In February, NextBank officially went bankrupt.
On July 2, the FDIC announced that it brokered the sale of 200,000 NextBank NextCard credfit card accounts to Merrick Bank, located in Utah.
Within several months, cardholders received letters from Merrick Bank welcoming them as custopmers. This welcome letter included new terms that were always consideraby higher than the previous terms of the NextCard, with rates that are actually illegal in many states - 29.7% and $120 annual fees is the norm.
Right now, these cardholders are receiving their first bills. For those who did not receive the letters or who glossed over six pages of fine print, they are hearing about this for the first time. However, even if they heard about it before, nothing could have been done then or now but to accept the new rates.
The only recourse according to Merrick Bank is to pay the balance off in full. Those unable or unwilling to do so are stuck with these incredibly high interest rates and annual fees and cannot do anything about it - even cancelling the account will not protect thw account holder from these rates and annual fees unless the balance is paid in full. The option to pay off the balance under the old terms is not offered by Merrick Bank.
I can't believe that it's legal for a company you never heard of to hold you to rates you would never agree to, but if it is, that needs to be changed immediately.
This is where the 200,000 affected card holders can discuss strategies through which justics can be served!
Brian
Columbus, Ohio
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