Complaint Review: Fleet Credit Card Service - Nationwide

I am an employee at Fleet and can attest that in no way are there any predatory lending practices. Being in customer service, and a Fleet cardholder as well, this is a common misunderstanding of what the offer was for. When people get invitations to open an account they see a great big zero and always seem to miss the asterisk or the first sentence, which usually states in some form, "Simply transfer a balance now and enjoy 0% on purchases for one year." People always miss the words "on purchases". I have been with the company for about 9 months now and I have never come across an offer where the rate was only good for a month. It always seems that everyone doesn't read the terms of his or her account or bother calling in for an explanation of the terms. If the rep gave wrong information, you waived your billing rights by calling customer service. First paragraph on back of statement under "Billing Rights Summary" states 'You can telephone us but doing so will not preserve your rights.' Laments terms: 'Anything in writing supercedes what's said over the phone.' I remember a memo stating that a third party was activating certain accounts. Hence, she could not access any information about the account on the computer until the activation process was completed. Myth: The better credit rating the higher credit limit you will be approved for. Fact: Credit limits are calculated differently for every bank because every bank has different internal criteria. I will admit that Fleet tends to have high criteria to even be approved. However, if you have many cards open with high credit limits and no balance the bank lowers it's risk by offering a lower limit. Why? Because the more you have available in unsecured loans, the higher risk you are. The idea is that in all probability you could max out all your cards and then become over extended and file bankruptcy and not pay anything. Will it happen? Probably not, but the bank is not willing to take that chance. What is the bank going to do, repossess those groceries you bought a year ago? No. Without all of the details I can only speculate why the credit limit was what it was. Mainly what I want to get across is that Fleet is THE best credit card company I have ever worked for and they pride themselves on customer service. Fleet is currently the 7th largest bank in the US (last time I heard) so they are not in financial trouble. And there is a zero tolerance policy in place so I know for a fact that there are NO predatory tactics, simply misunderstandings and miscommunication. There is more to credit than FICA scores and payment history. Remember, every credit card company works in basically the same way; there aren't enough differences to tell them apart if the names were removed. It is only the person's perception that changes. I urge everyone to obtain a copy of their Card Holder Agreement on all their cards and carefully review them. I know what everyone says, "Oh, it's in the fine print." Exactly, it is and that should tell you that that is THE most important part to read because it IS in fine print. Those are the laws that govern your account and if you are not willing to understand the terms of the amount that you are borrowing than you really don't have a leg to stand on and all the excuses and arguments are moot points.

Fleet is either (1)in financial trouble or (2)has returned to it's old predatory tactics. Fleet tried to raise our CC interest rate from 9.8% to 14.99%. Why? Because our card balance was low and Fleet was not making enough money at the present rate of interest (never mind the hundreds of dollars they had already made in interest from this account)!! We had always been good customers, but Fleet is getting greedy; evidently it's never enough. When a company begins abusing it's customers, good ones and potential ones, even, it sends up a red flag.When they actually LIE about CC offers, it sets off the warning sirens. It has not been that long ago that Fleet was soundly thrashed by the powers that be for predatory lending practices. It is really beginning to look as though they are trying to sneak back into the fold of predatory lenders!! BEWARE!!! They are looking for ways to pick pockets again. Do these morons NEVER learn that they shoot themselves in the foot with these practices?? Fleet and I are finished forever; they lost one good customer and will lose more if they keep it up!