Earlier this year, my girlfriend was laid off. I have been supporting the both of us on my modest paycheck. As such, the costs of
paying for a house, expenses, and various insurances are nearly exceeding my income. So when needed, I have been using a 5.9% APR credit card. This card has a low limit, and I did not realize when I had exceeded it until it was declined at a restaurant. Fortunately, I have another card which has a very high limit, and which I keep around for situations where my other card doesn't work for whatever reason.
I called FIA Card Services and found out the limit had been exceeded on the 5.9% card, so I asked representative (ID # 90VTATLU) to
simply reallocate funds from the high limit card to the lower limit one. She did so easily, however she informed me that because I had gone overlimit, my new APR was somewhere around 22%. The representative then said that because I had been a customer for 5 years and had never missed a payment, that she would refund the charge and reset the APR.
Fast forward to today, where I see I'm nearing the limit again and ask to reallocate credit from the high limit card to the lower one. The representative does this for me, then mentions that the APR for the lower limit card is still 22%. After numerous transfers (including one person picking up, saying "Hello?" and not introducing themselves, then immediately hanging up), I was put in touch with Mark Gillespie, a "senior account specialist" or some such nonsense.
Mark Gillespie of FIA Card Services was able to locate a note about the conversation I had had where the issue was supposed to have been resolved, but of course the representative had never fixed the APR or reversed the charge, nor had she notated that she had agreed to do so. Mark Gillespie then told me that he would be unable to produce a recording of the conversation that had taken place, so it was now my word against representative # 90VTATLU.
I was very upset at this point. Mark Gillespie of FIA Card Services said that the only solution was to run a report and see if he
could lower my APR using that information. I told Mark numerous times that I did not want to have a report run, but he stated that he could not assist me unless he did so. At NO point did Mark Gillespie state that there could be any negative consequences of running his report, nor did he state that he would be running a credit inquiry on me.
After running the report, Mark Gillespie declared that because the report showed I had high outstanding debt, he was going to cut all of my FIA Card Services credit limits down to the balance owed, with no breathing room. And just like that, he wiped out an additional $25,000 of credit that I had on my secondary card (and wiped out the $10,000 I had just reallocated to the lower limit card). I am now just a few dollars beneath the limit for these cards, and I cannot afford to pay my bills and make payments on a 22% APR card while supporting two people. My hope was that with my girlfriend's job returning in the fall, my financial burden was going to be eased and I could pay everything down. Now, Mark Gillespie's actions may well ruin my life and my girlfriend's life.
This is no way to treat a consumer who has been loyal for five years. FIA Card Services should be ashamed of itself for these
underhanded tactics, willfully screwing consumers during the worst recession of our lives. I was blatantly lied to by FIA Card Services'
Representative ID# 90VTATLU, and FIA Card Services' Mark Gillespie lied to me about the need to run a report, omitted the fact that he would be running an official credit report, and never mentioned any potential consequences of the report. I did not authorize this, and I am now deeply personally affected by his malicious actions. Why am I being made to suffer because one of FIA Card Services' employees lied to me about lowering my APR? And when trying to get the problem solved, why am I then further punished by having my credit limits reduced to the balance owed?
I pray to anyone who can help me in this situation to please right this by contacting the appropriate people at FIA Card Services, who
desperately need to retrain their employees on disclosure and customer service. If anyone can help me, please, I am a hard-working man trying to start a family. Let FIA Card Services know they have some bad apples that need removed, and that a loyal customer is being punished for no reason.
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