prp2

Ok guys, here's the deal. I have a Circuit City Rewards credit card with a balance on it. My payment for this month was due on 6/15. I paid online via check on 6/3. As it turns out, that check didn't end up clearing and as a result I was assessed a returned check fee of $35. That's fine, it's my fault so I'll accept the fee.

Chase (Circuit City's credit issuing bank) called me last week stating that I still owed that payment, again due 6/15. By now though, instead of my payment being $68, now I owed $133. On Sunday evening I called their automated account system, which informed me that my account was 26 days past due on 6/15 and that I should pay it immediately to avoid a late fee, and to bring my acct current.

Monday, 6/18, I was able to pay them. I brought $160 in cash to a CC store around 1PM (hoping if I paid before 3PM that it would post that same day) and paid it towards my account. I walked outside and called the automated system again, not knowing if that payment had shown up yet or not. It hadn't, so I spoke to a rep and asked him as to my current acct status. He said the payment would take 2 business days to post to my account. Ok, that would put it at 30 days past due, but he said since the payment was technically in the system that it would be fine, my credit would not be hurt.

Tuesday, 6/19 I checked online. My payment still hadn't gone through, since it was 1 business day, but I noticed I was assessed a late fee on 6/18, after I had already paid to avoid it. I called again and spoke to another rep who said what that system meant was to avoid further late fees I should pay, but that nothing can be done about fees already assessed. Seemed like crap to me, but I again asked will my credit be ok, since the payment has yet to go through and the system now says my acct was 29 days late. He said yes, not to worry.

Today, 6/20 I called again to make sure the payment had posted. It had, but the automated system also informed me that my account has been closed. ?????? I spoke to a rep about that who said the acct was closed on 6/3. No one mentioned a thing about that to me, and if it were actually closed the automated system would've told me so, as it did today. Not to mention that was even before the payment due date. I asked to speak to a manager. Manager came on, told me the acct was closed (after being "randomly selected for review") because of two returned checks. He said according to T&C they can close my account at any time without prior notice. Said it happened on 6/8. I asked why didn't the other two reps I spoke to in the past 2 days mention that if it was the case. He asked me if I inquired about that. I asked him why I would think to ask if my account was closed if I had to reason to suspect it? He said I would've found out when I tried using the card and it came back declined, they would then tell me it was closed. I asked him why I would try to use a card that I knew had no money available on it, that wouldn't make sense. He gave me the same line and offered to send me the T&C via mail since I was unaware of their policies. Essentially no help at all, and it was of course an Indian call center, not that I was surprised.

I'm looking at a letter I received dated June 9, telling me that my recent payment of $68 had come back returned, and that I should pay now to avoid a delinquency reporting to the credit bureaus. Well again, I paid on 6/18 in cash at a store specifically to avoid that, because I don't want to harm my credit, and I was told twice by two different reps that it would be fine. Now I'm essentially screwed.

And to make matters worse, I'm in the process right now of applying for a loan with my credit union in order to consolidate some debts and pay off all my credit/revolving accounts.

Any thoughts? Tks...also I know this is pretty rambling, but I'm completely furious and needed to vent to someone.

j123vt_99

Please bold or summarize

calhoun07

He had late fees due to not getting a payment in on time and they closed his account because he bounced checks.

El Scorcho

tl;dr

Decadance

Try paying bills with good checks the first time around...I found when ya do that, bad things don't occur.

DVDFreaker

Your $160 dollars went down the drain

Abelkems

Umm...I don't understand how they did anything wrong. You're the one bouncing checks.

prp2

Funny how that works.

The thing is, if my acct was in danger of being closed/was in fact closed, why did neither rep I spoke to before today mention it, nor the letter I received from Chase? It was quite a shock to bring my acct current only to find out it was closed on the same day.

prp2

Ok, but I didn't just not pay them and say eff off. The only other time it happened was last year, and both times once I saw that the payments hadn't cleared I made sure to repay before my acct was delinquent.

prp2

Also, for those who may think my credit in general sucks and I don't pay my bills...the only time I've had any real serious credit issues were back in August and Sept of 2001 while I was dealing with my post-college money issues. Since then I've paid all my accts on time, as agreed, with every one of my creditors and not a single negative item since that time is on any of my credit reports, from all 3 bureaus.

In fact:

Icculus

If someone owed you money and had given you two bad checks in the past would you want to continue to lend them more money? Yeah, neither would I.

Decadance

So this wasn't your first bad check to the same credit institution? Yeah, be happy they didn't press charges.

Shilex

I absolutely hate Circuit City's credit card! It's one of the worst store cards out there. I got one a while back to use their 24 month no-interest financing. Big mistake. If you use the card to purchase anything else (other than a no-interest financing promotion), you will automatically get charged interest regardless if you pay on-time or not. So that interest fee stays on there until you pay off your entire credit card bill. Needless to say I ended up paying off the entire card in two months and then canceling it.

They have terrible customer support for their card. I can understand completely.

prp2

Maybe so, but you at least inform that person of your intentions prior to just telling them to go screw, no?

Icculus

Probably not until the next time they asked me to borrow money...

It's sucks, it's a shitty situation, but you have to look at it from the side of the company. At this point they're not really concerned about pissing you off. They have their reasons for closing you out and they probably figure it's not worth the extra expense to notify you.

fujishig

This is par for the course for most if not all of these "no interest for XX months" deals. If you make more purchases, it'll be paid off last, because payments go toward the lowest interest balances first. This is why you usually use it to buy your big tv or whatever, then don't use it at all after that. You just have to remember to pay it off before it's due, because otherwise the interest is calculated from the start of the loan.

Shilex

Yeah, I didn't know that when I signed up. I assumed it would be similar to Best Buy's (which is great). It distributes your payments evenly and they don't charge interest until your actual promotions expire. I usually never sign up for store credit cards. Best Buy and Circuit City are actually the only two I've ever had.

prp2

I guess so, it just seems pretty underhanded to basically soothe me into paying as if everything was normal, all along knowing they were going to close my account as soon as I paid it.

Now my question is, how will that negatively affect my credit? As I said before my last negative activity was 6 years ago. I know it will show up as "Account closed by credit grantor" but it should still end as "Paying as agreed" since I never was late on it. Will that not be as bad, or what?

Sonicflood

If the people you were referring to as "reps" were in-store employees... they know almost nothing about the credit department and it's policies as it's a separate entity. They are mostly full of shit and really don't care as they can't be held accountable for YOUR mistakes.

Your situation is sad but it will be a learning experience. Pay on time, prior to the due date and NEVER place credence in anyone who is not specifically in the credit department.

It takes a lot of time to build good credit, yet only a few minutes of poor judgement to ruin it!

Numanoid

Ahem...moving to Store Forum.

Lee Harvey Oswald

Don't worry, he'll probably delete the thread. I don't think its going the way he hoped.

antennaball

This is the kind of thing that can hurt the OP's candidacy.

calhoun07

But it's not about an in-store experience he had.

prp2

They weren't in-store employees, they were Chase phone reps.

As I posted above, I always have paid on time. They chose to close my account based on a seemingly random criteria they have. I've thought about it more, though, and it's fine assuming they don't try and screw me further by saying I was late and they closed my acct. If my credit report still states "Paying as agreed" as I always have, and then just a random "Account closed by credit grantor'" then it will still look ok for me, and kind of odd for them to close a basically fine and paying acct.

prp2

I hadn't really hoped on a way it would go, I just felt like venting. As I stated previously I fully expected all the "That's what you get" responses, so...I don't feel bad for posting it. My account has been in good standing with them since I opened it in 2005, so...que sera sera.