     Amelie Stol (Chexgalore) | Sunday, November 26, 2000 - 07:35 pm 
I'm dealing with MBNA on an account that went to 6 months. I received an offer letter in the mail which said, "we'll lower your interest rate to 8% for 2 years if you pay off half your balance." There is an interesting legal dispute over the terms of that letter, which did not mention closing my account anywhere on the 4 corners of the letter (there was legal boilerplate saying "your credit agreement will be amended thusly"--nothing about closing the account in there). I duly made the lump sum payments and--my interest rate stayed at 20%. I called and complained and was told that was because I had insisted that my account would remain open, they were not giving me the 8%, because that was only available under a "Balance Reduction Plan" which involved closing the account. Nothing in the letter about "Balance Reduction Plan" either.
I have been offered the 8% but only if they close this account, and the trade line will read "closed by grantor." I tried to push this to "closed by grantee" but they won't do it. How bad is "closed by grantor"? I haven't seen any discussion of this, I know it's somewhat negative but there will be a payment history on it. I have some family money available to me to do credit cleanup and my plan is to pay off this puppy first chance I get, but I don't want to be stuck with 7 years of "closed by grantor" if I can avoid it. What should I negotiate for? |
