I knew it was stupid to get that Credit One card. Advice needed

[Anonymous]

Credit One has runined everything I've done in the past year. This is gonna be long TL/DR at bottom.

I started at 27 with a thin file. I always had phobia about owing things. I got lucky with a secured Discover(man I love them) . I even opened a checking account with them as I had never even heard of cash back checking and I wanted it.

So as credit rises from non exsistant i end up at 693 in only 8 months. I was suprised it had had jumped like that. I did take out a car loan in this time as well. 

I get a credit one card in the mail. I don't  know what I was thinking. I just kept seeing "too few accounts" glaring in negative factors on myfico I guess it was getting to me.


I used this card once. I spend about $45 at as gas station. I went on the website the next day and paid it.A few days late I go to see if it's proccessed yet. "account suspened".

I call them and the man from India says I put my acct number where the routing goes and vice versa. I don't think I did but whatever. He says I gotta mail them a check because from some reason it's just simply impossble for them to switch the numbers.(**bleep**) He was talking to me like I was somehow trying to dodge them(It haven't even been a week) I came to my senses and said just cancel the card and I'll pay the balance with my debit card. I told him it was Discover.

Over a month later I recieve a letter saying that I was late with my payment and my card(the one I told them to cancel a month before hand) had been suspended. I had never recieved a statement. I'm freaking out cause of a late payment going on my credit report. 

I don't recall the number of times I talked to these people. 2-3 times a week up untill about two days ago. It took 4 people before one of them says"oh we don't take Discover". I told them it was Disover when I used the debit card and when I read the acct/routing number directly from one of my checks. At the end of thos call after I had asked multiple times he said "I guarantee that it will go through this time." 

Twice I recieved conformation letters in the mail(because I told them to send them) that they wold be taking the money ot of my account.

3 weeks later. A letter comes and It says I'm something like 53 days late. I call yet again. They tell me to use money gram. ok cool. They need the account number to send the money. I had thrown the card away when I thought it was paid off and cancled. I had not received a single statement! They wouldn't give me the account number " for security purposes" even though every time I spoke to them I gave my  SS# address ect..not to mention It the number of a closed account...IT CANT BE USED!

Then credit one guy # 563 says " just go to wal-mart and get a prepaid Visa or Mastercard" I asked if it mattered what brand and he said as long its visa or mastercard It'll work. So I go Pay five bucks and put the $173(late fees +intrest) dollars on it. I call and pay with it.

More time passes. You know this long enough You guys get the jist.

After a horribly rude woman from collections called me and insulted me I may have told her to go **bleep** herself.

I FINALLY get a statement in the mail. 45 bucks had turned into $193. This hurt since I only make 13.20 an hour had just bought a car and I also have to take care of my mom. I was still happy though. Account number in hand I go to moneygram and pay it.

I get a statement last week says balance $53....I call them in a bit of a rage when look it up he says "oh no we owe you $53 you overpaid"(no **bleep**) I look a little closer and see the statement actually says -53. I remembered one of the few competent people I had spoken when I asked to speak with a manager. The nice woman looked into said she would wave the late fees and apologised profusely. I had called to make sure I was paying the full balance when I finally got the statement The late fees were still there but I thought I would rather be broke than talk to these people again.

I checked my credit score. 598....Now part if this is because I got a sweet cap one card preapproved with no annual fee anf I hit a bit of a rough patch and had my utilization go over 50% a couple of times. Though I always paid in full before the due date and had accured no intrest. I'll be back to keeping my utilization around 10% this month.

I call them again. I asked for a manager immediately. I explained everything. From credit one continuously feeding me false information to the fact that I had proof that I had tried to pay numerous times and even though I asked for payment conformation each time I would find out weeks later it had not gone through. t\The fault was on credit one. He kept trying to give me the run around but he didn't really have any counter arguments to my points. So, this manager transferred me to his manager.

A nice woman, though not much help. She pretty much said yeah it was their fault but she could'nt do anything about. She did however give me the address of the dispute department(they don't take calls.)And told me to write them. I asked her if they would know about our conversation and she said all she could really do was send them her notes about it. She said that she would make sure everything was laid out in them though. She seemed to empathise with me so I think she'll hold true to it.

I'm going to thoughly over the sticky about writing these letters but I feel I still need advice.

Should I try the letter first and wait to dispute it with the bureaus? Should I do both at once? Do I even have a chance of success by disputing with the bureaus?


TL/DR: credit one kept feeding me misinformation and watin 3-4 weeks to inform me that my payments weren't going though even though I asked for conformation each time. Ended up VERY late and ruined what I had worked for this past year. This was my main goal for the year...

Also fun fact: out of my rather large sample size roughly 1% of credit ones customer service reps aren't idiots.

[Anonymous]

Oh my goodness! What a nightmare!

[Anonymous]

Credit One clearly spells out their fees on the disclosure screen and in paperwork sent with the card. Furthermore, during activation, customer reps often reiterate some of the highlights of the card agreement. Interest accrues from time of purchase with no grace period. This is highly unusual, even in the sub-prime card realm, and catches many Credit One cardholders off-guard.

Issues with pay from bank is common due to customer entered typos and other glitches during payment processing. Some cards verify, to varying extents, the bank account information during the payment setup process to reduce chance of errors. Based on the info you've provided, it appears Credit One doesn't even verify routing number. If true, that's surprising.

The advice from a rep to use pre-paid debit cards to pay was the best info you received - express pay, which costs around $10 extra, is the safest, and surest way to pay Credit One. Next best way is to push payment to them using a bill pay service that electronically pays Credit One. Way one can often tell is if the bill pay service already has Credit One shown in their list of payees.

Are you sure the card was suspended for payment not going through?, or was it suspended prior to that? Payment at pump is a red flag for some sub-prime cards - some don't even allow such transactions, and require paying for gas inside; safer by the way, and is a good practice even for better cards that have no such restrictions.

Before disputing with the bureaus, give Credit One a chance to make it right. Contact their EO (someone here likely can PM you the info; I don't have it) and explain, in brief, that you paid on time, but experienced problems with payment going through, received conflicting answers on how to address the matter from customer service reps, and that you have since paid off the card in full and would like the lates removed.

If EO doesn't pan out, try filing a BBB complaint before going the dispute route.

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure if the card it's self was suspened I never tried to use it again. When I tried to log into my account on the website to see if my payment had processed yet it said something along the lines of "account access denied please call XXXXXXX"  When I called they told me it was locked because my bank info was wrong.

I thought the prepaid card thing was a good idea too. I kicked myself for not thinking about it. However when I tried to use it didn't work for some reason(I suspect imcompitnece) By this point was pretty frustrated so I made them repeat the numbers back to me like 3 times. I know they were right. Same thing when I gave them my account+routing numbers. This is something that bothers me ok so you don't take Discover cards. A freaking checking account though? The most frustrating part was I saw it under pending transactions the next morning. So, I thought it was done....3 weeks later I find out it did not. I check my bank statements and there is no trace of it.I just don't understand.

I did not know that about the pay at pump thing. I do it with my Discover all the time and never had an issue. I think I've done it with my new cap1 card too. I'll start paying inside though I guess.

Thanks for the advice. I'll try as you say. So if anyone has contact info for the EO(what's that?) I would really appreciate a PM.

Edit: I forgot to mention. As said in the OP I tried to pay the day after I used it. It was less than a week after that I called to find why i couldn't log on. I told them then to cancel the card. On experian it says "card issuer closed". It makes me so angry. 

[gdale6]

EO is executive office.  http://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapid=782164

[Anonymous]

This is why I recommend that people stay away from sub-prime lenders.  Their business model is to make money off of you when you "default".  They have no intention in helping you rebuild your credit.  That would mean they were depleting their potential market.  Rebuilding should be done with subprime cards from prime lenders.  If necessary get secured cards from prime lenders.  Cap One is as low level as you should go.

[Anonymous]

Wairshow does the interest work? R u saying u get charged interest no matter what

[Imperfectfuture]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Wairshow does the interest work? R u saying u get charged interest no matter what

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For credit one, yes.  Interest accrues from time of purchase.  OP's scores were good enough to get a lower end barclays.  A credit union would probably have given a card.

i started with secured card.  Never credit one.

[Anonymous]

Me too, i saw the negative reviews and didn't even look into it.

[Anonymous]

Wow thanks!

If you don't mind with a bit more advice...IWho do I ask to speak to? I assume a secretary will answer. I know I should have all the mail they've sent me handy and explain the situation. I'm not really good speaking on the phone. Don't get me wrong, I can speak fairly well when needed I just don't exactly have the gift of gab, ya know? Should I just fax them a GW?

Also, if anyone with experience in this give me an idea of the conversation may go it would help alot.


Thanks.