Direct Mercants Bank Credit Card Fees Ripoff
Ripping Off the Consumer:
I have been a long standing, good customer of Direct Mercants Bank.
On November 7, 2001, Direct Merchants Bank sent me a notice stating I had an overlimit status and they were imposing a $41.94 fee.
As a result of this, I contacted Direct Merchants to inquire about this notice. I spoke with a female customer representative who was very rude to me. When I was not satisfied with her behavior, I asked to speak with a supervisor. She responded that one was not available. She told me to call back to speak with another representative. I called back. This time I spoke with a male customer representative. He was even worse than the
female representative. He was yelling at me on the phone. It was at that point that I decided as a consumer that I did not have to be subjected to this and hung up the phone.
I was considering consoldating my account to get this paid off quickly. After speaking with the agent, he suggested I call Direct Merchants and ask to skip my December. Because of the treatment I received from the customer representatives, I decided to email Direct Merchants requesting this. Not hearing from them to get approval I finally had to send in my payment for December. That payment was late and it was the first time. I also sent another payment on December 28 for the January payment.
In January, I received another notification saying again I had an over limit and again was bein imposed a fee. So now, my account again is being charged with fees from Direct Merchants which has caused my original balance to be over limit.
Today I submit this complaint because I feel that companies like Direct Merchants Bank are abusing their authority and are taking good standing customers credit and abusing it illegally without justification. They should not be allowed to impose any fees as they see fit.
Sue
Binghamton, New York
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Cori
St Louis,Missouri,
Bogus Fees charged!
#2Consumer Comment
Wed, June 05, 2002
I also had a very bad experience with Direct Merchants Bank. After I lost my job of 6 years, I was late in making some of my payments to Direct Merchants Bank. This caused my card to exceed it's credit limit. I was only able to make my regular monthly payment however, & could not pay the over the limit fees that Direct Merchants Bank had added to my card, so after speaking to a customer service rep (who was also rude to me), I was told that even if I had my monthly payment in on time each month, that because I didn't have the over the limit fee paid as well, they would still charge me a late fee on top of another monthly over the limit fee. They were not the least bit sympathetic to my unemployment situation & their only concern was getting their money.
I never abused my credit card priveledges & had good credit with this company for many years but that didn't seem to matter to them. After being out of work for 9 months, & having an original balance of $1900 on my card...Direct Merchants Bank ended up gouging me for $800-$900 in late & over the limit fees stating that if I refused to pay these fees they would ruin my credit which they did anyway. They're all rip-offs.