Complaint Review: Aspire Visa - Ft. Lauderdale Florida

Aspire was brought to task in several states and lost. The charges were deceptive advertising pertaining to fees. New York residents were the largest group to benefit as a result of this action. I am a card holder of an Aspire Visa Card. My experience with them has been very good. The customer service is like many others, poor at best! Their web site does leave a lot to be desired. The only problem I experienced was obtaining a pin to use for cash advances. They took over two months and several calls. I requested a manager and was given one in Atlanta. The person I spoke with was knowable and within 4 days of the conversation I received 3 separate mailings with my assigned pin. I realize that this posting is to late for many but I hope it will be constructive for those that read it. First and foremost be advised that in order to rebuild credit you must be informed. On to many occasions I have read here and all over the web of the so called 'horror' stories about experiences with these type of creditors. Most however are self inflicted. These creditors do serve a purpose when used properly. The fees are high due to the risk taken by extending credit to less than desirable credit worthy people. You must follow the contractual obligations you have accepted. If you claim you do not know them that's mostly your fault. The print is small and sometimes hard to put in prospective but you accepted them. You as a card holder must manage your finances. This means reading your statements, paying a minimum (or more) amount BEFORE the due date. This does not mean mailing it the day it is due, it will take several more days to even reach your creditor. There is nothing in any contract that says payments are considered by postmark date. You should never 'MAX' your card for ANY reason. This is just bad budgeting. Live to your means not living above them. This is more than likely what necessitated your having to become involved with this type of creditor in the first place. If you don't understand basic finance there is plenty of help available to assist you. This is your obligation not the creditors. There are unethical practices used by some of these companies. There are also methods in place to correct and hold them to task. Aspire being a good example. They lost we benefited. Now it is up to you to do your part in maintaining your credit no one else can do that for you.

Ignoring Aspire will only make things worse. My first credit card was a Visa Aspire, and not only was their customer service horrible, the called my home and tried to made payment arragements with one of my friends (who happened to be staying with me, I was at work) to take my next payment out of MY checking account and assured her she was authorized to make this decesion. I made the mistake of not cancelling my card and not paying, and withing a month or so, my balance went from around $400 to nearly $1000, and it is something I am still paying for to this day, so please dont ignore it, in the end it will only be hurting you and your credit.

reads: We are sorry to inform you that we will be closing this account! ( This is a letter from the Bank) Aspire wants the 240.00 plus 35.00 over the limit fee DUE NOW! Ok, Of course I start the "DISPUTE" process and continue to send in money ( 50.00 -- not the 275.00 they want.. ) In the meantime of all this going on... The bank is declaring my Payments as LATE? ( hahaha.. sheesh )When I CLEARLY have my own bank records showing that they are being deposited by aspire WAY before the due date! ( ?? ) Its almost comical . I mean , you sit here and CLEARLY watch and can see them Lying about your account activity. Since Nov. 2005 -- I have racked up a large sum of fees While waiting for the disputes department to answer back on my disputed "opening Line of Credit" which again was $1750.00 ( with aspire they only allow 1/2 of your credit line available to you for the first 3 months.. After that , if you can show you are responsible , they release the other 1/2 ) In which I did .. It was only after I started to spent on the account did they "FREEZE" the account. ?? My account is still in disputes.. And they call all hours of the day and night... Even on SUNDAYS when the company is closed.. ( right there tells you its all automated) When you answer theres no one there. ( sometimes there will be ) My question for the staff here at rip-offs report is -- CAN WE TAKE THESE COMPANIES AND FILE AT SMALL CLAIMS COURT , like here in my county... can I go and file a small claims suit against them... In the hopes that they will just settle out of court and clean up my account .. not to be bothered with such trivial things?? Or should we try to get another CLASS ACTION SUIT going ? I know lawyers in my state that took on PROVIDIAN Visa for me and won! Any Advise for all of us credit suckers out here? Thanks for such a great site for us to come to vent our fustrations.. to seek help / advise . And basically just to remind us that we are not alone in this when it comes to the Scam World! Billie Jo (((email redacted))) CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.

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I to was stupid enough to open an account with this company... Only , I have to disagree with the large opening fees... ( NOT everyone is "charged" fees to open ) I Wasn't.. Thats what made it so tempting... To jump on. I opened an account for 1750.00. That was Nov. 2005. ( I decided to to take a small trip with the new card) I started by renting a car .. hmm. The rest of of the card was being used for GAS / road expenses.. Ok, alls well... well, about my 3rd day into the trip ( I'm in N.M. by this time - from FL. ) I'm standing at the gas pump trying to pump gas ... Only now , my card is being rejected!!?? Ok, I get thee ol' cell phone and call the wonderful customer service they have.. Only to find out that they "stopped" my account because of the "way" I was using the card!!?? (Spending it to fast) So they put a hold on it. Thats ALL the info the NON-english speaking lady could tell me.. So ok , I'm in N.M. , ( thank god for mother's heh ? ) 1,000 miles away from home.... ok , well , I'll skip over my sad song ... It gets better... So I finally get the rental car home... ( Thanks to BP gas card -- who even gave me a credit increase over the phone! Thanks BP!-) I get the car back.. Only to find that the car charges and all the other stuff I charged was going to EXCEED the credit limit.. ( Because not only did they STOP my acoount , they LOWERED my credit line back down to 1/2 in the process)Exceed the credit limit like 240.00 . ( Because they LOWERED IT ! of course its going to exceed .. ) So the next statement---> reads: We are sorry to inform you that we will be closing this account! ( This is a letter from the Bank) Aspire wants the 240.00 plus 35.00 over the limit fee DUE NOW! Ok, Of course I start the "DISPUTE" process and continue to send in money ( 50.00 -- not the 275.00 they want.. ) In the meantime of all this going on... The bank is declaring my Payments as LATE? ( hahaha.. sheesh )When I CLEARLY have my own bank records showing that they are being deposited by aspire WAY before the due date! ( ?? ) Its almost comical . I mean , you sit here and CLEARLY watch and can see them Lying about your account activity. Since Nov. 2005 -- I have racked up a large sum of fees While waiting for the disputes department to answer back on my disputed "opening Line of Credit" which again was $1750.00 ( with aspire they only allow 1/2 of your credit line available to you for the first 3 months.. After that , if you can show you are responsible , they release the other 1/2 ) In which I did .. It was only after I started to spent on the account did they "FREEZE" the account. ?? My account is still in disputes.. And they call all hours of the day and night... Even on SUNDAYS when the company is closed.. ( right there tells you its all automated) When you answer theres no one there. ( sometimes there will be ) My question for the staff here at rip-offs report is -- CAN WE TAKE THESE COMPANIES AND FILE AT SMALL CLAIMS COURT , like here in my county... can I go and file a small claims suit against them... In the hopes that they will just settle out of court and clean up my account .. not to be bothered with such trivial things?? Or should we try to get another CLASS ACTION SUIT going ? I know lawyers in my state that took on PROVIDIAN Visa for me and won! Any Advise for all of us credit suckers out here? Thanks for such a great site for us to come to vent our fustrations.. to seek help / advise . And basically just to remind us that we are not alone in this when it comes to the Scam World! Billie Jo (((email redacted))) CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.

You should not ignore this, as it will not go away and will only get worse. You did not give some details about the situation. But what you did say contradicted yourself. To begin with, you said you had a credit limit, and then you claim the bill was not yours. Aspire is not the best of credit cards...they have huge fees just to open an account. I am assuming by what you stated here you did have an account opened with a $300.00 credit limit, but never used it. You must understand that with Aspire, there are several fees that they charge you immediately when you open your account. So immediately you have a balance and owe them money. Every month thereafter you will get charged a late payment and interest will be added. After a couple of months, the balance of the account will be over the $300.00 amount and they not only add late fees and interest, but will then start charging overlimit fees as well. By the account being late and over limit allows them to increase the interest rate on the account to an extremely high rate. This is why I tell you - do not ignore it as it will continue to grow larger. Additionally....if you didn't want to pay the fees that they were going to charge when you opened the account, you simply should have not opened it. And if you opened the account without knowing about the fees then shame on you for not reading all the fine print in the envelope they had mailed you to begin with. Always read the entire contract and know what you are agreeing to before you sign on the dotted line.