Like most adults who always pay their bills, I recieve credit card offers almost every day in the mail. I have always had the same credit card. One day I made the mistake of actually opening one of the offers. It said 0% interest on all transferred ballances for the next year and then an interest rate of around 7.49% after that. As I said I still had the first credit card I received when I got out of school and did not have credit so I was paying around 11% on that one. Unfortunately I decided to take their offer and transfer the balance from my old one.
On the application it asked for my physical address and mailing address, both of which I placed in the coresponding line where they asked for them. (important later) A month and a bit goes by and my old card company sends a statment showing that the balance was transferred. Another month goes by and I still have not received a new credit card or a statement from Bank One. At this point I am just thinking it just takes a while for things to fall into place, as I said it was the first time I have done this.
All of a sudden I receive a call from Bank One wondering where why I have not made a payment. I explained that I have not yet received a card or statement yet. They check my address with me and it turns out that they were trying to mail it to me at my physical address. I told them that and they then read off my mailing address I sent in asking if it was the correct one, which I confirmed. You would think whoever does their data entry could have figured out that a PO Box is a mailing address not a physical address. They of course tell me not to worry about the card and statement sent to the wrong address because they had recieved it back in the mail. You would think that would have tipped them off to it being the wrong address.
I did at least have the forthought to ask them if they were planning on charging me a late fee. The person said yes and I was able to get them to remove it and send me the credit card and statement to the correct address.
Then I get the statement. On it they did not charge me a late fee, but did put on a finance charge for the transferred balance at 23.9% interest. It was supposed to be 0%. So I call them. They tell me that they cannot do anything about it as I had failed to make a payment on a bill I never recieved because they were sending it to the wrong address. They tell me that a late payment makes the deal null and void. I ask about the regular 7.49% interest rate, the regular one according to their offer, and they tell me the same thing. The representative did tell me he would pass my case on and that I would receive a written decision on my case the next week in the mail.
I recieve the written response the next week after sending them over the required payment on the bill I had just recieved, even though I believed it was incorrect. Of course the letter tells me sorry the O% interest and regular interest rate are null and void due to my late payment.
Off course at this point I was mad and called again. I told them to cancel the card, which by this point I had actually received it, and told them to send me another bill with everything that I owed them so I could pay it off. Of course I had to explain the whole situation again, and of course they did not care.
I got the bill and sent them payment in full, at 23.9% interest. I thought well at least thats over with and they only ripped me off of 40$. However, I was then unpleasantly surprised the next month to get another statement with a minimum finance charge of another 10$ on the interest that accrued in the week between them sending me the bill they had sent me and them receiving the payment.
So in total they ripped me off of a bit over 50$. I stole 50$ I would be arrested for petty theft. But, unfortunately, when these guys hold you up there is nothing you can do about it, as down the road you would never be able to finance a car or a home. The scary thing is I think this is a common trick that they use. I wish there was some way to hold these guys accountable.
Bill
Ellsworth, Maine
U.S.A.
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