Complaint Review: Bay Area Business Council

The offer of a 0% Mastercard did not seem that ludicrous at the time. While my credit history is not stellar, I bought my first home last year. I knew those mortgage payments were helping reestablish credit and with all of the talk in the news about low interest rates, it seemed legit. I try not to use credit cards too much. I have a grand or two on other cards and figured I'd consolidate them on this one card. My inexperience certainly hurt me. I'm sure someone reading this might think I'm backwards, but the one time fee actually made me feel it was more legit: no fee would have been too good to be true. Leading up to the recorded conversation I asked lots of questions and they were all answered satisfactorily. I would pay a one time fee and recieve my 0% Mastercard Credit card. During my recorded conversation with a sales rep. she began to talk about these other services: e-phone and household protection. I stopped her right there and made it very clear that I do not want these other services, just the credit card. She told me she would note that I do not want these, but then said we need to start the recording over. If she made a note, it went right in the trash. And I was actually proud of myself for interjecting. A month and a half after ordering the card, I finally recieved the prepayment "check card", (actually I got a temp card that could only be replaced with another payment). My account has been charged $380. Its all a bunch of bull. Like so many other people out there, I have been laid off. While I have a great career and some good prospects lined up, I have a mortgage payment to make and a baby on the way amongst other things. These are the most cowardly types of criminals out there because they know they will never meet you. They simply told me what I wanted to hear off the record and recorded me saying yes. I will fill out some afidavits tommorrow at my bank and close my account. I will report them to the FTC. I have already filed a complaint with the BBB. Not sure if that will do anything, but it helps blow off some of this steam. I am sure someone is getting rich off of us but while they might be enjoying it now, they have a long life ahead of them...I am a proud American and I can sleep at night. Sweet dreams.. Joe Somerville, New Jersey