On 10-31-08 I was contacted by a payment collector for At&t universal card, I was late 15 days making the payment.
My normal payment is around $70. The Lady I spoke to on the phone (Michelle) asked me if I could make a payment to bring the account current. I said yes, I had just forgot to make the payment due to moving. She the amount was $470!
I asked her how could that be? She said that I have had a late fee and several over the limit fees. I told her my credit limit was $16,000 and my balance was approx. $5300. She replied, "Your limit is $5370 and your balance is $5464.04".
She was very nice, and looked to see when the credit limit was changed. She told me that it had changed on 10-18-08.
This was 3 day before the billing cycle ended. Citi had lowered my credit limit to my balance owed, charged me finance fee to put me above the limit, added a late fee (my fault) which pushed above the limit again, then increased the APR to 28.9%.
I paid $156.23 to bring account current. Michelle could not help me further, she only collected payments. She gave me the number to customer service.
I called customer service and after 1 hour on the phone arguing with them, they stated they would waive the over the limit fee's. The customer service rep. Said the limit was lowered because of something derogatory on my credit report, then she asked if I knew anything that it could be. Of course I knew, It was my house that is being foreclosed on.
Citigroup found out I was having financial difficulties somewhere else. Took that information, then used some very unscrupulous tactics to justify lowering my credit limit to the point that finance charges would trigger a over the limit fee. Raise my APR to 28.9% from a low 6.99% fixed until balance paid
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