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• Divorce mother of two stuggling with credit card debt.

  2 votes

  Posted June 08, 2008 by Lcs846

  To whom it may concern
  My name is Lorna Lucas of NEW YORK and I am dealing with credit card debt and interest rate hikes from these company and try to work out payment plan to get read of the bill but the interest rate and the unexpected fee that keep on adding each month to these bill it was like no payment were been made please help people like myself to stop these interest rate by these company.

  Thank You
  Lorna Lucas

• Credit Card Paid On Time; Assessed Late Fee Anyway

  1 vote

  Posted March 13, 2008 by EileenQ

  During the Christmas holidays, I paid my bills 10 days early both to avoid any postal delays due to increased holiday mail and because I was going out of town.

  In January, I was quite surprised to open my Costco bill to see that I was charged a late fee, even though my balance appeared to be cleared. Baffled I called Costco customer service and was told that they had gotten my check, but it was past the due date.

  I had no way of proving that I had mailed the check way in advance of the due date and they had no way of proving they had received it well past the due date.

  What was interesting, though, was how quickly they reversed the charge. They didn't hesitate to credit the late fee. This made me suspicious. I had the feeling that they had done this to a lot of people and anyone who called them on it, quickly got the relief they were requesting.

• A Fee to Pay On Time

  1 vote

  Posted March 13, 2008 by EileenQ

  My credit card bill was due on Sunday. I went to the bank on Saturday with my check to pay the bill before Sunday, but was told that the bank, though open, would not process my check until Monday, at which time my payment would be considered late, and I would be charged a $39 late fee, but interest on the balance.

  When I said I could have money wired from my checking account to cover the balance, I was told that the bank would charge me $25 to accept the money b/c I banked with a different bank than the one that carried my credit card.

  No matter what I had to pay the bank extra money just because the payment date fell on a Sunday. I found this outrageous.

• Annual fee added after the fact

  5 votes

  Posted February 03, 2008 by bamon

  I signed up for a credit card years ago. Right after January 1, 2008 I noticed an annual fee charge on my statement. I guess they changed their policy and charged me an annual fee, without me knowing. I called and complained and they removed it.

• Short a few dollars

  3 votes

  Posted February 03, 2008 by opentodifference

  On a recent credit card bill, I was short $64.52 in payment. I was then charged $38.04 in finance charges. This is more than half of what I didn't pay. I still don't understand what happened. I called them and they lowered my interest rate from 22% to 16%, but I still had to pay the charges. It could have been a lot worse; imagine if I was short $300 or $1,000 dollars, but still. It doesn't make any sense.

• I got charged 90 days too early!

  3 votes

  Posted February 03, 2008 by KSchrader

  I bought a new computer and applied to have my credit card charged 90 days later, and I knew I'd have the money to pay for it in 90 days. They charged my credit card immediately, and I paid as much as I could, but with the interest rate and a few other charges, I'm still trying to pay it off. I pay more than the minimum payment each month, but it's taking much longer than I anticipated.

• Fees on top of fees, plus interest!

  2 votes

  Posted February 02, 2008 by cmozen

  My credit card company was bought out by another bank. They decided to charge an annual fee (the old card did not have a fee.) In the meantime, I moved apartments and forgot to change the address of the card because I never used it and kept it for emergencies only. The credit card company charged me a new annual fee for having the card and sent me a bill for it. However, I never got the bill. So, I never paid it and the annual fee due was late, so I was charged a late fee. And on top of the late fee and the annual fee, I was charged interest. This went on for several months. I never would have known except I looked at my credit report and was shocked. I had months of fees and interest totaling hundreds of dollars for nothing I even bought! I was able to have the fees and interest reversed, but I still can't believe it took ages to clear up charges for nothing I bought. Needless to say, it still looks bad on my credit!

• Over the limit thanks to "annual fees"

  3 votes

  Posted January 31, 2008 by csieloff

  I was not notified of when I would receive the "annual fee" on a credit card. It put me over the limit, and then I received a penalty fee because my card was over the limit.

• Uneducated about how to earn credit

  4 votes

  Posted January 31, 2008 by bcharlton

  While it may not seem like a horror story because I had no financial penalty, I was offered credit and used it for 6 years without a firm understanding of how to earn credit. I opened a new account thinking that would raise my FICO score only to learn my score actually dropped due to having a new account. Young people need more education about how to earn credit, what effects their FICO score, and how serious identity theft can be.

• Washington Mutual Credit Card

  18 votes

  Posted January 09, 2008 by pjsurette

  I was paying my Washington Mutual credit card every month and heard about the universal default that credit card companies were imposing on their customers. I thought I was being pretty vigilant about scrutinizing my bills and then I noticed that my interest rate spiked from 15% to 28.9%. I called Washington Mutual for an explanation and they told me they sent me a notice advising that this rate increase would take effect. I asked them to send the notice again. Apparently they had put a tiny sentence on my monthly statement advising of this change and didn't send it as a separate notice. I think if companies are going to make such a drastic change to your financial well being, then they should be required to draft this change in a separate mailing and not try to squeeze it in with your monthly statement hoping that you don't see it and therefore, won't be able to opt out within the required timeframe. They are very deceptive and are basically robbing us of our money.