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  • Report:  #282778

Complaint Review: Aspire Visa - Atlanta Georgia

Reported By:
- Rockwood, Tennessee,
Submitted:
Updated:

Aspire Visa
www.aspirecard.com Atlanta, 30348 Georgia, U.S.A.
Phone:
866-816-6993
Web:
N/A
Tell us has your experience with this business or person been good? What's this?
After going though a nasty divorce I was trying to rebuild the credit that my X husband had destroyed. Aspire card portrayed themselves to be the ones who could do just that. I applied and like the majority I started out with a $300.00 limit.

Well, after all of the fees I only had like $25.00. I always made my payment on-time or early because I wanted to build my credit back up. I noticed that no-matter what amount I sent in the balance kept going up due to over the limit fees, late fees, monthly and annual service charges.

Now, almost 4 years later, of making $50.00 to $100.00+ payments monthly my account is now at $1,000.00. As strange as it may sound, I have only used the card 3 times once was for $39.00 and the other 2 times were for gas $20.00 a piece and this has been 3 years ago.

I haven't charged anything on my card in the last 3 years. When I called to cancel my card they told me that the bank had already cancelled my account due to my over the limit and payment history(?).

In a way I was happy because the account was closed. I thought that the account would finally get paid off and I could put that nightmare behind me (Ha! Ha!). It only got worse.

They have been reporting to the credit bureaus that I have been 30 days or 60 days late for the last 40 months which is a crock of s**t. I recently sent them $84.00 which I was told would get my account current. A week later they wanted $108.00 to get my account current.

I called Saturday and was told by someone who could hardly speak any English that my limit had been raised AGAIN!!! She said that I would have to call back during the work week and talk with someone in Collections.

I called Tuesday and talked with 3 different people. The last individual that I demanded to speak to was supposedly the Collections manager and told me that he could do nothing but take $140.00 off of my balance as long as I did a check by phone right then.

When I asked him to review the charges the I had made he started babbling off monthly service fees, over the limit fees and late charges that shouldn't even be there. When I demanded that he tell me what I had charged he said that he couldn't do that because he could only see the past year on his computer. Which goes to show, there was nothing on there that I had charged.

I offered to send them $600.00 overnight if they would just close my account with a $0 balance and they refused and I was told the it would be noted in my account that I turned down the $140.00 that he could have taken off.

Me and my husband are trying to buy a house. We have 4 kids and need something bigger, but because of the Aspire card we're not going to be able to do so. My husband and I have the same debts except that the Aspire card is only mine.

His credit is good, but we need both of our incomes to afford anything. I have been told by several lenders that it's the aspire card that has destroyed my credit. Out of all 3 bureaus my highest score is 513.

I know that some of you out there are moms and dads and can imagine how it broke my heart to tell my 4 kids,that already had their bedrooms picked out, that we weren't gonna be able to the house.

Especially when they told me that it would be o.k. if we needed to use their christmas present money to buy it.I've done nothing but cry for the last week. Aspire Visa has not only brought my credit lower than it has ever been it also destroyed my kids dreams.

If anyone has any advice please let me know. We have got to do something before this company ruins any other lives.

sleigh

Rockwood, Tennessee

U.S.A.


1 Updates & Rebuttals

John

Louisville,
Kentucky,
U.S.A.
Advise...

#2Consumer Comment

Sun, November 04, 2007

They have been reporting to the credit bureaus that I have been 30 days or 60 days late for the last 40 months -------------- Aspire is a world class predator that takes advantage of lower-income people with bad credit...the type of people who cannot fight back. This is why Aspire can operate the way they do. The Bush's and the Rockefeller's do not get Aspire Visa's....If they did you could be sure that they wouldn't tolerate what you have been through and this company would be out of business. It's a shame that you discovered what they were doing 40 months after the fact. Bad credit lasts approximately two years after a negative event, as your credit score is based upon what has happened in the past 24 months. Advise: Don't bother with calling Aspire...it's pointless. Keep all communication with them in writing and sent via Registered Mail with Return Receipt. This will cost $3 each time. Send a letter to Aspire via Registered Mail with Return Receipt. Make a photocopy of the registered mail certificate and enclose it with the letter. In the letter, state: I am officially requesting that this account be closed. This request is being sent via Registered Mail with Return Receipt, so I will be able to officially confirm receipt. Please send confirmation of payoff balance and the amount due. If they do not send you a response within 30 days, file a complaint with the Attorney General in Georgia, where Aspire is located in. Photocopy the complaint and mail to Aspire via Registered Mail with Return Receipt. Also file complaints with the Columbus, Geogia BBB....The bank that operates Aspire, Columbus Bank and Trust, is in Columbus. If you just keep communicating with them on the phone like you've been doing, this cycle of late fees and over-the-limit fees will continue until the day you die...and you'll credit will continue to be damaged. I know I sound like a broken record but keep all communication with them via Registered Mail with Return Receipt and save all communication. Important: These people have all sorts of tricks up their sleeves. If they call you stating that they'll let you close out the account if you wire them, say $700 within two hours, don't do it! This is a scam. GET ANY SETTLEMENT TERMS IN WRITING. DO NOT accept any settlement offers over the phone! DO NOT pay them with an electronic check by giving them your bank transit and checking accout #, if you do they may raid your checking account.

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