MBNA Credit Cards

[Wookie]

Just a heads up, (trying to reduce cc debt etc) so I called MBNA (been with them for probably 5 - 7 years. They reduced my rate from 19.99% to 9.96% for no charge.

I went from 13.9% to 11.9% on my BMO mastercard for $10.00

MBNA said "I'd call BMO back and get it reduced either more or for no fee, they should want to keep your business and if they can lower your rate they should be able to do it without a fee, that's atrocious"

Thought some of you might have MBNA and could advantage of this (seeing as they used to sign up us flames fans at the games haha)

[flip]

I have a Flames MC I got through MBNA. I've never used it but carry it around in case I need it in an emergency. They keep sending me letters asking why I don't use it and encouraging me to spend money. I just shred them.

[Temporary_User]

I did a credit check of myself about a year ago and found out I had like 5 different CC's (I didn't think I even had one). I did know I had a lot of shirts, backpacks and blankets though.
Anyways, I called to cancel them. The first thing they did was reduce the rate, just like they did for you (I actually think I have a lower rate than you do (mine is 8.9% i think) (I did cancel all but the one). A couple more months go by and I still haven't used my CC, so I try to cancel it again; this time they offer me 1% cash back on everything I spend.
I still haven't used the card.

[macker]

Originally Posted by Wookie

Just a heads up, (trying to reduce cc debt etc) so I called MBNA (been with them for probably 5 - 7 years. They reduced my rate from 19.99% to 9.96% for no charge.

I went from 13.9% to 11.9% on my BMO mastercard for $10.00

MBNA said "I'd call BMO back and get it reduced either more or for no fee, they should want to keep your business and if they can lower your rate they should be able to do it without a fee, that's atrocious"

Thought some of you might have MBNA and could advantage of this (seeing as they used to sign up us flames fans at the games haha)

Suzie Orman would be proud The best part about the credit crisis for me is the reduction in junk mail from MBNA, Capital One, AMEX etc....OT VISA & especially MC as stocks offer interesting value here as all they really do is process the payments....

[Bertuzzied]

I currently am using a mbna mastercard at 5.9%(ongoing) and citibank mastercard at 3.9%(next 11 months). Both lower than my unsecured line of credit which i'm going to close.

BMO also gave me a 6.9% rate on cash advances for the next year also. As long as you have a good payment history with these card companies you can call and negotiate.

[Swervin]

I say the best CC would be the Canadian Tire CC, try to give them a call and cancel your card, first they offer you a lower % rate. Make sure you say no to that and then they offer you $20 Canadian Tire money. This can be repeted every 3 months! Love it!

[RW99]

Good for you. CIBC refuses to give me a lower interest rate (18% now). They will let me switch to a rewards card at 19%, but I am not approved for the 11% card (that carry the same requirements on their website).

/rant

[Dan02]

Originally Posted by Bertuzzied

I currently am using a mbna mastercard at 5.9%(ongoing) and citibank mastercard at 3.9%(next 11 months). Both lower than my unsecured line of credit which i'm going to close.

BMO also gave me a 6.9% rate on cash advances for the next year also. As long as you have a good payment history with these card companies you can call and negotiate.

Indeed, they gave me 2.99% for the rest of the year on my MBNA MC. Allowed for a fair amount of debt consolidation. At the end of the year it should be paid off or i'll transfer the remaining balance to my HELOC.

[Bertuzzied]

Originally Posted by Dan02

Indeed, they gave me 2.99% for the rest of the year on my MBNA MC. Allowed for a fair amount of debt consolidation. At the end of the year it should be paid off or i'll transfer the remaining balance to my HELOC.

And then you have these d-bags from Wells Fargo calling me every week asking if i want a stupid loan at 15%!! stop calling me. NEVER sign up for a soundsaround card. What was i thinking?

[FlamesAddiction]

I had a credit card with them but never used. I never received a new one after it expired, so I am assuming that they are not renewing with me.

[REDVAN]

It's a pain to cancel with them. When I get a free blanket, I just never activate the card.

I have two other credit cards though, a Royal Bank rewards, and a Scotiabank cashback one. Both have crazy rates, but I pay my card every month so meh.

[Temporary_User]

Originally Posted by REDVAN

It's a pain to cancel with them. When I get a free blanket, I just never activate the card.

Careful though, you are probably like how I used to be. You don't have to actually activate the cards for them to show up on your credit report.

[Grunt]

MBNA also has a card available at a special 0% interest for 12 months deal. I just got mine last month and did a balance transfer from a line of credit (costs 1% to do the balance transfer) on to the card. Pretty sweet.

More info: http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/s...d.php?t=352003

[flip]

Who cares about interest rates? I've never not paid my balance in full.

[Dan02]

Originally Posted by flip

Who cares about interest rates? I've never not paid my balance in full.

because if you have loans for other things, you can transfer the balance and save on interest.

[REDVAN]

Originally Posted by Temporary_User

Careful though, you are probably like how I used to be. You don't have to actually activate the cards for them to show up on your credit report.

How do I do a credit report on myself?

And when I sign up for a Flames credit card, and then another Flames credit card, does that count as two or just one? If it only counts as one, then I have 3 credit cards total.

Us there any problem with having too many credit cards, if you never use them?

[burn_this_city]

I dont think you can sell them.. They are in your name so the ticket would be in your name.

I got one of the Flames MBNA cards, never activated it but they dinged me for my sports illustrated subscription i unwittingly signed up for on the application.

[Temporary_User]

Originally Posted by REDVAN

How do I do a credit report on myself?

And when I sign up for a Flames credit card, and then another Flames credit card, does that count as two or just one? If it only counts as one, then I have 3 credit cards total.

Us there any problem with having too many credit cards, if you never use them?

To do a credit report on yourself google equifax (it's free).

The downside to having lots of CC's is that most of them would only have a $1,000 limit (not much use for most things & people).
Also say you have 5 cards... (5k credit available) If you wanted to get another loan (say for a car), the bank would look at your report and see that you have 5k already available for credit. You may have all of that paid off in full, but they see that you still have potential to spend that and be in debt.
So they are going to be hesitant to loan you any more money because if you go in debt say 30k with them and then max all of you CC's you are going to be in quite a bit of debt.
On the other hand if you only had 2k available, if they loaned you 30k and you fell another 2k (32k) in debt, that would be an amount that would still be manageable for most people.
(obviously with my #'s the difference isn't much, I just made those #'s as an example)
* I am not in any way a financial guy, this is just what I have been told.

Also I would assume no matter how much credit you have available, it would look better if it was only possible to go to one place (one card). It just seems that it would be easier to pay 5k to one guy than have to pay 5k to 5 different people.

[Ozy_Flame]

I called MBNA last March to get them to drop my rate. They dropped it from 19% to 5%, and even didn't charge me any interest for six months. Apparently I qualified for it because I've been a great customer to them.

They're not a bad company, but the only thing I hate about them is that they called at least once every once trying to sell credit insurance, to which I have my obligatory reply: "NOT INTERESTED, ASS CLOWN."

[evilcougar]

to many ppl to quote here, so, i'll just tell you the top 10 things of what i know about the credit industry since i've been working in it for almost 9 years now.

1) it's not a good thing to have to many cc's. you should never be more than 75% utillized on any card at any time. being at max or over max severely hinders your credit scores b/c it shows you are 100% utilized.

2)no one needs more than one major credit card. most ppl do tho. just make sure you don't get out of control with them. just b/c you have a card at a store with a limit doesn't mean you have free money to go shopping. this is how ppl get themselves into trouble and then can not qualify for mtg's to buy their first house.

3) you should pull a CB on yourself at minimum once every 6 months. personally on my RB visa i have a membership where they send me an update anytime theres ANY activity on my CB. i did this b/c my purse was stolen a year and a half ago and absolutley everything was in it. i phoned equifax and transunion immediately and put an alert on my CB so that anytime i may apply for credit equifax immediatley requires the credior to call equifax directly b/c i have to answer a bunch of questions to prove its me applying for credit and not some random ###### that stole my f'ing purse.


another reason why you want to do this minimum every 6 months is i can't tell you how many applications i've seen in 8 years where a collection for something shows up and ppl didn't even know they still owed whatever creditor or company.

4)don't apply for credit unless you absolutely need too. to many inquiries from various creditors especially in a short span of a few months severely hurts your credit scores b/c it makes you look like a credit seeker. i have updated ppl's information to see if they qualify for something better only to see that everything is perfect except the inquiries and it took a good 50 points off their credit scores.

5)everything stays on your CB for 7 years from THE LAST DATE REPORTED. just b/c you paid something off in june of 2006 doesn't mean it will fall off in june of 2013. any creditor can choose to continue to report any tradeline for as many years as they want. this means if you've had collections etc...and the collection company decides they want to report it for the next 10 years THEN they stop, it will fall off 7 years after that.
any sort of paid off account will still show as a tradeline on your CB but with a zero balance. the reason everything stays there is to establish a history in order to better adjudicate a credit application for better rates etc...
(again another reason to always pull CB"s on yourself...sometimes balances still report when they really should be ZERO. this is then counted as part of your debt service ratio...in otherwords the amount of money going out compared to what comes in.)

6) CREDIT COUNCILLING IS A FORM OF BANKRUPTCY. no matter what any "debt solutions" or any of the other million credit councilling service companys out there say, it IS a form of bankruptcy. it only stays on your CB for 3 years, but the tradelines involved in said credit councilling stay for 7 years or more, and they are reported in such a way that it is a dead give away that you have been on credit councilling/orderly payment of debts.

7)bankruptcy stays on your CB for 7 years. if you go bankrupt twice, then the first bankruptcy is resurrected and is then on your CB for 14 years.

8)never lie about being bankrupt etc...equifax reports and keeps records of everything. every single time one of my employees brings me an application for approval, one of the first things i look at is, how old is the person, how old is their credit. i see that the person is 40 yrs old, and their date on file to the credit bureau (in otherwords first creditor ever obtained) is 20 yrs ago, yet the oldest creditor on the CB is only 5 yrs ago...i force them to call equifax to confirm there hasn't been a bankruptcy. most times there has been.

9)equifax keeps track (via the creditors that report it) how many times you've been 30/60/90 days late. again, this stays on for 7 yrs.
a tradeline will show 30 days late as soon as you are now due for the previous month. so, it's march, and you still havent' made your feb pmt. you are considered 30 days late and so on. this also means that equifax runs a month behind. so, if you pay something off, it won't reflect a zero balance until the next month. this sometimes will also happen if you paid something off within the last few days of a month, it doesn't have enough time to report zero until the month after that.

10) credit is very slow to heal. if you've had a negative reporting such as collections or judgements or anything like that, you need to NOT apply for any credit for a minimum of 6 months depending on the severity of the negative report. (ex. judgements are far worse than collections. judgements mean someone has sued you and probably garnisheed your wages or placed a writ on your home
where as a collection item is just simply saying, this person didn't pay this...so, pay it but we're not going to go to the extreme of sueing you for what you owe)

also, tid bit on car loans....if you can not afford your car anymore, and you give it back to the creditor, they can still report it as a reposession...its considered a voluntary reposession.

so basically the moral of the story is, pay your bills. if you can't pay, call your creditors. they will help you most of the time. some of them are jerks and wont but most of them will. in this day and age and in a time of economic/credit crisis, most ceditors will pretty much do anything they can to keep your business but also do what they can to minimize losses.

other than this, i know nothing.