Complaint Review: First Premier Bank - Sioux Falls South Dakota

I myself have a First Premier card and have dealt with every punch they have tried to throw at me. On my very first payment, they tried to hit me with that "late payment" scheme also. Luckily, I had paid by Bank of America Electronic Payment, and Bank of America was able to prove payment was received by First Premier on time. It still took Bank of America 3 calls over two weeks to resolve, but they did get the late fee reversed. Since then, they never tried that late fee accusation again. If you have to deal with orgainizations like First Premier, make sure you can prove payment information. NEVER just mail them a check or pay an additional $9 (or whatever their fee is up to now) for each payment on their website for something many banks will do for free. If you have to, "Delivery Confirmation" or Priority Mail with delivery receipt is even cheaper than the $9. The only catch to electronic payments is that the money may take 2-5 days to clear (2 days for most). Still, considering Debit transactions are immediate most of the time, 2 day delay from out of your account to paid is not bad. But the bottom line is, don't deal with organizations like First Premier unless you have no other choice. For about the same fees you pay them for the first year, you can take $250 and deposit in a Secured Credit Card Savings Account to get a card with the same limit. I now maintain one card from Orchard Bank with a secured limit that I built up gradually from $250 now up to $1000 and a Bank of America secured card that I built up from $250 to $500. The only downside of Secured cards is that they are usually a little harder to qualify for. The advantages of the Secured cards is that the savings account draws interest and will be refunded when you close the account or they convert your account to a non-secured account. While many of them still have annual fees, they are MUCH less than First Premier and do not have the high opening or Monthy Maintenance fees that First Premier charges: Charges that don't pay interest and that are not refundable. These accounts are also reported on some or all of the major credit agency reports, which despite First Premier's promise to me, they have not reported my excellent credit history to any agency for over a year! If you have a First Premier account, check your credit reports to see if they are reported and correct.

ok really listen to what your saying your complaining about when you get hit with late fees. well i have a great way to avoid those dont ever pay late!!!! not exactly a hard concept a late fee is never charged unless the payment is made late. so we got that fee out of the way ok now moving on to the over the limit fee again very very easy to avoid dont go over the credit limit. a great way to avoid that is to always make your payments on time so by making on time payments and not going nuts with your credit card you can avoid those to. and as far as giving people with bad a credit a break on fees and interest i mean listen to that for a second and you will realise its not a great idea. if you were going to loan me money but knew there was a good chance i would never give it back would you maybe charge me some fees or charge a little bit of interest. and secondly 9.9% is a good interest rate go to a payday check cashing type loan and find out the meaning of high interest rates. so if you have bad credit and want to borrow money then expect high fees. and if it builds your credit so you can get a lower interest rate on a car or home loan then $179 in start up fees seem pretty small. after all would you spend $179 to save thousands of dollars. and lastly dont make great claims that you have 200 reports about one company so it has to be a rip off never mind that the company has over millions of card holders so lets see here 200 out of just 1 million is about .02% so far less then 1% of the people have a problem. but to address those 200 people who have filed complaints i read them they all about the start up fees. well if you signed the line with the "x" on it how could you have posibby missed the paragraph about it that said there were 178 dollars in fees and that you would only have 72 dollars to spend? and if you missed that part right above where you sign i have to ask did you read anything on the application or did you just sign it. and dont say its all fine print because its not actually there is a huge box with all of the fees listed in clearly understood plain english. never mind that some parts are in large bold letters. plus when you get the card it comes with a letter in one last attempt to give you a chance to read about the fees and back out. so if you didnt read the application you didnt read the letter that comes with the card and you go over your limit and you dont make your payment on time. then whos fault is it i would say its YOUR!!! FAULT!!! so if it is your fault the toughen up and deal with it.

As a person whose good credit has been damaged by an incorrect report to the Credit Bureau by an Institution I had paid in full (They forgot to report that I paid it off, had never been late with a payment), I feel I must speak up. First Premier has an annual fee, a program fee, an account set-up fee and a monthly participation fee. This is disgraceful. These poor souls who are in good faith trying to rebuild their credit will never do it this way. These are the people who need the breaks in the interest rate, fees, etc. This has made me mad enough to do something about First Premier Bank and others like them from gouging people alive.

Wait unil you start getting overlimit/late fees, no matter how much you pay or how early you pay it. Of course, I am sure that they did not disclose the "internet access fee" of $3.95 a month, not to mention that should you use their site for making payments, there is a $5.00 fee for paying your bill, or a $9.95 fee for paying your bill by phone (which, PLEASE refer to my post of October 19th, it may save you alot of grief). Did they also tell you that when you they give you a $100 credit line increase, it will cost you $25.00?

Hate to tell you, the $179.00 or whatever they charged you in start up fees is only foreplay...the real screw job has yet to come. My husband had to report them to the Banking Commission and we had to amend the complaint because they are now trying to charge us fees on PAID OFF cards.

I recently got a credit card through First Premier Bank, and I remember the woman on the phone explain everything to me about the card and what they charge you to have their card.

I can understand that people don't always read everything, because I used to do that myself, but you can't come on here and say that this company ripped you off when in all honesty they did not.

Most company's will not charge you $175.00 annualy to have their credit card but when you have a company that is willing to work with people that have a history of bad credit with credit cards, you should really appreciate it.

This company is not a fraud, they just have high fee's, sometimes you have to take what you can get i guess.

I recently got a credit card through First Premier Bank, and I remember the woman on the phone explain everything to me about the card and what they charge you to have their card.

I can understand that people don't always read everything, because I used to do that myself, but you can't come on here and say that this company ripped you off when in all honesty they did not.

Most company's will not charge you $175.00 annualy to have their credit card but when you have a company that is willing to work with people that have a history of bad credit with credit cards, you should really appreciate it.

This company is not a fraud, they just have high fee's, sometimes you have to take what you can get i guess.

I recently got a credit card through First Premier Bank, and I remember the woman on the phone explain everything to me about the card and what they charge you to have their card.

I can understand that people don't always read everything, because I used to do that myself, but you can't come on here and say that this company ripped you off when in all honesty they did not.

Most company's will not charge you $175.00 annualy to have their credit card but when you have a company that is willing to work with people that have a history of bad credit with credit cards, you should really appreciate it.

This company is not a fraud, they just have high fee's, sometimes you have to take what you can get i guess.

First I must say, I recently recieved approval for this card and accepted it because I needed to
rebuild my previously bad credit. Since no one else would approve me without a security deposit or checking account# I read all disclosures, fees,
and penalties for neglagance.

The reason people run into problems is not the banks fault. You absolutly must be responsible
with this card. It's a tool to help you recover
from past debts. Not a spend all you can and cancel because you didn't read all disclosures.

All in all I believe this card will definitly help me, and anyone else that wants to gain a better credit rating. And once you prove to be
responsible, in 6 months you have a chance to get a credit increase, and a good report to all major credit reporting agencies. I love this card even
if my starting balance was very low, i know it will increase with time.

Every complaint I've read regarding First Premier is due to the person's negligence in reading the offer thouroughly. Yes, the fees are high (the interest rate,however,is low @ %9.9 apr), but my decision to accept was made in the light of day and wit a clear understanding of the obligation I am accepting.

I could decline and wait for time and less effective methods to improve my credit rating...
Or I could accept the one time fees associated with this offer and then use the credit card responsibly (NOT AS A TOOL TO IMPROVE MY STANDARD OF LIVING), and my credit rating will be improved that much faster. This, I believe, is a fair deal!

I received a call at work for me return a 1-877 xxx-xxxx # when I called the person was pleasant, but could not give me any information about my account (which should not exist, because I have never applied for a card)until I gave my SS #. I refused and asked to be transfered to the Fraud division of their company because I'm a current victum of ID theft. The fraud division doesnt accept incoming phone calls, but the customer service person was pleasant but had difficulty helping me without a SS # or account number. After a mexican standoff, She did do a search for my last name in the computer and only came up with someone who had an account 10 years ago, but it was closed 10 years ago. Thank God nobody applied for a card this time.
Sincerely,
Don't need the Card!

I recently accepted this card over the phone...now that I think about it, I don't believe they told me about all of the other fees included with the set-up. All I heard was the 19.95 initial fee...that's all...hope I'll be able to cancel it quickly if and when I receive the card. Sounds like they were not up front over the phone with these fees....I knew it sounded too good to be true.

I have had absolutely no problems with my card and they have been very forth coming about any fees.

I agree that one should read ALL disclosures (fine print) prior to applying for or accepting any credit offer through the mail or over the internet.

My husband and I are on our way out of the country and when I called them they noted our account so that there would not be a stop put on our card in case of fraud. Please believe that when I return, I will fully disclose how the experience went with our card.

They filed the following rebuttal to the above Rip-Off Report:

Their email: [email protected]
Their name: heidis

Their relationship to the company: Consumer Suggestion

Rebuttal:
well if you did not want to pay the fee then you should not have charged 150$ on it. The credit offers in the mail and otherwise give full disclosure on the companys fees...BEFORE APPLYING. IT IS NOT A RIP OFF OR A SCAM YOU NEED TO READ THE DISCLOSURES BEFORE YOU APPLY