It's funny when the actual "bank" or "finance company" are actually the bank robbers themselves.
My story goes much the same as others I've read on this report, I was offered on internet this mastercard and I thought it would be a great way to re-establish my own credit. The offer was for the 300.00 mastercard, and I knew payments were going to be 50.00 per month. The finance charge of 188.00 is outragous.
What makes this all the more confusing, is when you call the automated account line (entering in your account # and zip code) you hear a higher balance and the CSR's will tell you that technically that IS YOUR money, but not available to you if you are one day late, or if the all of the various and sundry finance and other fees and debits are paid. Then I suppose possibly that one MAY have an available credit line of 300.00.
What a price to pay for a 300.00 Mastercard. The calls from the very rude CSR's (I advised CFC that they should train the collectors to read the previous calls before speaking with the customer so I don't have to go thru it all over again.) I worked for several years as a CSR and also in Banking for 15 years, I've never in my life seen ANYTHING like this or have been HOUNDED by collectors day and night. I can't prove it, but I believe some of the early morning calls or late night (9:30) calls do not comply with rules that have been set for collectors.
I emailed Beverly Knotts in Customer Relations (!) and here was her reply:
"Once your complaint has been forwarded by the BBB I will respond accordingly. I do want to make one statement though, the Continental Finance MasterCard is not, and has never been, a secured MasterCard. This is an unsecured with certain fees for the Issuance or availability of credit to those individuals who have demonstrated poor payment history to other creditors in the past. Our entire fee structure and total payment amounts were clearly outlined in the Terms & Conditions that you were required to read and electronically accept prior to the submission of your application. Additionally, these terms were listed in the MasterCard Cardholder Agreement that accompanied your card, and were also disclosed to you during the activation process. This supporting documentation will be included for your reference with our response to the BBB."
I'd like to find anyone who is filing suit against Continental so I could join in, I expect them to be knocking at my front door any day as I've been so harrassed. I'm 40 years old and I've NEVER IN MY LIFE been treated like this.
The company obviously just "skirt" the laws of credit and collections to stay in business. It amazes me that the BBB rating of the company is "satisfactory".
Just wanted to share and I'm glad I found so many stories exactlly like mine, so I know I that I am not alone in this fight and other people like me tend to succomb to these fraudulent advertisements.
Continental Finance should be ashamed by taking advantage of the middle-class worker who just gets by in life paycheck to paycheck, or whether we should have food or medicine (or gas) or pay all the bills. Shame on continental finance. This is a fight I intend to win if anyone would like to join me.
Liz
Ashland City, Tennessee
U.S.A.
0 comments