Credit card issuers or lenders have a contract with every credit card customer or borrower. This is set out in the terms and conditions that are signed when the credit card is intially applied for. Like all credit cards with instant approval credit cards it is really important to read and understand the terms and conditions before completing the application process, no matter how keen you are to know if the application was approved, just as it’s important to read carefully whatever communications are received from the credit card company. Credit card companies have a duty to spell out changes in the terms and conditions of a credit card.
However terms and conditions may change; and it is important to know when they are changing and what can be done about them.
As the terms and conditions are a contract then the change in contract needs to be informed to the credit card holder. The lender is usually notified via mail to the address nominated on the account making it important to notify your lender of any change in address. Email notifications are becoming more common but when they do refer to a change in conditions they will usually refer either to a website or attract a PDF format file, both of which will look like a letter. Emails are still not very popular because they are less likely to be read and more likely to be discarded as they are prone to being caught in spam filters. In order for your lender to notify you of changes in terms and conditions by email only you will have had to agree to the electronic communications at some point.
Terms and conditions change for a number of reasons. The most common reason is that the credit cards are raising interest rates. This may be due to a general rise in interest rates or simply the streamlining of an existing range of credit cards. Some credit cards are no longer being marketed actively and so the credit card company could be putting the credit cards into what is known as run down mode and this will mean that the credit cards are no longer offering the market leading interest rates that they were offering.
Another reason why credit card conditions may change is because the credit card holder has had a change in their credit rating which will mean that credit cards are going to have a higher interest rate, even if the range of credit cards remains the same. It can also be quite common for a credit limit to be raised, or lowered, which again constitutes a change in the terms and conditions of the credit card. Finally the credit card holder may have asked for the terms to be changed and this may need to be confirmed.
If the change to the terms and conditions are not to your liking you should contact your lender and let them know, if you can not negotiate a satisfactory result it maybe necessary to look for a new credit card.
