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Cross Country Bank. Ripoff, & legal loan sharking America. Outlandish ripoff business from hell. Wilmington, Delaware
Due to poor credit following bankruptcy, my husband and I both signed up for "credit" with Cross Country Bank.
The "bank's" cheapest interest rate is a whopping 20.99% and the charges for late fees or over limit fees are in the $30.00 range. When you pay your bill, the bank hold's your credited money for 12 working days prior to releasing the funds. There is NO grace period and therefore, no matter what, you are liable for finance charges.
When you call, you have to do so long distance, no 800 number with live individuals and to get through to a person, you must first wade your way through a constant barage of "information" hoping you will just get tired and hang up before reaching anyone.
When you do get someone they can only tell you what you already can see online and getting to a supervisor is pretty near impossible.
This is a bank which preys on people who think they need a card to rebuild their credit rating only to find themselves so deeply in debt to this bank and getting late fees and over limit fees which then create more bad records.
I had the card since 1998 and finally paid it in full and closed my account. When I asked what it would take to reinstate it, they told me they would have to charge me $50.00 and run a credit check on me as well. I told them no thanks because the fees were just too high and this was the primary reason I had closed the account.
My husband had an even more interesting situation of having a low balance card, getting offered a new "gold" card with a higher credit limit and he accepted. He was never sent the new card nor did he make any further charges but he was continually charged late fees on a card he did not have until he was then being charged "over limit" fees. He repeatedly called to no avail.
My advice to all is PLEASE do your homework before signing up with this or any "bank". You should always look for the lowest rate, the lowest fees and expect to have a grace period in which to send payment and save finance charges. No help for your credit to be had here, nor good services. Another piece of advice is to do your business with them by MAIL and return receipt. Do not attempt to call because they do not keep records of that...
This is just one of many ripoff banks and must be one of the worst. CONSUMER BEWARE.
Melody
Phoenix, Arizona
4 Updates & Rebuttals
Jewel
Ashland,Kentucky,
CCB/ACS : Bad collections, good credit repair.
#5UPDATE EX-employee responds
Wed, June 12, 2002
I am an ex-representative for Cross Country Bank (also doing business as Applied Card Systems) doing outbound collection and I'd like to add my observations on collection practices employed by these companies.
First of all: it is a game to them. The collection department has competitions, dividing collectors into "teams" with catchy names, seeing who can collect the most dollars (with a fat bonus check as a reward.) There is no concern whatsoever with consumer happiness.
If a collector must tell a cardholder that the account will be cured with a payment of $60, when in reality the payment is $100 that he will not receive, he is encouraged to do so. Collectors can get very good at mind manipulation and convincing cardholders to believe what they need to believe in order to make a payment.
If a cardholder has a checking account in the system, then management REQUIRES collectors to place as many phone calls as it takes to the home and residence and CLOSEST RELATIVES even, until contact becomes impossible or payment is obtained.
Applied Card Systems (who handles all collection activity for CCB, and is my ex-employer) is also conveniently exempt from the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act because they technically do not qualify as a "collection agency." They are a "credit card servicing company" who handles internal collections on loans made by THAT company.
--------------------------
On the other hand, as for interest and fees being high, CCB is in a high-risk MARKET. Have you shopped around for other cards? When you say "whopping" interest, that is in comparison to a credit card that you see on tv and you will not be able to obtain due to your credit problems. Other high-risk providers (like Providian, capital-one) charge 29.9% interest (ccb: 20.99), $35-40 late/overlimit fees (ccb: $30) and charge $12-20 for a pay-by-phone (CCB: $7.)
Even though I dont approve of ACS/CCB's barbaric collection practices, please shop around (or try applying for anything cheaper!) before you complain about the fees that are all outlined in a cardholder agreement that YOU put your name to.
There's my input... i'm out.
Jewel
Ashland,Kentucky,
CCB/ACS : Bad collections, good credit repair.
#5UPDATE EX-employee responds
Wed, June 12, 2002
I am an ex-representative for Cross Country Bank (also doing business as Applied Card Systems) doing outbound collection and I'd like to add my observations on collection practices employed by these companies.
First of all: it is a game to them. The collection department has competitions, dividing collectors into "teams" with catchy names, seeing who can collect the most dollars (with a fat bonus check as a reward.) There is no concern whatsoever with consumer happiness.
If a collector must tell a cardholder that the account will be cured with a payment of $60, when in reality the payment is $100 that he will not receive, he is encouraged to do so. Collectors can get very good at mind manipulation and convincing cardholders to believe what they need to believe in order to make a payment.
If a cardholder has a checking account in the system, then management REQUIRES collectors to place as many phone calls as it takes to the home and residence and CLOSEST RELATIVES even, until contact becomes impossible or payment is obtained.
Applied Card Systems (who handles all collection activity for CCB, and is my ex-employer) is also conveniently exempt from the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act because they technically do not qualify as a "collection agency." They are a "credit card servicing company" who handles internal collections on loans made by THAT company.
--------------------------
On the other hand, as for interest and fees being high, CCB is in a high-risk MARKET. Have you shopped around for other cards? When you say "whopping" interest, that is in comparison to a credit card that you see on tv and you will not be able to obtain due to your credit problems. Other high-risk providers (like Providian, capital-one) charge 29.9% interest (ccb: 20.99), $35-40 late/overlimit fees (ccb: $30) and charge $12-20 for a pay-by-phone (CCB: $7.)
Even though I dont approve of ACS/CCB's barbaric collection practices, please shop around (or try applying for anything cheaper!) before you complain about the fees that are all outlined in a cardholder agreement that YOU put your name to.
There's my input... i'm out.
Jewel
Ashland,Kentucky,
CCB/ACS : Bad collections, good credit repair.
#5UPDATE EX-employee responds
Wed, June 12, 2002
I am an ex-representative for Cross Country Bank (also doing business as Applied Card Systems) doing outbound collection and I'd like to add my observations on collection practices employed by these companies.
First of all: it is a game to them. The collection department has competitions, dividing collectors into "teams" with catchy names, seeing who can collect the most dollars (with a fat bonus check as a reward.) There is no concern whatsoever with consumer happiness.
If a collector must tell a cardholder that the account will be cured with a payment of $60, when in reality the payment is $100 that he will not receive, he is encouraged to do so. Collectors can get very good at mind manipulation and convincing cardholders to believe what they need to believe in order to make a payment.
If a cardholder has a checking account in the system, then management REQUIRES collectors to place as many phone calls as it takes to the home and residence and CLOSEST RELATIVES even, until contact becomes impossible or payment is obtained.
Applied Card Systems (who handles all collection activity for CCB, and is my ex-employer) is also conveniently exempt from the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act because they technically do not qualify as a "collection agency." They are a "credit card servicing company" who handles internal collections on loans made by THAT company.
--------------------------
On the other hand, as for interest and fees being high, CCB is in a high-risk MARKET. Have you shopped around for other cards? When you say "whopping" interest, that is in comparison to a credit card that you see on tv and you will not be able to obtain due to your credit problems. Other high-risk providers (like Providian, capital-one) charge 29.9% interest (ccb: 20.99), $35-40 late/overlimit fees (ccb: $30) and charge $12-20 for a pay-by-phone (CCB: $7.)
Even though I dont approve of ACS/CCB's barbaric collection practices, please shop around (or try applying for anything cheaper!) before you complain about the fees that are all outlined in a cardholder agreement that YOU put your name to.
There's my input... i'm out.
Jewel
Ashland,Kentucky,
CCB/ACS : Bad collections, good credit repair.
#5UPDATE EX-employee responds
Wed, June 12, 2002
I am an ex-representative for Cross Country Bank (also doing business as Applied Card Systems) doing outbound collection and I'd like to add my observations on collection practices employed by these companies.
First of all: it is a game to them. The collection department has competitions, dividing collectors into "teams" with catchy names, seeing who can collect the most dollars (with a fat bonus check as a reward.) There is no concern whatsoever with consumer happiness.
If a collector must tell a cardholder that the account will be cured with a payment of $60, when in reality the payment is $100 that he will not receive, he is encouraged to do so. Collectors can get very good at mind manipulation and convincing cardholders to believe what they need to believe in order to make a payment.
If a cardholder has a checking account in the system, then management REQUIRES collectors to place as many phone calls as it takes to the home and residence and CLOSEST RELATIVES even, until contact becomes impossible or payment is obtained.
Applied Card Systems (who handles all collection activity for CCB, and is my ex-employer) is also conveniently exempt from the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act because they technically do not qualify as a "collection agency." They are a "credit card servicing company" who handles internal collections on loans made by THAT company.
--------------------------
On the other hand, as for interest and fees being high, CCB is in a high-risk MARKET. Have you shopped around for other cards? When you say "whopping" interest, that is in comparison to a credit card that you see on tv and you will not be able to obtain due to your credit problems. Other high-risk providers (like Providian, capital-one) charge 29.9% interest (ccb: 20.99), $35-40 late/overlimit fees (ccb: $30) and charge $12-20 for a pay-by-phone (CCB: $7.)
Even though I dont approve of ACS/CCB's barbaric collection practices, please shop around (or try applying for anything cheaper!) before you complain about the fees that are all outlined in a cardholder agreement that YOU put your name to.
There's my input... i'm out.