Direct Merchants Bank
(DMB) Ripoff - Dramatic Interest Rate Increases Without A Justifiable Cause

I have been with DMB for close to 8 years now. I have never been late on my payments and I have a very good credit score of between 680-700. DMB has always been very good to me. I am in the process of purchasing my first home. My interest rate last month was just a bit over 11% for purchases and a bit over 17% for cash advances. When I pulled up my interest rate this month it was 29.74% for both purchases and cash advances. I called to ask why the increase had been made.

Over the phone they told me that it must have been something in my credit report. I've worked so hard fixing my credit reports over the last few months that I found that very hard to believe. They told me they would send me specifics in about 2 weeks. I told them that was unacceptable, but they told me that was my only option.in the meantime I also sent secured e-mail messages and they all stated the same.

I received my letter on Christmas Eve, Dec 24, and as a lovely little gift they told me that the reason for the increase is as follows, and I quote: "The new terms on your account include a higher annual percentage rate (s). This increase was based on our decision to increase the revenue on your account. The change in your annual percentage rate was not based on individual characteristics or account performance." It doesn't take a degree to know that means they wanted to make more money off of me.

I instantly called them back and very nicely asked how that made any sense. I offered them a better option for their customers. "Why don't you (DMB Co) offer your customers a higher credit limit rather than raise their rates. You could make much more money that way, rather than losing the faith of your loyal customers." The supervisor that I spoke with at DMB, on December 24, lowered my interest rate to 21.25% on purchases and to 27% on my cash advances.

He then told me to keep calling back to see if I could receive any better interest rates. How does this make any sense? What can we do to prevent being abused by these loan sharks?!?

Company: Direct Merchants Bank
Country: USA
State: Arizona
City: Phoenix
Address: PO Box 29470
Phone: 8002059988

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