatton.

 

Everything is online now.

[nomadpete]

In fact I suspected that originally SGIO was the Qld equivalent to Commonwealth bank - at least common to Qld wealth.

Edited February 24 by nomadpete

[willedoo]

SGIO was a Qld. government statutory authority. Merged into Suncorp in 1986. Then Suncorp Group Limited was formed through the merger of Suncorp, Metway and QIDC in 1996. According to Wiki that is.

 

Banking has changed a lot. Suncorp has nothing like personal loans any more. Now they only do business and housing loans. I'm lucky in that my mortgage is paid off so I don't have much to do with them now. It's a place to park my fortnightly pension and that's about it. The credit card is still branded Suncorp but the Suncorp CC services are provided by NAB.

Edited February 24 by willedoo

[willedoo]

Suncorp was a good bank, but as it's got bigger and banking has become more electronic, it's become less personal. It was a really good friendly bank but now there's hardly any branches with staff left to be friendly. Now it's like banking with a robot.

[willedoo]

The days of going to town to have a yarn with your bank manager are past history now. These days the customer is just a number to them. I've been a loyal customer to the one bank for decades, but now there's nothing to be loyal about as the bank no longer has any loyalty or interest in their customers. I can see Suncorp eventually disappearing as an entity and just being swallowed up.

[onetrack]

No, the likes of the Big Four keep these subsidiaries operating under their original name, to bamboozle the average Joe Bloggs, who thinks he's going to a different, independent bank, after the NAB has given him the runs.

[red750]

My Mastercards are nearly paid off. I got an email from Latitude finance to advise a change of something or other, the account was paid off in 2022. I'll soon be totally debt free.

[facthunter]

You're in a real minority group NOW.   Nev

[willedoo]

26 minutes ago, red750 said:

My Mastercards are nearly paid off. I got an email from Latitude finance to advise a change of something or other, the account was paid off in 2022. I'll soon be totally debt free.

Peter, I hardly ever use my CC these days, but it's good to have for emergencies like recently when my power line went belly up. I'm glad I had it before I retired though, because as you previously pointed out, they don't like giving new cards to pensioners. It beats me why as a pension is a guaranteed income.

[Mr.Vegemite]

I never bothered with a CC until I retired. Mainly a Coles MC for the Flybuy points. They just gave me a $5000 card without me asking for any particular limit.

I asked St George for one just to see if they would and they gave me a Visa for $2600. Like you, I only use them for convenience and as a backup if needed. 

Handy for things like hire car and so on, so your Debit card isn't tired up for days.

 

[old man emu]

Flybuys are a joke, I don't bother with them. They give one point per dollar spent, but you need 2000 points to get $10.00, and the points only have a life of 12 months. They don't accumulate across years. I'm ditching the card - less bulk in the wallet.

[octave]

I don't even know what my CC interest rate is.  I use it for everything and pay it off every Friday,  I choose to take reward points in Bunnings vouchers.  I get around 4 of these a year.  So I get $200 a year in Bunnings vouchers, I pay $50 a year for the card and I pay no interest because I don't go longer than a week without paying it off.  My CC company probably hates me.

 

[red750]

I occasionally buy things online, but not often. I don't use Paypal or the like, so CC is the go. Also, paid parking stations, like Knox Private Hospital, some shopping centres, including Box Hill Central, require CC to pay to open the boomgates. They don't accept debit cards in the paystations.

[octave]

I buy online with PayPal if possible and CC otherwise.  When I buy with Paypal the money comes from my CC anyway but I have found that if I don't get what I paid for I can take it up with Paypal and if they don't give me a refund I could take it up with the CC company.   I have found both to be pretty good with refunds.   A few years back we ordered some flowers for my mother interstate.  They turned up 3 days late and pretty much dead.  When we looked at reviews for this company and found that it had a poor reputation (always check reviews first)   We complained to the florist who didn't want to know. We then complained to the CC company and got a full refund    We have had 3 or 4 similar events.  

[old man emu]

27 minutes ago, red750 said:

They don't accept debit cards in the paystations.

I find that odd. I only have a Visa debit card, which means that I can only transfer money for a debt if there is money in my account. In other words, for the recipient, it's as good as the folding stuff.  Could it be so that the recipient can fiddle the transaction fee, because it would be the same for a credit or debit card?

[red750]

At Box Hill Central where I park to attend my dietician appointments, I tried using my EFTPOS card to get out through the boomgate. Several attempts failed, and a queue of unhappy motorists was buildinng behind me. I have plenty of credit in the account to cover the $3 parking fee. In the end, I pressed the emergency button. A voice came on the intercom, I explained the problem, and he said "You have to use a credit card."