Posted on 04/06/2009 10:38:40 AM PDT by TenthAmendmentChampion
Below are summaries of class action lawsuits filed against major credit card banks. This is not a complete list, just a few samples.
First USA (which became BankOne which became Chase)-- A class action lawsuit was filed against First USA when it changed the due date so that some customers, accustomed to paying by a certain date each month, would be caught off guard. Many of them would send in their payments late, not realizing that their due date was a few days earlier than they thought. First USA charged customers $29 every time a payment was late. When two payments were received late, they increased the interest rate 10 full points. (First USA has been accused of this practice more than once.)
First USA once failed to send out monthly statements to many of its customers which, in turn, caused many customers to pay late or not at all that month. When customers began complaining about the $29.00 late fees assessed as a result, First USA claimed the mix up was a result of a computer glitch; however, they refused to remove the $29.00 late fees and give up the millions in extra revenue. Instead, they announced that they "had no duty to send out a statement each month" and it was just too bad for their customers.
Chase -- If you have a card issued by Chase, perhaps you noticed a ten cent rebate on on of your monthly statements several years ago. That generous refund was the result of a class action lawsuit filed against Chase for dubious billing practices (not posting your payment on the date received as required by federal law). You only got ten cents because the lawyers who filed the class action suit took a big chunk of the $22 million settlement as their fee. There was so little left that everyone got just ten cents. (Most class action lawsuits against credit card companies result in a windfall for the attorneys with very little left over for consumers.)
Providian -- The king of unscrupulous billing practices and immoral behavior, Providian is considered to be the baddest of the bad credit card companies. It got caught overbilling its customers and had to pay the largest judgment ever awarded against a credit card company, $300 million. They improperly assessed late fees and charged customers for products never ordered (e.g., credit insurance). Many visitors to this website reported that they received checks from the California Attorney General for as much as $200.00 as a refund for Providian's billing overcharges. Providian was also signing up its customers for credit insurance without their permission.
Home l Credit l Debt l Bankruptcy l Site map Advanta -- Settled a class action lawsuit by agreeing to pay $7.2 million to reimburse customers who were guaranteed a low rate, but were charged a higher rate.
Sears -- Paid $36 million to settle a lawsuit filed by customers who claimed their interest rates were raised after Sears promised it would not raise them.
Capital One -- Several recent class action lawsuits have been filed against Capital One and are still pending. This credit card company once had a good reputation. It led the way in offering the first low interest rate card on purchases, balance transfers and cash advances. It forced other issuers to lower their rates, too. But then Capital One customers started complaining that their payments, mailed in a full two weeks before they were due, were being marked as having been received late. And Capital One was charging them late fees and jacking up their interest rate as a result, which is why the lawsuits have been filed. One case that received wide media exposure involved a man who had emergency open heart surgery. Due to his illness, he mailed in his Capital One payment late one month. Actually, Capital One received it just one day late. When he called to explain what had happened, they coldly told him "too bad" and jacked up his interest rate from about 7% to 21%. (Of course, Capital One isn't alone in using this tactic -- Citibank, MBNA, Providian, First USA do this as well.)
Citibank -- Paid a $45 million settlement for improperly assessing late fees. Citibank is one of the banks that will definitely raise your interest rate to as high as 28% if any negative information appears on your credit file -- even if you have always paid them as agreed. And they won't change your rate back if you submit proof to them that the negative information on your credit report was in error.
MBNA -- Paid an $8 million settlement for improperly assessing late fees.
The above is by no means a complete list of lawsuits. As several banking regulators have stated publicly, "most credit card companies use sneaky tactics, but only a few are singled out for punishment."
Credit cards, for me, are merely a convenience.....and it's always been my opinion that only a dolt would use a debit card instead.
While credit card companies need no defending on some of their practices, some of this is the fault of the trial liars (i.e. the Democrats) who file class action suits knowing the banks would rather settle than drag it through the courts. And when the trial liars pilfer millions of dollars in settlement money from the banks, who do you think eventually pays the bill? It's the cardholders who get the cost of the settlement passed along to them in the form of larger fees and tighter credit.
I was a plaintive in one of these suits against Fleet Bank who absorbed my card account from another bank, jacked up my interest rate from 10.9% to 21.9% and claimed they had two months before even notifying me that they were the new bank behind my card. The lawyers got millions in the suit. I got $2.13.
One bit of advice for anyone caught in a bad credit card situation. My 401k allows me to take out a loan for up to half of your balance which can be paid back through a payroll deduction. Doing this allowed me to close the Fleet Bank account which I did *before* sending letters of complaint to every member of the U.S. House and Senate Banking Committees and the Better Business Bureau about Fleet's practices.
One other piece of advice is to clean out any credit card accounts you have with banks that took TARP money or other bailouts. They've jacked up interest rates but you can find banks and credit unions who will still give you great rates. That's what I did with my Citibank card when they arbitrarily yanked my interest rate from 4.9% to 13.9% right after getting bailout money.
After a couple of aggravations, I started paying ON LINE. When I receive my statement I mark the envelope 3 days before the due date. Then I go on line (now I’ve added insurance bills) on the indicated date. Using the computer I get..
1. An on-screen receipt that I instantly PRINT OUT and staple to my statement. This ALWAYS shows the date and usually tells me an e-mail is on the way.
2. The e-mail shows up and I print out THAT also.
Now I have two printed pages from the creditor showing the amount of payment, a CONFIRMATION NUMBER, and a ,from them, generated DATE OF PAYMENT.
All it costs me is 2 pieces of printer paper. Then the payment shows up on my bank statement.
All this because a major credit card company charged a Late Fee because a horrendous snow storm delayed ALL the mail so the payment was received LATE in the day it was due, and NOT posted until the next (but LATE) day.
Takes a couple of minutes, and does save on stamps.
You just need a computer.
bttt ... the war against capitalism and credit continues.
Before you cancel out that 8-10-15 year old card think twice. It really hurts your credit score especially if you have just taken out a new card. Pay off the balance and throw the card in the draw. One method the credit agencies use to obtain your credit score is by how long you have had credit with a certain company.
Would you rather hire an employee who has worked for a prior comapny for 5-8 years or somone who changes jobs every 6 months.
So if the US gov't bans lead filled toys and posionous pet food from certain companies or countries that is a war against capitalism?
Sometimes companies need to have their feet put to the fire.
Sneaky CC companies have found ways to trip up people who pay online, too. One of their tricks is to change the location that you send your payment to. Since you’re paying online, you aren’t using the payment slip with the new “updated” address, and most people have their bill pay already set up, so they don’t pay any attention to the addresses on the bills. Then the payment gets sent to the wrong location and by the time it gets forwarded, it’s “late” meaning they can jack up the interest rate and charge a late fee.
If you’re paying online, ALWAYS check the payment address on the bill with what you have in your bill pay records. I do this every month and have caught Discover engaging in this practice.
capital one sent me a letter canceling my acct due to lack of use....so be it...
i paid off chase...got a letter raising my rate from 7.9 to 12.9%...called and asked why...was told it had nothing to do with my credit worthiness but that it was due to the current economic conditions...wtf!!!
The problem there is that it's far easier to take a hit from fraud against your credit card than your general bank accounts. I went through it January '08. Miserable experience, they took thousands of dollars. Got everything back over a period of a couple of weeks, but if they had taken everything, it would have been difficult.
Be aware that if you have a card, even one with no balance, and do not use it, some banks charge you a fee if the card has not been used at least 3x in a year.
We have 2 cards with M&I. One came up for renewal, I called the number, it was renewed, no problem. The second one came up 4 months later and when I called to confirm, the girl there told me I had to mail in all my ID information. We have been with them since 1987 and have our brokerage account w/M&I Financial Advisers, as well. Since the card from four months prior had been renewed with no problem, I was suspicious. So I declined and threw the card in a drawer (it was paid off) and forgot about it. 11 months later, a bill comes with a $15 fee on that card. I called and complained, telling them it was their worker’s fault I didn’t renew. They confirmed that they had all my data and that there was something odd about being told to mail it in and they erased the charge and confirmed the card. But they did tell me that they had that fee for inactivity.
So either use the card 3x or whatever the bank requires, or cancel it.
About three or four times I was assessed late or other fees that I felt were unjustified. In each case, I have called the card company and they took off the charge. I have had cards with Bank One, Chase, Cap One, First USA and MBNA. Chase was the worse, IMO, and my current card, Cap One seems to treat me better than the rest, with a longer grace period, among other things.
Thanks for the info. I did not know that.
Boy, you have me puzzled. I don’t send the payment to ANY address at all.
ie. When I go onto (ie)CITIBANK or any others, I must go through “user names and passwords” on THEIR drives, and THEY display the accounts and all data. How would they change an address when I’m into THEIR site?
NOW I’m nervous...I’d love an explanation.
I have a number of cards, personal AND business and everyone has the SAME routine.
If they were changing the INTERNET ADDRESS then I would be on the alert, but I have had NO problems or questions so far.
Thanks
But the bank still got to charge you interest on the late fee they removed. This is part of the scam. They ding you with an unjustified late fee, then when you call to complain they cheerily agree to take off the fee - but you're still stuck with the interest on the fee that's factored into your balance.
Plus, the banks are going to expect a certain percentage (more than half?) may never actually look at the details and just pay the full amount including the late fee, totally unaware they've been scammed.
FWIW, I'd pass a law that says you cannot charge both interest and a late fee. If they can only charge one or the other, a lot of the hanky panky stops. But as long as they can charge you a fee then charge you interest on the fee, they are going to play all sorts of shell games to squeeze each fraction of a penny out of you in hopes you won't notice.
I don’t think you need to worry. What the other poster was referring to was setting up automatic payments *through your bank* through some vendor list. If the bank then changes their payment address and you haven’t updated your vendor list, the mail gets misdirected.
With Citibank, I sent them the paperwork to draft out of my checking account. You authorize the draft online at their site each month and *they* handle the transaction, not your bank. So your method sounds safe.
I would recommend, however, about verifying you have the “lock” symbol on your browser each time you do this to make sure your data isn’t going unencrypted over the internet.
No CC stories because the bill gets paid in full every month. Chase, however did my last car loan. Never missed a payment because is was a direct withdrawal from my checking acct. I decided to pay off the loan early. Made contact to find the exact payoff value, and sent a bank check.
Then the darnedest thing happened. They hit the automatic withdrawal two weeks later. I called and read them the riot act. They feigned innocence, but it took them about six weeks to send my money back. No doubt in my mind that this is a common practice, and they roll the cash into short term investments to scam an extra bit of coin on OPM.
You are right. Also, I just remembered something. I DID once get a “due date change” but since I don’t trust my memory I, as always, wrote MY pay date on the front of the envelope in BIG RED numbers. I always check the statement, but then put it back in the date marked envelope.
I’ll tell you something else. Even though I ALWAYS pay ONLINE 3 days early, frequently the amount doesn’t come OFF my local account until AFTER the original due date. I still paid on time, but the credit card people aren’t always in a hurry at their end.
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