Complaint Review: CCA FIRST NATIONAL MERCHANT

Recently my husband and I received a letter with the heading: "URGENT - APPROVED". This was a letter from a company called CCA First National Merchant. A company out of Las Vegas. Apparently we were approved for an unsecured credit card for a limit of $6,500.00 with no interest fee. All we had to do was call the 1-800 number to have it activated and the card was already provided with the letter.

However, being the pessimistic person that I am ... I read this letter thoroughly. According to this company we would be responsible for an annual fee of $99.00. Of course, there was also a membership fee of $200.00, which they automatically deducted from your card once you activated it. How thoughtful of them!

Any time I have to pay a considerable amount of money just to have a credit card ... that just throws a red flag in the air!! And so I decided to look into this thing a little further ... because I wasn't totally convinced.

I read further and noticed that the company stated that the card was NOT a general credit card. In other words ... you could only purchase items exclusively from an authorized CCA catalog. Another red flag for me! So, I called the number that was provided and requested a catalog. I wanted to see what kind of "merchandise" they had to offer. They claimed to sell all sorts of things. For instance, computers, electronics, furniture, jewelry, cookware .... and so on. I was told that a catalog could not be issued to me unless I activated my card. I kindly declined and hung up the phone.

This was enough to convince me that this was all a hoax. As they say ... "If it's too good to be true ....". But, my instincts got the better of me and I had to find out more. So, I then went on-line to one of my favorite web-sites called www.badbusinessbureau.com . As we all know, the Better Business Bureau is a notable site too, however, under their own stipulations they do NOT reveal any of the complaints which are made from various persons or companies. The Bad Business Bureau web-site DOES!! And it's an excellent thing that they do, in my opinion!

It wasn't much of a surprise to me that there were complaints about this company. But what did surprise me was that there were so many complaints!!! And for many various reasons.

My husband and I see things like this and get that gut instinct that "something isn't right". But we realize, unfortunately, that there are people out there that do get taken advantage of from scams like these. That's why I am writing this to all of you in the hopes that you will pass this on. So that no one else gets "taken".

After all of this, my husband tore up the letter and tossed it in the trash. But since I couldn't just settle with that ... I am taking the time to tape that letter back together and post it on the Bad Business Bureau web-site! (with our name and address whited out, of course!) I think people have a right to see what kind of crap gets sent out in our mail!! This should give the consumers a heads-up!

SHAME ON THEM IF THEY FOOL ME ONCE ..... SHAME ON ME IF THEY FOOL ME TWICE!!

Tanya
Gas City, Indiana
U.S.A.