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The interest rate that came
to life
There was a time several years ago when, after a messy divorce,
I found myself in dire financial straits. I was keeping up with
most of my bills but made one late payment on Ghastly Ghosts credit
card. I expected and paid a late fee to that company, but they didn't
raise my rate.
To my horror, Pusillanimous Pirate card ran
a credit check and raised my rate on their account from 16.9 percent
to a whopping 28.9 percent! When I got that bill I literally sat
down and cried! As soon as I was able, I either transferred or paid
off the balance of the Pusillanimous Pirate account and vowed never
to do business with them again. I now have two grown kids who have
credit cards and I've advised them, as well as all my friends, family
and anyone else who brings up the subject, that the Pusillanimous
Pirate organization is no better than Mafia loan sharks!
I now have an excellent credit rating and regularly receive solicitations from Pusillanimous Pirate that I delight in shredding.
The higher limit that vanished without a trace
I got a Vampire Unlimited card through a discount warehouse store.
It had a set limit that was mysteriously raised after a time. They
notified me of this by mail and then dropped the limit without notifying
me, although they say they did. Suddenly, the overlimit fees came.
I called the nice people at Vampire Unlimited and
asked that they at least raise the limit to where it had been to
avoid paying any more fees. The person with whom I spoke lied and
said the limit had never been raised in the first place. She finally
agreed to raise the limit, but did not and they continued to charge
me overlimit fees. This was in June 2006.
I called again in August and the person who helped me agreed that they had raised my limit and subsequently sent a written notice that it was dropped. She stated that my request for a limit raise in June had been denied.
I have no idea why they raised it in the first place
or lowered it and am making large payments and will never have Vampire
Unlimited card again.
A treat that was a trick
I've had a credit card with Haunted House for 15 years and was delighted
that they had an autopayment system set up. I signed up for it,
thinking I didn't have to worry about paying my bill. After about
nine cycles, I received a statement saying that my bill was past
due and I had a late fee of $39. I checked my bank statement online
and saw that it was paid. I was livid. When I called Haunted House,
they said it was one day late. How could it be late when I had my
account on autopay? I looked at all of my statements again and realized
they shortened the billing cycle days for that month from 30 days
to 29 days. I still had to pay the $39. I don't use the autopay
anymore, but I did notice they changed the Web site and maybe they
fixed the problem.
Haunted by credit cards past
Years ago, when my son went off to college, I had a Werewolf Bank credit card in both of our names. After he ran up the balance and didn't pay it, I paid it off and thought I had canceled the card. Fast forward to a few months ago -- I got a copy of my credit report, just to review. I noticed a credit card balance from Werewolf Bank and the account was a couple of months late. The balance was about $21,000. I don't have a credit card from Werewolf Bank; so I about flipped.
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