When Did You Know the Love Was Gone?

[Peeps]

I'm curious about members' experiences with credit cards or other creditors that helped us cement the realization that we no longer adored, loved, or even remotely liked them anymore.


There've got to be some pretty good stories out there that will make us laugh and cry... probably at the same time.


For me, the Love-Lost moment came with my Discover card. I'd had it for years and always thought I had a good relationship with them. Then in early-2010 some pervert got ahold of my account info and within the span of 48 hours managed to rack up over a thousand dollars in phone sex, porn downloads, and online dating services (dude, if you're out there, GET SOME HELP!!). Now, I flagged it within the first two purchases but Discover's crack fraud team didn't really pay any attention to it until two days later after numerous sick-and-twisted purchases had amassed. The result was a multi-month investigation that showed the charges did not originate from my computer nor were they consistent with any transactions in the entire decade the card had been actively used. After a long fight with Discover, they finally knocked many of the charges off my account but they still expect me to pay for the perv's annual subscription to Match-Dot-Com. Talk about a slow burn. It is offensive on so many levels. For me, this was the moment when I realized I really HATED them. A LOT! Honestly, if my situation ends up in a BK I really won't feel bad about blasting away my Discover balance at all.


So? Anyone else ever reach that moment?

[BKDebby]

A year before I even thought about filing for BK. And it was DiscoverCard also - they changed my due date on me without any warning, and by the time I opened my statement, it was already past due. I had my Discover account for over 10 years when this happened, no late payments at all. I immediately called them, they changed my due date back to what it was originally, but wouldn't do anything else about the late charge and they raised my rate too.

[clevelandmom]

Oh yes, my moment came in July, 2009. I think the card was a BofA Visa - went shopping with my sister. Went to go buy a $35.00 pair of shoes and voila! . . . card denied! I called to find out what the heck happened. I had a $10,000 limit and I had $4700.00 charged on the card. They lowered my limit to $4500.00 and THEN had the audacity to hit me with overdraft charges! (Motherless rat bastards). When the bill came the following month, they had doubled my minimum payment due. Well, I stopped paying and cut up the card. A year later they sued me. They got a judgment against me and my employer was already cutting the check to them for the garnishment when I filed BK - the money came right back to me and they didn't get a dime!!!! Nor will they now. . .that's what they get for being such greedy bastards. BTW - the only reason they did this was because the credit card laws had either just changed or were about to change - it had nothing to do with me being late - ever! Credit cards are the anti-christ.

[ryan]

Yes! this is great thread, because it happens all the time....

My revelation was in July/August 2009 and it was with Amex. I had the card over 15 years, always paid promptly, in fact had recently paid off like 8,000 or 10K in the prior year. Had a $750 balance, with a $21,000 open line.

Called and asked for an $1,800 advance. They immediately said yes and said it would come thru in 2 days......Instead, in two days I got a letter and call. Both said my open line was reduced to $800 from $21,000 and the advance was denied...and told me to have a nice day. (grrrrrrrrr)

[olivies]

Mine was in February of 08. We had never been late. Not over the limit. In fact we would often pay it off, run it back up. Pay it off a year later, etc. But BOA decided to close DH's credit card unexpectedly and without warning. It was declined while we were out and we were under our limit so we were baffled. We were sitting on his sign on bonus from his new job we were going to send them to pay it off but we decided we would send it to a different, open, card instead. Phew, no sense sending it all to them if they aren't going to continue the nice friendship we had we considered. We'll just keep making minimum payments, no skin off our backs.

Well, the nice folks at BOA then went and jacked up our interest rate from about 9% to 29% because our account was now a closed account. THEY were the ones who closed it remember. Know what happens when one credit card shuts your account and sky rockets your rate? It's a domino effect. And this is why we are where we are today. We could have kept making our payments just fine, had everyone just played nice.

[BKlooker]

Mine was when the economy started to go south about 2 years ago. I had always paid all my cards on time (had up to 4 at one time, now down to 2), generally paying more than the minimum. When the recession hit, my low rates i had kept for years, never exceeding 8%, most around 5%, suddenly skyrocketed to 14% and 18%.

It was during that time that i spent many night awake, wondering how i would pay for food for myself and keep the lights on. I remember calling my sister crying my eyes out while driving home one day (and i never talk on the phone while driving generally), because i realized i was going to have to take a payday loan out just to get by for the next 2 weeks, something i never ever saw myself doing, as i made decent money, especially for my age. During that time, I caught pneumonia, and my insurance at the time was not kind to primary care and preferred one to use minute clinics and patient firsts, or risk a $125 bill fo rbasic services. I went to a Patient First clinic, where it took them 14 tries to find a vein to draw my blood, to discover of course that it was full blown pneumonia. To this day, i have panic attacks when they try to draw blood for routine things, and i think about that time whenever they do.

They wanted me to go the hospital naturally, but i could never afford a $1500+ out of pocket bill for that, so i had no choice but to go home with a triple dose of antibiotics and breathing meds, and told i must return in 72 hours. I couldn't afford enough fluids to keep me well...they instructed me that water was good, but the electrolytes in sports drinks and the salt would keep me in better health..so my mother bought me 2 Costco-sized jugs of Gatorade. She gave me $400 that day and told me to put it in the bank as soon as i was well enough to leave the house and catch up on the utilities and get food in the house.

From that day forward, i would never look at CCs with any form of joy, nor do i personally feel sorry for defaulting on their debt. If they want to play wide and liberal with their rules, it's not fair to expect the average American to just magically keep up. I can only imagine if I was unfortunate enough to have had a child young...we would have likely been on the streets.

[keepsmiling]

I was one of those lucky folks stung by Chase (anyone familiar with the Robert Lahm and his changeinterms site?) Had a fixed-for-life 4.99% cc, was on time paying every month for many many years, til they got greedy and decided to play games. Yes, still allowing the 4.99, but now requiring a jump from 2% of the balance to 5%-- more than double my payment, and tough luck when I called. There is a class action lawsuit about this but a lot of good it will do most of us.... talk about bad faith! who else could get away with this?! that was the beginning of the end... Citi raised their rate to 22.9 and wouldn't budge.... Target raised theirs... and suddenly I was at over 2400/ mo on cc's... when I had to raid ds's account to pay, that was it-- it was over.

[Peeps]

Now that I think of it, I also lost some love for Barclays...

Took advantage of their 0% interest for 12 months (with a 3% transfer fee) offer. I paid the transfer fee and felt pretty proud of myself until I got my next bill. They were charging 18.99% interest. I called them and ended up talking to some guy with a super-thick Indian accent who, honest-to-God, told me I wasn't seeing what I was seeing. That's right. The charge wasn't really there ("You are getting verrryyyy sleeeeepy...."). I called again and spoke to a young woman who sounded like she was doing some kind of high-school work-study program. She said it was just the transfer fee and I shouldn't worry about it. When I pointed out that I'd already paid the transfer fee, she again assured me I shouldn't worry about it because the (unplanned) $350 payment would go toward my balance. Yeah. Duh.

Less than confident in the training of their phone reps, I emailed them. The gist of the exchange was: "Well, you transferred into the 18.99% rate." "Did not, it was 0% for 12 months." "No it wasn't." "Yes it was." (tongues sticking out at each other). They honestly weren't going to budge on it!! Until, of course, I produced a screen-print of the transfer confirmation that verified, indeed, it was a 0% for 12 months offer. The Bat Rastards hemmed and hawed for another week before begrudgingly lowering my rate down to zero for the remaining 11 months. No apologies, no explanation. And I still had to pay the stupid $350 payment that month.

Anyway, I totally got the impression that this was a normal thing and if I didn't hadn't saved the screen-print I'd have been screwed. Barclays... FAIL.

[Pandora]

Great thread Peeps!

Lets see... ours would have to be in late 2008 - had a Capt One Platnum Card for about 5 years at that point, locked fixed rate at 7.9%. Always paid it off - never late. Then the laws changed or something (who knows what the reasoning was) and Capt One decided to jack our rate - "because we can" was their reasoning, but we could "opt out of the interest rate increase to 18.99%" if we closed the account down. Told them to shove it, closed the account down and paid it off. The only credit card we'd ever had and they got to do as they pleased "just because" regardless of anything else that stated the card would never change rates unless we were late.

Havent had a credit card in almost 3 years - dont miss it - dont need it

[InOverHead]

Some unbelieveable antics these companies pull...then they want us to treat Them with respect? Reminds me of the double standard with 2 weeks notice at work. Whne they don't want you anymore - You're out. But if you want a reference...better give them proper notice!

Anyway, i was surprised with the target card becuase i had never been late, score still in the 700's. Really no reason to pull the limit, and the fact that their actions effect other areas of credit is just not right!

My other experience is some crazy shenanigans from Chase. Had an 8.99 rate, noticed on the stament it had risen to 15 or 16%, called them and they said a letter had been sent giving the option of maintaining rate and closing card or accepting new rate. Had never been late and credit score was upper 700's. After a bit of hassle they resest teh rate to where it was. Two months pass, another statement with a jacked up rate, their way around it was a different %. I called and called to no avail. They simply wanted to get their way and did. They said i rejected the 16.99 or whatever increase but they never got a response to close the account on the 16.89 - and policy is to only allow one exception.

Another chase card (Sony Branded) i had a 10k limit on. Had a payment fall on on a saturday or sunday of Easter weekend. Was unable to get to a computer to make the transfer - payed it on Monday. They hit me with Fee's and when i called to have them removed they said they do not waive late fee's. I expected some leeway and cancelled the card on principle. However, that was a cutting off the nose to spite the face move. Even though they royally suck, $39 fee was worth the 10k limit. Looking back i should have kept the card open.

[wonderingrov]

For me, it was a couple of months after that ridiculous 'finance consumer protection' legislation got passed last summer. I had never been late on a payment - had never charged more than 35% of the limit on any card, and frequently had paid the balances off. Then, after the aforementioned legislation got passed, Citi was the first to raise my interest rates - from 7.99% to 19.99% due to the 'cost of doing business' (translation, Congress has changed the rules on us, so we're getting as much money as we can now, and won't have to change anything in the future to rake all that profit in). When I called to try to get it lowered, they wouldn't budge. Within 60 days, all my other credit cards had done the same thing. After all that, I have no guilt whatsoever bankrupting on them. Sure, I would have loved to have paid all my bills - but after a stroke and several months of unemployment, and now being on disability - not too much I can do about it.

But, after that initial experience, I just want to say - THANK YOU CONGRESS!!! Consumer protection my tail.......

[Okieblue]

A few years ago, BofA tee'd me off, so we got a consolidation loan for that, then last year, Discover jacked up the rate and the payments out of the blue and we got a consolidation loan for that too, then similarly, other cards followed, but, but, if I pay on time, and pay what is due, why would you do this to me? I am lmao, I got an unsolicited PREPAID MC offer in the mail yesterday from Achieve. I haven't even filed yet. Weird.

[Lockeout]

I had a Chase card with a $1500 limit and only about $130 on it; it was our last emergency card when all others were maxed out. Then out of the blue we get a letter saying they're closing the account at the end of the month. I didn't like it but couldn't really argue, so I scrapped up the money and paid it off. However, two months later I get a collection call saying I'm late on a $49 payment. Turns out they charged me the annual fee after the date they said the account would be closed. I hadn't checked the account because not only had I paid it off but it was supposed to be closed. Of course, they also hit me with a late fee. I called and argued up the management chain that charging another year's fee for a closed account was illogical and unethical and finally had it removed--but they wouldn't budge on the late fee. I paid it just to be done with them.

[Jacey]

What a bunch of jackasses. I wish that the entire credit card industry would be put out of business for killing the American family. My cards pulled the rate increase and limit decrease in 2008 with increased payment %. I never got charged a late fee or over the limit fee, but I came very close. American Express decreased my limit to right at what I owed them, and if it hadn't been for bonus pay at work, I would have gone into default % and over the limit when they added my interest for the month. They were trying to trick me into failing...I hope they're happy now that I quit paying my bills. I need to remember that when I see American Express on my caller ID and not let it bother me so much!

[Freddy03]

Great thread!

Mine has to be my Target Visa card. Had a $7500 credit limit with a balance around $2000. Paid on time since the card was opened. Always paid double the minimal. My daughter had to be hospitalized for a week. I had a $2000 ded the hospital wanted. So I put it on the card. It went thru just fine. I think during that time I had a payment due. I couldn't get to the store to pay it (because I was in the hospital w/ my child) so I attempted to pay it online. Well Target online wouldn't let me log in. It said my account was locked. Not sure why I hardly ever used the online payments. So I wasn't able to make the payment on the due date. I sent my hubsand to the store the next day to pay it. I was less than 24 hours late and boom credit limit decreased to $3500! So now I was over the limit, late and min payments and interest jacked up!! I couldn't afford to pay the minimal the following month so I stopped paying all together. 120 days later I received my first cc summons.

I refuse to shop at Target now.