Complaint Review: Direct Merchants Bank

For approximately the past 12 months direct merchants bank has charged a late fee to my account every month because I have paid the bill early on the 1st or 2nd of the month and the payment was due on the 27th. They told me I paid too early and credited it to the prior month instead of the current month. One payment was for 1500.00 dollars. Then they raised my interest rate to 29.99 percent for making supposedly late payments.

They refuse to credit the appropriate payments to the appropriate months. Their answer is simply you paid too early you need to make another payment.

I am a teacher and get paid once a month, most credit card companies do not have a problem with someone paying 25 days ahead, 25 days is not 6 months ahead. After reading many internet complaints I have come to the conclusion this company will do anything to charge a late fee. In fact one of their employees whom we spoke to said this is the most common complaint that they get daily. Yet the employees you speak to on the phone are not given the authority to right the errors. I was taken aback by the employee response.

I don't consider how someone who makes a payment 25 days in advance could be considered a dead beat. Doing business with this company is liking selling your sole to the devil. This deadbeat will shortly have the card payed off and will never do business with this company again. I have forwarded all my materials to a lawyer who is considering a class-action lawsuit against this company. I'd like to know if they went to the same school of business as Enron!!!

Deborah Bernardini
Joshua Tree, California
U.S.A.