I went to an oral surgeon to have my wisdom teeth extracted. I paid him $200 upfront and opened a line of credit for the remaining $700 balance he charged me. The line of credit was opened through "CareCredit", a company that specializes in healthcare related credit lines. After making payments on this account for well over a year, I still had a balance of $506.66. During September I paid this remaining balance in full. I then stopped receiving monthly statements from the company, which I thought was fine because my balance was paid in full. Months later, in December I received a call from a collection agency that told me I owed GE Capital Cons Cardco, the "make checks payable" company of "CareCredit" $104.27. They told me that in September when I had paid the account in full I had been billed a $3.30 monthly maintainence fee that then accrued late fees during the months between September and December. Of course I had never received any statements or bills in September requesting the $3.30 that caused the late fees. When I explained this to the collection agency, they told me they would reduced the amount to $70.97 if I would pay that amount in full, or the bill would remain on my credit as a bad debt. So I gritted my teeth and sent them the $70.97. Then in late January, I received a new bill from CareCredit for about $30. Funny though how they couldn't have sent me a bill in September, November or December, but then once the account is settled through a collection agency and my balance should again be zero, THEN THEY BILLED ME AGAIN.
Determined not to let them get the better of me, I sent them the damn money, including an overpayment so that some lousey $3.30 wouldn't get me again like the first time. After they received my overpayment of $35.00, they sent me back a statement that showed where the collection agency dispute had settled in a refund of the $3.30 "maintenence" fee, but they of course kept all the "late fees" that had accrued from them not sending me the bill for the $3.30 and I so stupidly paid to get them off my credit records. This company was a scam through and through. I literally had to pay them off three times just to settle the account. GE Capital should be ashamed of these practice, and reflect long and hard on the misfortunes of Enron.
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