I am not sure where to begin with this SCAM company. I had an account with Speigel. My account was always paid and I never incurred any late fees until... Spiegel filed Bankruptcy.
I know that sometimes companies have to do this and I hold no grudge with Spiegel. As a matter of fact they still send me catalogs and gift cards to shop with them (of course I don't use them but this leads me to think that they have no clue what hell I am going through with my credit card account)
I stopped getting my bill in the mail for about three months I called the number on my card and I was informed that if I made a payment over the phone it would cost me $10 more for each payment. I didn't want to do that since it wasn't my fault that my bills weren't sent to me. The rep I talked to said that they would send out my statment copy and that I should get it in a few days. It never came. A month or two later the calls started, some up to 15 times a day. I would talk to one person and and then 20 min. Later a rude person would be on the other line telling me the same thing. I told them I just talked to them and they would get smart and yell you NEVER talked to me.
After a while I just stopped answering the phone. I would get lucky sometimes and they would call with a real number (the caller id didn't show unknown caller) so I started blocking their calls. I am happy to say that my 75 calls a day (no joke my caller id kept track of it all) has dwindled down to about 3 a week now.
I would send in a payment with my statement and I would still get charged the $35 over the limit fee. Then about a few months later I started getting a $35 over the limit fee and a $35 late fee charged to my account. I called and they never would take this off. I explained to them that I would never get out of the red if I would make my $50 min payment but get charged $70 every month, I was in the hole $20 after making my payment. I started mailing my payment the same day I got the statment and I was still charged the $70. I started to look closer to my bill and I noticed that it didn't even have a due date listed. It just stated over the limit must pay now. I would make the payment the same day and I was still over the limit due to the fact that they stated I was late. It was a ruthless cycle. I pay and they over charge me. I did get a few nice phone reps who treated me with respect and wouldn't talk to me like I was trying to rip them off but they never could get anything changed.
Anyway, I stopped getting bills again and started getting nasty letters stating that I owed them the full amount in 15 days etc... I would send them a payment and then two months later they would send me another letter for the same amount due, my payment didn't count (even though they cashed it) due to the fact that the over the limit fees and late charges ate it up. After about a year of throwing my money away I just said enough I stopped feeling the stress from the letters and started telling them that they were cashing what I sent so they had to deal with that amount. It worked but of course I never got ahead. I was just buying off time. So I admit I stopped paying. I figured why make $50 to $75 dollar payments to an acount that kept going up each time and only $3 to $5 was going to the balance. I tried to talk to them and work it out with them but what ever was said over the phone never applied on the bill.
Now today I got a letter stating that as follows:
Dear XXXXX XXXXX
The card processing center is pleased to offer you a special settlement program. We will consider your account settled if you pay 70% of the outstanding balance, which will be $1,154.44 (funny I only started with a $300 credit limit) You may send one lump sum payment of the requested amount with in 30 days to settle your account. We also offer a three payment plan totaling the requested amount over a 90 day period. Please call to dicuss the details of this settlement payment plan. (I called they
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