6 months ago CIC Triple Advantage started billing my Bank of America MasterCard account for $12.95 per month credit report services. The charge blended in with the other transactions on the statements... Similar amounts... Couple of months go when I didn't use the plastic thinking I'm paid up... Leave it in the IN box, file it later.
Since I don't use my credit card much, sometimes for months, I see no need to check statements received for months that I didn't make any charges to it. I keep my balance paid off, there's NOT supposed to be any other charges applied to that account, so the balance is SUPPOSED to be ZERO.
What's the point of processing and filing a statement for ZERO dollars?
Stupid me didn't notice for 6 months that I was being charged from a company I never heard of. This kind of thing has happened before and seems to be happening more and more all the time. Proposals for "new trial offers" sanctioned by BOA can come in the mail. Or by way of phone solicitors. If you don't explicitly say NO and send written correspondence within a specified time frame rejecting the free offer, the "new trial offer" becomes embedded in you bill as a monthly charge. This is As far as I know, BOA most likely initiated and provided the means for Consumerinfo to start fleecing me. However, BOA is not the target for this usacomplaints.com, another for them will be filed.
I really have no idea to how I could have decided that I needed the option to get a monthly report of my credit score from freecreditreport.com and would gladly add an additional $12.95 to my statement.
Who would want or need to get a credit report on themselves every month, month after month?
It has taken me multiple phone calls and 2 months to get CIC to cancel my so called "account" with them. CIC will certainly open an account on-line but won't cancel an account on-line for "security" purposes! Calling their toll free number list on my bill gets an automated system that leaves you hanging endlessly on hold.
If you expect to cancel your account, be sure to set aside at least 2 hours to be on hold.
I ended up calling Bank of America wanting a reversal on the CIC charges and try to get BOA to drop their related fees for those months. BOA will not process disputes on charges willingly.instead the Bank of America's Customer Service Rep insisted on "helping" me contact CIC to "take care of it". I did get a little satisfaction in making one of Bank of America's CSRs endure 2 entire repeats of Brahm's Wedding March before the CIC rep finally picked up the line.
So now we're on a three-way conference call, I'm demanding a refund from CIC or somebody. Bank of America's Customer Service Rep still trying act clueless as to what my problem is.
I have to repeat what my problem is... I want to know how this started since I didn't authorize it and I wanted refunds for the charges.
CIC Triple Advantage declares that I authorized it and the fact that they had my account number was proof enough!
CIC informed me that since I canceled a few days shy of their billing cycle I wasn't entitled a refund.
The BOA Customer Service Rep made a feeble request for a refund which was refused... Not CIC policy to issue refunds!
The BOA Customer Service Rep stated that was all she could do and asked if there was anything else she could help me with. I replied "I'm not done with this" and hung up on both of them.
A couple of years ago, BOA called me at home to inform be that there was an attempt by some Russian hackers to make a fraudulent charge to my account. It involved $10.00. Boy Howdy, BOA was all over that with the big guns AND in the middle of the night! Plus made sure I was alerted, plus an explanation of some extra entries that would appear on my next statement.
This CIC thing so far has cost me around $150 out of pocket and at least 6 hours of my time.in researching my options I found that I should now demand that Bank of America assist me with filing the dispute in accordance with Federal Mandate E.
Westexjoe
Mineral Wells, Texas
U.S.A.
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