Radio Shack / Citi Bank
Late fees on $2300 of purchases grew into $3500 debt

A little over ten years ago I bought a computer at Radio Shack. I was paying for it along with a few other items, and the total cost came to about $2300. Because of how much debt I carried, I sometimes could not pay everything on time, so some of those payments were late.

When the account should have been close to paid off, my statements showed that my balance was $3500. I had already paid roughly $2900 toward the $2300 I originally owed. I asked about it, and a Citi Bank representative said the extra amount came from penalties and charges added for late payments. I could not grasp it then, and I still cannot see how anyone can answer a person who struggles to pay a bill by piling more debt on them. It does not discourage or punish anyone effectively, and it is not moral either.

I tried to adjust and keep paying, but I found that I could not. I asked them to work out some arrangement, yet they sent me to a collection agency instead. The agency demanded payment of the amount owed, lowered but still far above the original purchase price. I refused, and I still refuse until this goes before a court. I wanted to know whether loan sharking is legal, and whether this is what our soldiers, sailors and airmen and airwomen know they are sacrificing their lives, time and youth to defend. Since then I have been handed from one collector to another.

I have come to see this as the strategy of predatory lenders: they pressure the people they have victimized into paying, choking their credit standing until they collect their ill-gotten gains. I now wonder whether they will be among the irresponsible crooks heading to Washington with hands out, expecting the people they harmed to rescue them. Like hired muscle, collection agencies can sell debts again and again, and keep reporting you to the credit bureaus with no end date. Debt is a financial business.

Company: Radio Shack / Citi Bank
Country: USA
State: South Carolina
City: Sumter
Address: Jasmine Mall

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