Did anybody see the "Frontline" program on PBS last month entitled "Poverty, Inc."? This card is what these shameless exploiters of the poor cheerfully call a "fee-gathering" credit card. "Fee-pigging" or "fee-hogging" would be a more appropriate term for the card these porcine criminal predators issue...
There is the $200 "processing fee, " the $50 "annual" fee, the $12 monthly "maintenance" fee and perhaps most infuriating of all, the $4 "internet payment" fee or $10 "pay-by-phone" fee. You pay $4 for the privilege of paying your bill instantly and doing their work for them.
What is the only way you can pay your bill without charge? By sending them a check in the mail. That's right - the slowest, least reliable method, the one that has the highest probability of being late or lost, the one they can hold for up to SEVEN days after receipt - that's the one that's free. Because that's the method most likely to "gather" their usurious, larcenous "Late Payment Fee" ($35) or "Over Limit" Fee ($35).
Don't believe their pious, laughable laughable nonsense about "helping consumers rebuild their credit." They are doing you NO FAVORS. What else do you call paying $435 a year for being able to charge $180 in goods and services? You can't even use this card to "pay at the pump" because all debit cards have to be approved for $300 BEFORE you pump. If you pay your bill online and on time every month your credit limit will ALWAYS be $296 because of their "internet payment fee."
Last but not least, there is their "every six month $100 credit increase" if you pay your bill on time every month. This so-called "consumer benefit" is automatic - you have the option to "opt out" of this and I would very much advise that you do so. Why? You guessed it - every time, your "$100" credit increase is just $75 - after their $25 "credit line increase" fee.
Yes, at other banks a credit line increase is something you can earn by doing the responsible thing and demonstrating your trustworthiness over time. With the greedy jackals at Continental Finance, it's just yet another way of sucking you dry and making you more likely to become one of their "Golden" 24.75% interest rate "Penalty Pricing" chumps - er, "customers."
Make no mistake, folks - the only thing "Gold" about this card is the amount of it these vile robber-barons make off the backs of the working poor who are unfortunate enough to have both bad credit and bad judgement.
If you are trying to repair your credit history and don't mind being raped by one outrageous fee after another in order to carry a worthless card with a laughable, useless credit limit, then this is the card for you.
Otherwise, stay the hell away.
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