My boyfriend & I purchased a diamond ring (for me) in Feb 09 from the Helzberg store in the local mall. We paid aprox $1500 down & got a Helzberg credit card for the balance of $1500. We were making extra payments because my boyfriend was being deployed in the summer 09. We noticed the balance was not being reduced as quickly as we wanted so in July we decided to payoff the balance before he was deployed & sent in an internet payment of aprox $1350.
The next day I checked online to make sure the account was paid in full & noticed a $10.00 fee. I paid this $10.00 that day.
About six weeks later I got an email on an overdue balance for this accout it was $30.00. I checked online & had $20.00 fees & a late charge... I called & was told that we were being charged a $10/month credit life insurance charge & a $10/month identity protection charge on a zero balance account. When I told them we had paid off the balance 6 weeks ago they said that I had to cancel the life insurance & the identity protection or else they would keep billing us. So I cancelled the life insurance & the identity protection that day & paid the $30.00 late bill.
A few months later I again received a late notice for about $40.00 - The same as above... I called & was told that I had to cancel the credit card or else I would keep getting the $20./monthly charges interest (& now, late fees) I cancelled the credit card & paid the $40.00.
I made copies of everything & took them to the mall store. They apologized & said that they don't have anything to do with the credit card company. They did make some calls & finally I got a refund for about $30.00
We had to make several calls & had a lot of trouble from all this - needless to say we will not be using this store or their credit services ever again. This whole thing took several months to straighten out & I found out that when I cancelled the credit card I couldn't access the online account - so I didn't know what was happening to the balance. This card had a high interest rate & lots of fees - this was the first time we ever used financing & learned a hard lesson. Besides this credit trouble, we learned that the quality of the ring is poor & I've already had to have it re-plated.
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