Has anyone else noticed this? My January paycheck was smaller than previous checks. The business office said this is entirely to do with the stimulus ending and more taxes being taken out. Then my credit cards increased my minimum payment by A LOT. It's not my fault; I pay the minimum or more every month. When I called them to ask what was going on, they said the Consumer Bill of Rights thing had kicked in. Since they are required to make it easier for consumers to pay off their balance, they decided to increase minimum payments to make it faster for me to pay down my debt (Yeah, I'm sure it's purely altruistic.) So this month I am going to be overdrawn long before I get paid on Feb. 15. I could really use a winning lottery ticket just now.
I am also feeling the effects of this economy. I haven't worked at all this year, I don't even have a parttime job and a lot of that is because for each position I applied for, there are at least ten others who applied for the same job. I'm really hoping the economy bounces back soon...
I currently have 3 credit cards that I'm paying on & their minimums due haven't skyrocketed. This has nothing to do w/ what you said, but I am mad though that April is so far appearing to be my last good-sized paycheck for probably a long time!
runs~ I know what you mean. My sister was struggling since it was so long between her Dec and Jan checks. My dh was told that there would be no work until Feb. 8, and even then it was only guaranteed for the gas guys. He leaves anyway at the end of the month for AZ and military training so will get paid better there anyway. It's just making it through this month until he starts getting paychecks from the military. Until then we'll have to rely on taxes and my loan to make it.
I noticed a small change in mine as did others at my school. Thankfully, it is not enough to cause me alarm.
My paycheck was lower this month as well, and we were told it was because of the increase in federal withholding. The difference is my paycheck is $8 less than normal. I've never heard of credit card companies increasing your monthly payment to make it easier to pay off your balance. Why can't they just lower the interest rates? They're ridiculous--- I have good credit, yet my CC interest rate is 29.99%! Thankfully there is no balance on it, but still!!
Mine just snuck up the due date by a week! Thankfully I'm closing it by the end of this month. So tired of 30% APR.
Because the banks can't make money when they lower interest rates. They want to raise the minimum due and send us into shock so that we pay less and they can slap us with a late fee. I just went round and round with Discover about this. She removed THIS month's late fee but told me to expect one on the next bill since I'm only paying a portion of the minimum due. I'm seriously thinking of realigning my debt somehow.
