Credit card horror stories
All letters were written in response to our series: Halloween horrors
Bankrate.com

• I swear, my lawyer must have received something from Scary Department Store. We declared Chapter 7 in April 1997. A representative from Scary Department Store was there. We returned many items but were no longer in possession of others. When the Scary representative said will you reaffirm, our lawyer shook his head yes and smiled.

  Scary said our payments would be no more than $50 per month but the bill was $150 each month. Impossible for us to pay, but we are trying.

  Our lawyer skipped town and never gave us copies of the reaffirmation agreements. When I asked Scary for an account of or copies of the agreement so that I knew what we were paying for, they said they couldn't do that. They sent us a printout of everything we had ever purchased at Scary, with no notations as to which were reaffirmed. They also told us that we would have to drive to Tampa to get the copies.

  My husband recently had open-heart surgery and I have Crohn's Disease. It's hard enough to go to the neighborhood supermarket, no less drive to Tampa.

  We don't know what to do. I refused to pay the bills until I knew what I was paying for and they kept on adding late fees. I called so many times I gave up counting and finally gave in and am paying whatever I can. We are desperately trying to rebuild our credit, but Scary has put us into a terrible bind.

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  (Editor's Note: One of our staff writers recently wrote a story on reaffirmation. She suggested this couple start with the Consumer Bankruptcy Assistance Project, 215-981-3774. The office helps put bankruptcy filers in touch with appropriate resources.)

• I'm 41 years old with a perfect credit record. I have had major credit cards for almost 20 years, financed cars, a mortgage, never had a check bounce, am a Platinum member at a frequent flier program and have a master's degree.

  Thus it struck me as a surprise when Jack-O'-Lantern, a Florida department store, refused my application for a charge. Two weeks prior, Ghoul department store gave me a credit card with an $8,000 credit limit over the phone in 10 minutes. Being denied credit I requested my credit report.

  Two weeks later a report of from Frightful credit reporting service  arrived. The report was a joke. Apparently they mixed my credit history with my father's and my brother's. Here's how my report looked:

  1) That I am married -- I'm not, never was. They listed my brother's wife as my wife.
  2) They listed me as having four Social Security numbers: Two of them belonged to my father and brother, respectively, and a third one to somebody I don't know.
  3) They listed me as having more than one mortgage: my brother's mortgage was listed as mine, and my own wasn't even listed!
  4) My date of birth was wrong (it was my brother's).
  5) They listed credit cards and bank accounts that I never had.
  6) They listed financed loans at stores that I never had.
  7) They listed me as living (and having rented) at places I have never seen!
  8) They list me as employed in a hospital (which I am not, and never was).
  9) They list a church that I'm a member, which I am not.

  Luckily, my brother and my father have a very clean credit history, too. Any institutions checking my credit history at Frightful will probably not grant me credit because I look like a crook and a liar. I informed Frightful of the mistakes in my credit report and I hope they will clean it up.

  I think the ultimate goal of these agencies is to help businesses give credit to responsible citizens, and deny it to crooks, con artists, cheaters, etc. But if the credit reports are [tracked] in an irresponsible way, the credit will be denied to people who deserve it, and may be even damaging somebody's image.

• I responded to Broomstick's credit card teaser interest rate and fully understood and accepted that after the interim the rate would go up to 18 percent. Even though my balance hovered near the limit, it never exceeded it and my payments were always on time. Shortly after, I got a notice that my annual percentage rate was being bumped up to almost 25 percent! When I inquired, they said that my credit reports showed my debt-to-income ratio was getting high. I acknowledged this, but also reasoned that all my obligations were being met so what is the problem? Their response was that if I did not like it I could always pay off and close this account. And that is what I did -- PROMPTLY. I do not think it is right that these credit card companies can penalize their cardholders when there has been no infraction. I also found that Broomstick has been requesting monthly updates from one of the credit reporting agencies.

• As I started to pay my bills, I picked up the phone to get the balance on a credit card that my son and I shared. He's a senior at Florida State University. I knew he was going to charge his books so I was expecting a charge of a little over $300. [When I checked the balance], the recorded voice told me it was $90,771.11 and that I was over my limit by $84,000. Wow, that's way over the limit! I redialed only to hear the same message.

  I quickly called my son, waking him up and demanding to know if he had the credit card in his possession. "Yes, it's here," he said and he had no explanation. I tried to call the credit union's main number but the office would not be open for another hour. That was a very long hour for me. After finally getting through to a real live person, she said would relay the information to the supervisor. I gave her the reference number and she said someone would check on it out.

  I called several times during the next 24 hours, rechecking the credit card balance. Finally the recorded voice responded with a very pleasant sound, "Your total balance is $347."

• Witches' Brew Bank forced me to sue them by sending me an introductory rate card and then charging their regular rate. After about 10 months of phone calls and letters to them, they destroyed my perfect credit rating by charging off the debt. They refused to respond to letters from the attorney general's office. They refused to pay back the money they over-charged. I sued them and won my money back plus money for my time. They were also ordered to fix my credit rating. You should look into this company's practices. A regulator told me that they have received several complaints about the company.

• I sent in a simple change of address form that only requested changing the street number. Somehow they changed the city, state and ZIP code as well. Who knows where they got this information? Needless to say, I didn't receive my next month's statement. I called and was told it would be sent out immediately. Two months later, no statement. I continued to call about the statement but I never received one. Then they started calling me about making a payment. Plus, they charged me late fees and raised the interest rate because I was late from 5.99 percent to 21.4 percent. WOW! I just wanted a copy to verify the charges posted to the account because I had a lot of transactions, many which were over the phone or online. I finally sent a payment and finally received one statement. Three months later, I wrote a letter asking for a credit. But I was still missing one statement.

  I received a letter acknowledging a credit, even though it was incorrect and I finally received a statement. Now, I'm waiting to hear about the recalculation of the credit to be issued. The balance will be paid off next month and I am considering canceling the card. That was far too much trouble through no fault of my own.

• I have been a customer of Bank of Halloween since 1981. I am a VIP customer. What does that really mean? I have a Visa credit card that I use every month to pay for my online service that costs $21.95. I pay this balance off every month. The bank started charging me a periodic finance charge of 50 cents a month. I started paying it. [But] this past month REALLY took the cake. I received my bill and I see whopping $47.45 charge. They say there is a late charge of $25! I called Bank of Halloween's 800 number and asked why they charged me $25. The representative said they received my payment late. I asked when it was due and she said Sept. 15. I asked when they received it and she responded Sept. 16. Is this ridiculous? Now we're responsible for the post office delivery now. I mailed it on the sixth. WHAT MORE DO THEY WANT?????

• I sent a payment to Ghost's Option Card on June 5 and the check cleared my bank on June 10. As of this date, they have not posted a credit on my account for this payment. I provided a copy of the canceled check and their response was, since the copy was not legible, they could not track which account the payment was posted to. They refused to credit my account for my payment. I have to provide a clearer picture of the canceled check. Well guess what -- my bank can't provide a better picture of the check, therefore I have to make this payment again! Ghost's Option Card stamps or prints on the back of the check all necessary [information] but they made it illegible and still will not take responsibility for it. This is what I call legal theft!

-- Posted: Oct. 30, 1998