Capital One

I was paying my bills online yesterday and while paying Capital One I became a little distraught. We put our cruise on my card (along with our friends tickets) as it has only a 9.82% interest rate. Our concern was that if our friends were not able to pay their portion quickly, the interest rate wouldn't cause them to pay too much extra. Luckily within the month, they gave me their portion and so no interest was charged. However, as I was looking at my statement I noticed that the interest rate was 17.9%. What? I pay this card off each month and it's really the only card I use as I've had it since 1997 and I'm just use to grabbing it if I can't find my debit card.

On the statement it had a little note saying that my promotion period had ended and my new rate was 17.9% as per previously disclosed. Not sure what that means as I looked at all my statement for the prior year and my interest rate was 10.77% then in the summer of 09 it went to 10.14% and then October 09 it went to 9.82%. None on my statements had any notice of a promotional rate and I didn't see any inserts or extra mailings advising of this promotional rate. I was going to call last night but I'm going to wait for my payments to post and then call.

The thing that really makes me mad is that I called Capital One last month to complain about the annual fee they charged me and the fact that my card carries no rewards. If you go onto to their website, you can apply for all these Capital One cards that have no annual fees, low interest rates and rewards. When asked to have my fee waived and to have rewards put on my card - hello I've had the card 12 1/2 yrs - they refused. At that time I was going to cancel the card but we had just charged our cruise and Jeff said to wait. None of my other cards have annual fees and though their interest rates are 10% and 11% I would rather use them. Now having a card for over 12 years is great for the credit score, if they don't want to keep a loyal cardholder I will get rid of it. Well, maybe just stop using it. We'll see.

Has anyone else had this problem?