Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I`ve had a Visa account with Providian (recently became WaMu) for 7 1/2 years. My limit is 20k. I have a balance of $19k. I have a great payment history... except last October, I got an over the limit and late pay from WaMu (just a couple of days, so not reported). WaMu upped my rate to 31% as a result. I called them and they refuse to negotiate the rate down. I`ve GOT to lower the rate as I am currently paying $500/mo in interest alone.

My credit score is 647, due to high debt to income ratio. I recently got a decent raise. I can make the payment, but need to pay down my balance to improve my FICO.

Is there any company out there that would open a new account for $19k and do a balance transfer? I really want to close the WaMu account.

I`m not trying to buy anything, so this isn`t urgent. It`s just obsurd.
Please offer any advise you can.
Thanks.

Credit Card Companies will do that when you score isn`t where they think it should be and then they will increase your APR so that you`ll move the balance else where. Have you rec`d any other offers from other credit card companies offering a low rate? If not maybe the way to go is to do a home equity loan to pay it off and take the interest you pay on that as a tax benefit (in most cases home equity loans the interest is tax deductable).