The new Wells Fargo Prime Rate Credit Card offers a panacea to shady interest rate hikes, a former specialty of the credit card industry. The premise of the card is that its rates never go higher than the Prime Rate, a rate used and referenced by banks.
Today’s WSJ prime rate is an indulgent 3.25%. Makes you want to spend, doesn’t it?
The catch is, of course, in the fine print:
The Prime Rate APR does not apply to cash advances. If a minimum monthly payment is not received for two consecutive billing periods or the new balance shown on your billing statement exceeds your account’s credit limit for two consecutive billing periods, the Default Rate, as described in your Customer Agreement and Disclosure Statement, may apply.
The card only works for people who use their credit responsibly in the first place. People who tend to forgo payments will find themselves in the very situation they’re trying to avoid–a jacked-up “default rate.”
Nonetheless, this is the best news to come out of the credit crunch in some time. The Prime Rate card is a sweet deal for anyone who doesn’t pay off their entire bill monthly, and needs a card to carry debt. I hope other banks follow suite.
Yeah right. My credet score is over 800 what ever that is suppose to mean. So I was going to applly for the Wells Fargo prime rate card. Guess What. You have to be “invited” to apply for it. ie. If you might need one you don’t get one.
WF is constantly raising my interest rate which forces me to call the company and ask for a reduction in this rate in order not to default. Now they are offering to lower the rate but will not apply it to the curent billing cycle. Hence, one month I’m paing 19.25 and the next 5.25. This yo-yo practice is begging for consumers to default by not catching up with the rate changes. It should be considered FRAUD!
Don’t know where you got your info from, I just got mail today from WF. Raising my rates to 18% + prime…