Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Credit Card Grief!


Ok this is NOT a post about Thanksgiving although bear with me at the end...I do have something I am very THANKFUL for! With all this bail out going on I've been getting more and more upset over it. First, all these years, the average American has been paying outrageous fees, interest, etc...to alot of these companies. Its not my or any other Americans fault that these companies chose to mismanage their funds, hire and pay outrageous CEOS, or invest in the Stock Market. They ended up losing their butt---so be it. When YOU or I make a bad financial decision--who bails us out???? When I lost my home 6 years ago--who bailed me out???? We accepted the loss and moved on. All these years, we have been paying their fees, taxes, interest,,etc...and now we will pay again to fund this bail out. I'm thinking--let them all fall... Let them do as we must do....figure it out. Perhaps its way past time OUR government work for US and give us a lump sum of money so that we can stimulate the economy ourselves with OUR choices or perhaps for many of us---save our homes, pay off some debt. That would be the most natural way to save the economy and also finally help the little guy that truly can no longer afford to bail out these greedy companies.

NOW..onto my beef with credit cards. I've had a particular card for 10 years. Its in excellent standing. I paid it off in June and for some odd reason decided to check it out online. I found they had slapped an annual fee on the card along with 1 month late fee AND a .50 cent finance charge. I was livid. I called them 3 times trying to get them to remove the annual fee. They would not. They did remove the late fee and said they couldnt remove the .50. I told them I wanted to cancel the card. They said why--you've had the card 10 years in excellent standing. I said exactly....I got this card to build my credit and i have done that. I have cards that I dont pay an annual fee on why would I choose to give Capitol ONE a fee when I dont have to? I dont like throwing money to the wind. The lady said she understood and would do the same but as an employee of Capitol ONE she just had to tell me they couldnt or WOULDNT remove the newly assessed annual fee. So I cancelled the card. I paid the .50 fee. Because I cancelled the card I dont have to pay the annual fee. I cant believe these companies will choose to lose a customer--a good customer over 29.00. I'm sure we will hear next about the Credit Card Companies want their bail out..and once again the American citizen will pay some form of higher tax to accomodate all this greed, stupid business practics and mismanagement of good money they have made for years and years. When times were good--they were rollin in our high interest rates, our fees, etc. They should have done wise things with the money. When i lost my home due to poor choices in our life--we suffered the consequences. NO one bailed us out...we learned from that. To this day we are still working on rebuilding ourselves financially.

NOW to my point of what I'm grateful for? Well, I'm grateful that I have enough cards that I dont fees on--that I have the choice of telling that Company to take a hike. I have that power right now and well it dosnt feel good to give up a card I've had for 10 years...it feels AWESOME knowing i've rebuilt myself to the point I have enough cards in my wallet that I can get what I need and also tell these companies to take a hike.

I had a bad day yesterday and it was all due to money. I rarely balance my bank account--but I have a general knowledge of what I have in it. Yesterday I decided to balance it out so I can get a grip on it. I found out I had 100 dollars less in it. Then i get this crap from Capitol ONE. THEN....I finally had some time to call and sit on hold for nearly 2 hours to deal with an account I had on some furniture we had purchased 2 years ago. I opened an account because at that time they were offering a 2 year free financing package. 2 years...that would have taken me to This October before I had to pay any interest. I began paying on that account right away and figured I would be 1 month off and would only have to pay 1 or 2 months of interest. Well...they have been charging me interest for a year now. I've tried to argue with these morons before but I just dont have the time to sit on hold. So, finally yesterday I had the time. What did I learn? Well I learned the company offering the 2 year interest free financing had the offer from Oct 06 to Oct 08. The store didnt bother telling me I really only had about 15 months of interest free financing because I bought the furniture about 6 months into the program. So they mis-represented that to me. I contacted the store and should hear from them today. I'm about to make my final payment and truly I should owe them around 15.00 but with all this interest its showing I have to pay them about 150.00. I truly hope they do the right thing and refund me the money--OR once again I will cancel my account with this store. I dont need their cards, I can pay cash for whatever I want or go to another store....this time wiser to these so called 2 or 3 year interest free programs.

Why is our country in such financial turmoil? I believe mostly because of greed, poor choices, over paid CEOS., severe mis-management of funds when they WERE there and poor customer service. I do NOT want to pay for these bail outs--these companies need to suffer their choices they made just as you and I do. I want this said to the footsteps of the White House...I am beyond P......ed. I do the right thing and get treated poorly and yet I may have to pay higher taxes to these morons.

Sorry, this came out during Thanksgiving--but this all happenned to me yesterday so its fresh in my mind. NOW that I got it off my chest--I will go make my apple pie!

13 Thanks for your comments!:

HektikLyfe said...

Credit can be a pain. Don't live beyond your means and pay them off 100% at the end of the month. Don't get cards with annual fee's and you will see your credit score fly.

You have inspired a mini-blog that I had been meaning to post for a while.

(Actually its already written as a draft, one of those I just left sitting in the wings for a few months.)

Dawn Marie said...

If you come back you need to explain to me--why your score jumps if you dont have cards with annual fees?

I only had that one card that they charge a fee--and like I said I didnt know they were going to do that after all these years. My guess is--they are feeling the pinch and beginning to do things like that to make money.

Ginger said...

Hi Dawn:
I was totally against the bail out too, for the same reason as you. All the years of raising my kids and living pay check to pay check, I managed to pay all our bills on time. I wanted to go on vacation and do fun things, but the bills came first and the orthodonics on 3 of the kids had to be paid. No one bailed me out either. It's all those CEO's and their big bonus checks and the bad loans they made.
I tried to cancel a couple of my credit cards and they said it would lower my fico score, so I just leave them open and don't use them. I don't have any cards charging a fee, as of now, but if they start, I'll just close them all out, whether it lowers my score or not. And I agree...nothing is worse than sitting on hold forever waiting for a live person to talk to.
Well, don't let it ruin your holiday....Have fun.
Ginger

HektikLyfe said...

Credit, in good standing, feeds upon itself.

Say you buy something on credit and pay it off then close all your credit accounts. Your name, your credit score, still exists. All that time that your "credit" sits there it is accumulating points because it is "good." Granted it doesn't increase nearly as much as it would if you would buy a lot of stuff and pay it off.

Your credit grows the more expensive stuff you buy too. Say you buy a home and a car, the investment you made, will help your credit score if you are paying it off on time. Even if you don't have any cards.

Think of credit as reputation.

Dawn Marie said...

well then I'm a "HO" LMAOO sorry but i just couldnt resist that..you left that wide open!!!

actually I'm not a credit card ho--I just dont like paying any money to anyone for nothing--its always been my sore spot.

Tootsie said...

Capital One is the worst card! I had the same issues that you did...and then three years later they sent me a bill...so i called and chewed them a "new one"....then a month later they sent me a cheque for $200. that I supposedly over paid...then they re-instated the card without my permission...and the cycle goes on and on,,...be careful with them!
have a good weekend! and thanks for the visit...I am now going to sign up to follow this blog!

Dawn Marie said...

wow thats pretty scary. what scares me is i wonder do we even have any recourses in things such as this? I mean 3 years later?????

what gives me chills is that they can screw up your credit for something that we havent done.

thanks for coming by and following!

Michele said...

Hi Dawn ~ I so agree with you. I lost my home this year because I went through bankruptcy last December. It really does suck because after having perfect credit my whole life, it's horrible now because of my ex-husband sticking me with all the bills during the divorce. Oh well...live and learn!

Have a great Thanksgiving!

Hugz,
Michele

Anonymous said...

Customer Service is a lost art form. I think many companies have lost the idea of "service" and treat their customers like dupes. I spent many years in Customer Service and customers have about a five minute limit when it comes to being on hold. Luckily, I usually worked for companies that worked to meet that threshold.

The hidden fees that credit card companies assess is out of control. I'm sorry it ruined your day and I hope you win all of your battles.

I hope you have a good Thanksgiving anyway.

Sit A Spell said...

Glad you could sit a spell on my new blog...that's a brand new design, I kinda like it too : )
I loved hearing Casting Crowns as I was here for my visit.

Bless...

Flor Larios Art said...

Congratulations You won the Frida Kahlo box giveaway!!! Please send me your address so that I can send you the box.
Thanks,
Flor

Carol said...

Hi Dawn!
I just found your comment about brining a turkey, no I've never prepared a turkey that way, I have seen it done on the Food Network, looks interesting.
Happy Thanksgiving!

Carol

Diane Fay (littlealma) said...

Hi there,

Well I have finally found someone that blogs from Wisconsin! I am at work right ow, so no time, but I was just wondering where you are from? I grew up in Cedar Grove, just north of Milwaukee (altho most of my high school buds now live in Milwaukee), but I live now in Michigan. I was just curious!

Will write/read more later

Hugs from Michigan - Diane