triviageek

I promised that I would explain about the WORST most CROOKED Credit Card company, so finally here is:

How can I explain what the WORST most CROOKED Credit Card company did to me?

Ummm, I got a phone call from one of their employees -- those annoying people who call to "remind" you that a payment is due. If you've never had one of these people phone you, count yourself lucky.

As it happened, I had already mailed the payment that the person was hassling me to send. In fact, I'd mailed it about a week before that fateful phone call.

Well these people DO NOT BELIEVE ANYTHING YOU SAY AND WORSE STILL THEY LIE THRU THEIR TEETH!

This one said the payment had not been received.

I said give it a little more time.

Whereupon this person insisted that enough time had already elapsed and that I needed to mail another payment.

Well I was struggling financially, and while I had had enough money to make the minimum payment to them, I did NOT have enough money to double the amount by paying again. So I told the person that if the payment I had already made were really missing, then I would have to stop payment on that check and make out a replacement check. (Which incidentally would have to be less than the amount of the first since there was a hefty stop payment fee to be paid now.)

The persons insisted that I needed to mail the second check.

I finally said, "OK, but do not deposit the first check, if it should show up, because it would bounce due to the stop payment order". I also added that I did not want them to hold me responsible for stopping payment since THEY were the ones insisting that the check was lost and that I needed to send another.

After the phone call ended, I did what I had said. I stopped payment on the first check and wrote another check for the original amount minus the stop check fee and mailed it overnight express from the post office.

Two days later the credit card company deposited the first check (against my orders) and of course it bounced.

And the credit card company added a penalty fee to what I already owed -- for giving them a "bad check".

And I got another phone call saying that I needed to send them a payment.

When I told them I'd express mailed the replacement payment, this person claimed that it hadn't been received.

ARGH.

A quick check with the post office verified that it had been delivered.

The credit card company still insisted that it had never been received.

True, they hadn't *YET* deposited the check, it was obvious that they were waiting
for me to stop payment on the second "lost" payment so that they could attach a
SECOND BAD CHECK PENALTY FEE!

This time I was smarter and refused to stop payment on the second check.

So they never deposited it. ... EVER.

After six months the check supposedly became no good (according to my bank). Not that I trusted that credit card company by that point.

In the intervening six months I had received several calls and when I had THEIR EMPLOYEES check with the post office, that person would shut up, only to be replaced by a new collection agent and the process would be repeated.

Of course I had made some other payments during that time too, but I never sent another replacement for those "lost checks" that they claimed they had never received. And of course they tacked on as many penalties and late charges as they could think of during that time as well as doing everything in their power to ruin my credit history. Nevermind that they had set off the whole problem in the first place.

But I had learned that they were the most dishonest lying credit card company in existence.

And I stopped using their credit card for new purchases.

Eventually I paid off the whole balance. (How I was able to fully pay it off without their noticing what I was doing, is another story for some other blog entry.)