Complaint Review: Sears Gold MasterCard - Cleveland Ohio

Under the Sears contract it states they can change the terms at anytime on the card. Also it does state the only way for finance charges and interest to stop is a zero balance. The only way on a sears card to keep the interest rate your at when new terms are coming to effect is to opt out by writing in at the address provided to you by the DATE provided to you. Thus this being in the contract and consumers having signed this contract when opening the card they are free to increase interest and charge you interest until zero balance. The activation of the card was not true. That was wrong as well. It seems Mary Ann doesn't know a lot about the credit card of Sears but rather "most" credit cards. She states a lot of untruths and I would not take her advice. I was a credit manager there. My advice is make sure when the new terms come out..read them and if you want to opt out MAKE SURE TO WRITE.

You do not have to activate a card to agree to the new terms. Whoever said that has got no clue. It is stated in the terms and conditions that you MUST WRITE IN TO OPT OUT AND IF YOU DO NOT YOU ARE ACCEPTING THE NEW CHANGE IN TERMS. You don't close your account over the phone and you don't opt out by not activiating because if you have a balance your automatically opted in if a letter is not recieved by the company by a date stated in the change in term letters. This guy however must have made a late payment. Sears in the whole time I was there as a manager of the Credit Card company NEVER charged default unless someone was late...why BECAUSE THATS IN TERMS AND CONDITIONS ALSO... so he probably left out the part about being late. This he complains about the high interest rate Also all retail credit cards are not backed by banks and all including JC Penny, Old Navy, and others will have higher interes rates. And no buddy your not bound just write in the opt out letters by the time it's due and guess what YOUR NOT SUBJECT TO NEW TERMS. Simple as that

You do not have to activate a card to agree to the new terms. Whoever said that has got no clue. It is stated in the terms and conditions that you MUST WRITE IN TO OPT OUT AND IF YOU DO NOT YOU ARE ACCEPTING THE NEW CHANGE IN TERMS. You don't close your account over the phone and you don't opt out by not activiating because if you have a balance your automatically opted in if a letter is not recieved by the company by a date stated in the change in term letters. This guy however must have made a late payment. Sears in the whole time I was there as a manager of the Credit Card company NEVER charged default unless someone was late...why BECAUSE THATS IN TERMS AND CONDITIONS ALSO... so he probably left out the part about being late. This he complains about the high interest rate Also all retail credit cards are not backed by banks and all including JC Penny, Old Navy, and others will have higher interes rates. And no buddy your not bound just write in the opt out letters by the time it's due and guess what YOUR NOT SUBJECT TO NEW TERMS. Simple as that

You do not have to activate a card to agree to the new terms. Whoever said that has got no clue. It is stated in the terms and conditions that you MUST WRITE IN TO OPT OUT AND IF YOU DO NOT YOU ARE ACCEPTING THE NEW CHANGE IN TERMS. You don't close your account over the phone and you don't opt out by not activiating because if you have a balance your automatically opted in if a letter is not recieved by the company by a date stated in the change in term letters. This guy however must have made a late payment. Sears in the whole time I was there as a manager of the Credit Card company NEVER charged default unless someone was late...why BECAUSE THATS IN TERMS AND CONDITIONS ALSO... so he probably left out the part about being late. This he complains about the high interest rate Also all retail credit cards are not backed by banks and all including JC Penny, Old Navy, and others will have higher interes rates. And no buddy your not bound just write in the opt out letters by the time it's due and guess what YOUR NOT SUBJECT TO NEW TERMS. Simple as that

You do not have to activate a card to agree to the new terms. Whoever said that has got no clue. It is stated in the terms and conditions that you MUST WRITE IN TO OPT OUT AND IF YOU DO NOT YOU ARE ACCEPTING THE NEW CHANGE IN TERMS. You don't close your account over the phone and you don't opt out by not activiating because if you have a balance your automatically opted in if a letter is not recieved by the company by a date stated in the change in term letters. This guy however must have made a late payment. Sears in the whole time I was there as a manager of the Credit Card company NEVER charged default unless someone was late...why BECAUSE THATS IN TERMS AND CONDITIONS ALSO... so he probably left out the part about being late. This he complains about the high interest rate Also all retail credit cards are not backed by banks and all including JC Penny, Old Navy, and others will have higher interes rates. And no buddy your not bound just write in the opt out letters by the time it's due and guess what YOUR NOT SUBJECT TO NEW TERMS. Simple as that

Just like to add. I recently reviewed the federal laws. No creditor may lawfully extend credit beyond 50 percent interest. or APR . This law falls under federal loan sharking laws. 50 per cent is the cap by federal government. Still 50 percent is very high for most debitors, unless you are Donald Trump or fall into a Hollywood or Rock Star celebrity status. However it is also in the Federal laws particularily on FDIA, and comsumer protection act, that interest on an open end credit cards may be charged with the extention of "on going" credit. So in other words, If a customer closes his account regardless of the account being paid in full or not, the interest stops and other fees stop. Or if your account is in default they have up to six months to further extend you the credit to correct the default and catch up. After 180 days of default they have 90 days to report it in default to a credit reporting agency. At which time they may "write off" the credit account to the federal government. A write off simple enables them to save on taxes which they will otherwise have to pay the government. Taking a federal "write off" and charging account holders fees and interest above and beyond the principle amount after "write off" is illegal. Please let me know if you or anyone reading this notice has had similar circumstances. Suspended accounts even though they are not closed accounts fall into this same status. They may not legally charge interest during a suspended status, which is only suppose to be temporary a few billing periods at the most. It's a tedious task, but arm yourself with knowledge of these laws, you'll be glad you did.

I have a Sears Mastercard and recently moved. I had my mail forwarded through the Postal Service. Sears stopped sending my statements. So I gave them an updated address over the phone. For a few months I received my statments and had started to double my payments. Once I was ahead in my payments, Sears stopped sending my statements again. When I called to inquire about my statement, I was told that the statement were being returned because of insufficent address. They always stop my statements when I am ahead in the payments. I had just updated my address a few months ago an had also filed a forwarding address with the Postal Service. I also gave them an updated phone number - a big mistake. I receive 10 to 15 calls a day (to include weekends). I made a payment, but because I was not able to make the full payment, I was still charged a late fee. Sears is ripping consumers off. They charge a 35 dollar late fee, even after I called and told them I would not be able to pay the full amount and was told that the (harassing) phone call would continue. Sears does not make any attempt to accomdate the consumer. They are the perfect example of a bad business. I guess they are not making enough in sales, so they jack up the late charges and phone calls.

Uder federal laws an open ended credit card account can only be legal if it is called for by the consumer (debitor). Technically, such taking over of credit card accounts is only legal if the account holder agrees to the new terms of the new card. A card may be substituted but only by the original grantors of credit. Which means Citi bank can not inforce their will on you unless you agree to the new terms. To do this you must activate the new card by sears issued by citibank who is the new account creditor. Either by activation, paying on new account, or making future purchases, the new account is inforcable. To claim other wise would be against our constitional right to disassociate ourselves. We have a constitional right to associate and disassociate in business and social ties. Stating this, the next time a company other than the one you signed up with in a written agreement buys out your account without your prior involvement in the new terms, you legally can call it quits. Therefore, the new credit card company will have to honor your request and close the account and only charge you for the remaining ballance. However, if you activate the card without reading the fine print of the new terms you may get screwed. Then technically you are liable as this counts to your acceptance of the new terms even without your signature. Direct Merchants Bank backed off in a law suit that accumulated 800 dolalrs in interest and over the late fees, etc. I posed a counter claim, claiming that I never activated the card. Direct Merchants Bank admitted that PNC had no rights to the ballance which was left before the take over. Therefore, admitting that I no longer owe PNC, but the money was owned to them instead. Unless they get activation on the new card, or the debator stupidly paid in money to the new account. The account holder is not legally responsible as he never accepted the new terms by activation, or by paying into the new account. Our laws put us in the drivers seat. No one can force you to associate, (do business with them) unless you agree, there must be a meeting of the minds and beneficial for both the creditor and debitor. Not understanding the constituationality of these bank take overs you can really loose everything you've ever worked for.

"If they decide tomorrow to raise the rates to 47% for our accounts, they can assure themselves of customers by raising the default rate to 67%. Nothing is stopping them raising the rates to astronomical levels. " Don't have much to add to this, but you should check out your state's usury laws. These laws are in place to prevent companies from charging astronomical interest on loans, which essentially this is. It's unfortunate that companies have fine print - yes, it is difficult to read, and often difficult to understand. I feel your pain, if I were you I would be upset too, but really you can't blame the company - they informed you as they were required to. Good luck paying it off!