I had been making monthly payments of $500 to Bank One. Of that amount, $179 was interest. All of the sudden I received my bill last May and noticed that the "interest alone" being charged had risen to $500/month reflecting a rate of 27.99%!
I called Bank One and was informed that they ran a credit report in January and because I had other high balances they sent me a letter stating that I could close my account and pay it off at my current interest rate, or if I decided to keep the account the interest rate would rise to 27.99%. I explained to them that since I had moved I had numerous problems with my mail during Jan. And Fed. Of 2004. Several items that were sent to me by personal acquaintances never arrived. I told them that I never received such a letter. (I noticed one posting said their letter or pamphlet looked like junk mail and I am wondering if they do that on purpose so consumers won't notice and they are then free to inflate interest rates.)
I had not missed any payments to them (and they admitted I had awesome credit) and asked that the account be reinstated as before and I would continue to pay. They told me they could not reduce the rate. I wrote a letter and told them that I could not afford to pay more than the $500 I had been paying and I had no intention of throwing away $500 every month when it would never reach the principal.
I replied to every letter I received from Bank One to no avail. One of their reps called me about the money due and I told them about my letters. He said my letters were going into a black hole. There was no record of them in my file.
To make a long story short, I got a call from them yesterday (5 months later!) saying they had a plan and wanted to help me get caught up and could perhaps reduce my interest rate.
WHY couldn't they have done that from the start?! I told them that I was sure people said they didn't get their notices when they were mailed, but I truly did NOT get a notice from them. I suggested that if they had the manpower to harrass people constantly over past due balances then perhaps that energy could be put to better use on the other end and they should consider calling their customers as a courtesy to ensure they had received notices and explain to them what was at stake. At the very least they could send this kind of info out as certified mail!
These people are legally illegal at best! If there's another class action lawsuit out there anywhere I would like to be included in it!
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