I received a call on Monday from a Prime One Benefits representative who spoke broken English, stating I was being issued a Mastercard with a $1000 credit limit and a 9.9% interest rate. I was told I would need to pay $217 by the 23rd of March - but that it would be billed to my new credit card. I was immediately skeptical — most offers come in the mail, not over the phone requesting information.
When she asked for my routing and bank account number I asked why that was necessary and was told they needed to confirm that I actually had a bank account before they could issue the card. I was ASSURED that they wouldn't touch my bank account. When I hesitated, I was told that this information is basically "public knowledge" as it appears on all my checks (I have since found that to be an interesting point but not one that will save your financial behind should you give out these numbers to a company that has the technology to debit your checking account). I was still very skeptical but as I am attempting to rebuild my credit, I went ahead and gave out the numbers anyways (stupid, stupid, stupid — ALWAYS trust your gut!)
Before hanging up, I was told someone would be calling me back within thirty minutes to confirm my decision. As soon as I hung up I had this nagging feeling that I had done something really stupid so I attempted to access the website she had given me, and it would not come up. I attempted to call the customer care number and no one answered. I then looked up "prime one scam" on google and "Lo and behold" this site came up... I had to peel myself off the ceiling. I immediately called my bank and put a PERMANENT stop payment request on this company and all of it's aliases that is good FOREVER ;)
As soon as I was done with this, my phone rang and "guess who" was calling me to confirm a payment to be arranged to come out of my CHECKING account on the 23rd of March? I told them it would be a cold day in hades before they would get any money out of me because it wasn't going to happen. I told them I had put a permanent stop payment on them as well as a watch on my account (I have a GREAT bank!) for any ACH transactions over a certain amount — my bank will call me to verify before putting anything questionable through. The lady said it was cancelled.
Want to hear something funny? The lady who called me the first time actually called me back about two minutes later and asked why I had cancelled the order! I told her she needed to go look her company up on the web and see what crooks they were, that there were over 300 complaints filed against them — she tried to tell me that I couldn't believe everything I saw on the internet (long, loud laughter!). And then she attempted to lecture me about my credit, telling me I would be unable to rebuild my credit without their help! I told her the first order of business was to go learn to speak English before attempting to tell me anything - and to stop calling me because she was wasting my time.
Let us HOPE that I have avoided being financially ripped off - although at this point, these people have taken approximately five hours of my life that I will never get back.
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