don't close those cards with zero balances yet

I was making a decent effort to pay off my credit cards on a methodical basis. I paid off the card with the highest rate first, like I'm supposed to do as per most of the advice I see, and then I thought I would be smart to close the account and move on to the next card.

The card with the biggest balance (but lowest rate) decided that my debt ratio was too high now, so they raised my rate with them to something like 18%.

I was late with a payment in June because my bank redesigned their bill pay system, virtualy erasing all the information in their system and not paying stuff setup for a time of cross over, and I wasn't on top of the whole situation.

As a result, that company raised my rate to 25%!!!!!!

And of course the mimimum payment goes up each time as well. Good grief.

All I could get out of the customer service guy on the phone was that I should look at transferring my balance to another card or refinancing. I even asked to speak with his supervisor and was denied that option, telling me it wouldn't do any good - I could try and write a letter to the company if I wanted - what a dweeb he was - totally torqued me off for days.

All this as a result of closing a credit card (at least indirectly). What a crock!

Bruce