This was my very first credit card from the time i turned 18. Im 23 as of now. I was never late on any credit card payment for about 4 years and paid well over the minimum payment every month. Like every college student, we have our expenses to pay including tuition and books. And that was strictly the majority of what i used it for.
I started at around a 7-8% interest rate with $1500 limit. Toward the beginning of the fourth year of my credit card at 22 years old, I owed them around $4500 with a 25% interest rate. I couldnt continue to make payments around June. The minimum payment was around $120 and i was making payments of $200 or more also having to worry about gas, food, rent, and paying off my college what i still owed them in what i couldnt afford in loans. We're in a recession and my had little hours at my job and going to college. This left me no money at all for personal expenses.
The worst part is that the $200 that i paid every month, $90 ($3 a day for a month was deducted from my account) was charged in interest every month, then an additional $10 for making my payments online instead of by mail. And i would attempt to look at my statements online but all transactions were basically wiped out and i couldnt see what i was being charged for, even the little expenses i made for a snack for school and whatnot.
I called 1FBUSA with horrible customer service asking them why i couldnt view my transactions. Theyre response was, "You can see your transactions when you get your statement in the mail." I really couldnt afford to do this every month so i called First Financial Bank with an attempt to lower my interest twice to speak to different representatives. Their response was, "Due to the current state of the economy, we can not lower your interest rates." I asked to speak to a manager or someone in charge, they gave me the same response.
Around June to July I decided to stop making payments in order to negotiate something with them. Ever since then, they called me on my phone every day and i refused to answer. Then they called my stepmom, my stepsister, my brothers girlfriend, the house, and even my work everyday. They constantly sent letters about twice a week. They sent me letters of deciding to cut my $5,060 debt in half with their debt plans:
-I can pay them off $2600 if i make 2 monthly payments of $1300.
-or pay $400 a month for a year to pay them off the $5000
Honestly what kind of college student will have $2600 to pay in 2 months? The other catch was that I needed to make a payment of $127 to sign up for their payment plans. Very convenient for them on their part, right?
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