Posted on March 3, 2009 at 5:57 pm I am new here and plan on doing a lot of reading on this forum, but in the meantime I was hoping to get my debt issue out in the open and pray that someone might be able to point me in the right direction.Last night, I opened my WaMu credit card statement and I have been in a panic ever since. I am paying $100.51 in interest this month on a $4,200 balance (28.68% APR). My minimum payment is $127 a month and I have started trying to pay more on each credit card until I get them paid down, but usually I can only do around $50 extra a month. This plan is just not working, and it hit me last night when I looked at that bill. My husband and I have been working hard to pay these bills down, but with the interest rates so high on some of them, it doesn't even look like we're trying. The balances just aren't moving. The thing that really sucks is that I handle all our bills and I am NEVER behind on anything. No one has ever called our house to collect on a bill. Our rates were raised just because of racking up so much debt. This is just one of the credit cards. There are many. In all, we probably owe about $35-$40K in credit card debt; some interest rates are more "reasonable" at around 15% or so.My husband and I have really cut back on our spending, although there are of course things we could do to spend less. After last night looking at that bill, I am going to try to move myself to a no spending money unless it is absolutely necessary policy. I want to speak with some type of credit counselor, but I don't want to do any kind of debt settlement thing, as my sister told me that is almost as bad for your credit as filing for bankruptcy. Although, I have to weigh that against dealing with this debt for forever. I don't know which would be worse. I am 25 and my husband is 36, so we would like to have kids within the next 5 years or so. We don't want to have kids until we get things in order financially. I just want to know what the best way out of this is, so we can have control of our life again!!!I am begging you, if you know of something that might help, please let me know. This is such a mess. Thank you for listening.

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Posted on March 26, 2009 at 9:27 am Sounds like your credit card may be at default interest rate. I believe that is the name for it.  Perhaps a payment was missed or several payments over the past year?I'm not blaming or anything cause it can happen to anyone. Even a late payment or two in a six month period of time is reason for a credit card company to sky rocket your interest rate. So, first thing you might need to do is consider transferring some or all of the debt onto a new credit card with zero percent or low interest rate. At this rate, your debt is going to double fast! And, you will just keep having to pay the interest rate. One other possibility.  Did you use a cash advance on your credit card?Once upon a time, years ago, I used one of the cash advance checks that my credit card company sent me and went from zero percent interest up to 28% interest and my interest payment alone monthly was $85. So it's possible this has been going on for awhile. That's why you always need to check your bill. You never know when a credit card company is going to hike your interest rate. Put the debt on another card and wash your hands of WAMU! Best of luck with the situation.  

Posted on March 28, 2009 at 11:09 am The other day I posted a blog entry about this same subject, when you suddenly find yourself with a super high interest rate for no reason. Turns out you don't even need to miss a credit card payment to have your interest rate spiked.  Simply missing ANY payment including electric bill can cause you to be considered a high risk debtor and then the credit card company has the freedom to raise your interest rates.  It's a sneaky and unfair tactic, but credit card companies justify the practice. I wish you the best of luck with the sitatuion.

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