A few years ago I purchased a commercial sewing machine to help earn additional money from home. I opened up an account with GE Money Bank which is a fixed rate, until paid off, at 7.99% interest. I have made my monthly payments, two weeks in advance of due date through my banks online bill paying service.in January my fixed payment began going up, seeing as it has not gone into default I was a little concerned.
Of course this company got bailed in in the bank bail outs with our tax dollars, but do they employ Americans? Nope! When you call, after pressing this and that for 15-20 minutes you are greeted by an individual from India that may or may not speak good enough english for you to understand. I wanted to know how my payments had gone from $135 to $185. I was told "You pay, you pay ontime, we no call", he then hung up the phone on me. I admit, I should have called back, but by the time I got this engrish speaking person in India, I had already been on the phone for over an hour and I didn't feel like going through it again.
The following month, my payment went up yet again from $185 to $190. As this account was supposed to be a fixed rate at 7.99% interest as long as I never defaulted, I was concerned with yet another increase. I also read all the fine print on their two page billing notice and found an ever growing balance called "purchases" being charged an interest rate of 29.99% interest and my original balance amount (which had gone down the entire balance of my payment) was under the contract amount of 7.99% interest.
After calling GE Money Bank, same deal as above, I got an agent in India and asked what this 30% interest was, she spoke with such a thick accent, I think she said "no charge 30%, only charge 29.99% interest." I replied with, "I don't call $1.99 a dollar, I call it $2.00"... Again I was corrected and told no charge 30%. What ever, I want to know what purchase I have made for this new balance and why it took them 18 days AFTER the payment was CASHED to apply it to my account. She hung up on me.
Called back in, got a guy who was still in India but had a light accent, asked him what purchase I had made that they were charging this 29.99% interest to. "You pay balance, you no pay interest, interest is new purchase, we charge 29.99% new purchase, you happy no pay till balance gone, we delay. We process payment day we recieve, we take up to 30 days to credit your account, you agree, on statment you read."
OMG, I really want to speak with somone who speaks better english. Anyhow, long story short, my payment has gone up each and every month because GE Money Bank applies my whole payment to the original balance. They then code the interest charges for the cycle as a "purchase", which in this case does not grandfather under my 7.99% interest and allows them to charge me the darn near 30% interest on the 7.99% interest. This is unacceptable to me.
I asked if I could sent in two payments, one for the ever growing payment and one for the interest which they don't credit with the payment so they can charge the higher interest rate to it. After yet another painful call to India, I was told there is no way to pay the new purchase balance being charged the 29.99% interest unless I paid off the original balance as well. They also didn't credit my payment until a full 26 days AFTER they cashed it this month which made it late and they charged me a late fee of $35.00 and yes, that was placed into the "purchases" column and will remain there at 29.99% interest until yet again I pay off the original balance.
Well, I have written letter after letter, followed the address on my two page statment which is
GE Money Bank
P.O. Box 981438
El Paso TX 79998-1438
I wanted to know how they feel cashing my check and taking "up to 30 days to credit my account" after they have cashed it was fair. I wanted the late fee removed as they had cashed my payment to them 9 days prior to the due date. AND I wanted a phone number to somone in the US to speak with as I felt the fact that they only pay down my original balance with my monthly payments and code the interest in each billing cycle as a "purchase" so they don't have to honor my 7.99% interest until balance is paid in full contract.
I have now sent in three letters, three months in a row and have never gotten a phone call or a reason for the way they do business. I did however make someone angry because no matter how far in advance I send in my payment, they take at least 5 days AFTER the due date, no matter how soon they cash my payment through my bank to credit my account. So in addition to them charging the high interest rate for the "interest", they are charging me the $35 per month late fee. This is a rip off! They have the money, they cash it through my bank, it clears and they still don't credit my account because as they say "They don't have to for up to 30 days".
I feel this is against my contract with them, they are playing with my money and charging me late fees when they already have the funds... Anyone else having this problem with their "pre bail out" accounts and their grandfathered contracts?
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