A letter arrived from capitol one about two years ago offering me a deal i could not refuse. I had stopped paying a loan to beneficial finance company in san francisco after i was laid off from my city job of only five months. Loan was made on 12/24/96 for $1068.08 by beneficial finance.
I reported the loss of my job immediately to beneficial and my other creditors, and to my bank. I was disabled before i was hired and continued to be disabled. I learned no one one hire me when i reached 58 years of age in 1998. I was living on ssi disability insurance.in expensive san francisco many people have ended up homeless after being evicted because the rents, food and medical cost is so high - and i had a disability, needed medication every month, and was also being treated for my illness.
I did not single out beneficial finance.in my case of financial disaster, my income was smaller than my debts. To keep from becoming homeless while reaching 60 years of age and with a disability, i did not pay my debts to survive. I ended up living in public housing. I still live in public housing but in a senior building. I am ashame to admit it, but when there is no husband or family, this is what single old women have to live through.
The proposal from capitol one was to give me a badly needed credit card. I could not rent a movie at a video store without a credit card. I could not get an internet account without a credit card, it is only in recent times that some companies charge you via the telephone account. Most of them want you to have a credit card. I could not purchase items from the home shopping network without a credit card if there was flex-payment involved, otherwise i had to pay the total amount or the item would be sold to someone else. I knew i would eventually need a credit card in order to start a home-base business or an e-commerce business.
Capitol one offered me an offer i could not refuse.
When i stop making payments to beneficial finance, i had already paid them over half of the $1068.08 loan. I also had paid for loan insurance in case i loss my job. I have no idea what happen about the loan insurance i requested and paid for to secure the loan to this day. I never got a straight answer from beneficial finance.
Capitol one purchased my loan from beneficial finance, and the balance at the time was for $1800. I refuted that amount to capitol one and told them i only owed in 1998 about $600.00. They told me penalties and interests had accrued through the years and the loan became $1800 instead of $600.
I was told that i would get a credit card for $1800 from capitol one. $900 would be to pay the money left unpaid to beneficial which capitol one purchased. $900 is over the amount i left u paid. The incentive to accept the offer was to receive $900 credit line for myself.
This was an offer i could not refuse. As an example as i am still paying the debt to capitol one to this very month of april of i would send a payment of $100 to capitol one, and $50 would apply to the $900 settled for the original debt to beneficial, excluding the majority of the interests and penalties that were originally attached to the debt after 1998.
Insted of the debt going down two years later, the debt is $1,124.00 today. I cannot purchase more than $40 worth of items. My other $50 dollars goes to finance charges, late fees, or over the limit fees when applicable. I barely get to use the card for my own use because of all of these little tricks that keeps the card going over the limit.
I received offers from capitol one to purchase merchandise they are offering for free continually, however, i have to make sure that there is enough money in the card to cover shipping and handling. The items i purchase through capitol one are not send out all in one package, they are sent out in different months.By then i have forgotten about the items i ordered and the shipping and handling cost of $4.00. If my balance is up to $889, the $4.00 shipping and handling charge with bring the card over-the-limit. To stop that system use by capitol one, i had to give up purchasing free merchadise, to avoid the shipping and handling cost on my card.in some cases, the free item offered by capitol one ended up costing me $25.00 in over-the-limit fees.
I also notice that when i mailed my payment on the 3rd of the month, they would claim the payment had not been processed by the due date of the 9th of the month. To stop those late fees, i asked for a later due date of three weeks from the receipt of my ssi disability check on each 3rd day of the month. I felt that if i mailed via priority mail a check on each 3rd of the month, the payment should have been received within five business days. However, this was not happening according to capitol one.
I wrote a long letter asking for a re-evaluation of my case, because i was not suppose to pay $1800, only $900 for the old debt to beneficial. Capitol one did not respond to my written request.
My account will be three years old september and i am still in debt for $1,124.88 paying $100 per month and using less than $20-$30 from time-to-time on the visa card. I never got to spend $900 of the credit line offered to me by capitol one 2-1/2 years ago.
I had no idea that capitol one was a collection agency until i visited the internet site looking for an e-mail address for capitol one to send them an e-mail. My printer broke down and cannot afford to buy another printer. This means i have to send e-mails to people i need to contact.
I am now re-evaluating my $100 a month payment to capitol one. The visa card through capitol one has become a very expensive credit card to me that was suppose to start with $900 still due, but they left the full amount of interest and penalty charges on the $600 unpaid loan of 1998.
If i had waited, in seven years from 1998 i would have not had to pay it and i could have arranged with beneficial to remove the interests and penalty fees to pay the $600 debt.
Yes, i was rippoff by capitol one to get me involved in paying $1800 instead of $900 as offered to me.
Mirna
SAN FRANCISCO, California
U.S.A.
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