Did anybody see this segment on the news tonight?

I agree. I have closed three credit account in the last 6 months because of rate increases with no explanations. I have also had one card close my account because I did not use it enought. I keep my balances low or paid off but it does not seem to make any difference to the credit card companies. One thing I have noticed that I find hard to explain, as I close the accounts my credit rating falls. Thats another thing, I feel the credit rating companies have way to much power over the ratings you receive, one late payment in 3 years and my rating dropped 75 points. Just goes to show you no one has any real control over all this.

Your credit rating fell when you closed the credit card accounts because credit rating is not only based on how well you handle your credit, but on what percentage of your credit you use. If you have less overall credit but are using the same amount, then the percentage of your credit you're using goes up. It's better for your credit rating if you keep the cards open but never use them. Just a general response to this post: I wish credit card companies were held to the same general rules of good business that other industries are held to.

Luckily with the way that we've decided to do it, we aren't closing our credit cards, we are just not going to be using them for the next several years. I listen to enough of the financial advisors on the radio to know better than closing a credit card if it has been used within the last two years. However, there are a lot of people that don't know how to deal with the rate hikes and really don't have any other option but to close their cards so that they can lock the rates that they already had.