Ah, but that thinking could get you in trouble with the credit card company you have been paying on time and as agreed. Some companies routinely check the credit history of their customers and will automatically hike a customer's interest rate if he or she misses a payment on another card.
That's not all.
Let's say you transfer the credit card balances from several cards to one offering zero-percent interest for six months. Could be a great deal -- if you never, ever miss a payment or pay late.
If you do, be prepared for the possibility of a skyscraping rate hike.
Didn't know all this could happen? Well, you aren't alone.
In fact, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is so concerned about what it called unfair or deceptive credit card offers that it issued an advisory letter recently warning national banks about certain credit card marketing and account-management practices.
The OCC said three practices in particular are troublesome:
• Solicitations for credit cards that advertise credit limits "up to" a maximum dollar amount, when that credit limit is, in fact, seldom extended. For instance, you may get an offer trumpeting that you could be eligible for a credit limit of up to $20,000. You excitedly apply, but lo and behold the bank says you qualify for only a $1,000 credit limit. Your dreams of buying a flat-panel television are dashed.
• Using promotional rates in credit card solicitations without clearly disclosing the significant restrictions on the applicability of those rates.
• Increasing a cardholder's annual percentage rate when the circumstances triggering the increase have not been disclosed fully or prominently.
