topic Re: Aspire Visa, Scam Need Advise HELP, HELP in General Credit Topics

Aspire Visa, Scam Need Advise HELP, HELP

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 15:21:49 GMT

Had this card since 2001, lost my job at the end of 2002 here in SF and was out of work for over a year. In the mean time I signed up all of my Credit Cards with a Consumer Debt Counselor so that I can consolidate and pay off... All accepted except Aspire and I tried for months for them to accept payment plan through the Debt Counselor. My credit limit was $2500.00 in the mean time while I was paying them here and there at times over 300.00... amount owed never went down rather increased. By 2006 they started calling me at my Job 10-14 times a day, home and everywhere. Very embarrasing, they were out of control. Finally I begged the Credit Counseling people to plead on my behalf to accept a payment offer. In 2006 they accepted and now I pay them $112.00 every month.

Now I feel like I was screwed. On my credit report it is reported as a Charge off, just looks really bad... don't know what that means. I just signed up with FICO just a week ago, and I am hoping for any advise...

The debt went from $2500.00 all the way to $5800.00 and now $4100.00 but in over all they are paid well over $4000.00 since end of 2002. I don't want to pay anymore, I feel like I paid my dues. If they would have accepted payment plans they would have been long paid. Please any advise on how I should approach this??

All my other credit cards about five of them are paid off..

HELP, HELP

Re: Aspire Visa, Scam Need Advise HELP, HELP

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 15:27:09 GMT

Charge off is simply an accounting term- "Charged to profit or Loss" they wrote this off their balance sheet.
This is probably an accurate description of the account status.

You stated you have been paying on this- so you are under SOL. If you stop paying they will just turn around a sue you.

Increase the payment to them- or settle it or PFD.

Re: Aspire Visa, Scam Need Advise HELP, HELP

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 18:52:53 GMT

how do you approach them to settle, how do I go about it, I can't seem to find no one to talk except collectors in India..

Re: Aspire Visa, Scam Need Advise HELP, HELP

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 18:58:44 GMT

Also what does PFD stads for and also SOL??

Re: Aspire Visa, Scam Need Advise HELP, HELP

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 19:09:12 GMT

foust wrote:

Also what does PFD stads for and also SOL??

Welcome.

PFD = "pay for delete". You write a PFD letter to get an unpaid collection removed. You offer to pay all or part of the amount if the creditor will delete it from your credit reports. Here is a thread with examples of letters you can use as a starting point:

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=generalcredit&message.id=2659

Here are 2 threads which explain SOL (statute of limitations):

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=generalcredit&thread.id=8713

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=generalcredit&thread.id=17466

Good luck!

Re: Aspire Visa, Scam Need Advise HELP, HELP

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 19:11:47 GMT

foust, welcome to the forum. There is a wealth of information here, to help you answer your questions you might have. Please read:

1.) Credit Scoring 101 in the Understanding FICO Scoring:
http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=ficoscoring&thread.id=2654

2. We have a language of our own. I suggest you print out copy of Guide to Common Abbreviations, found in Understanding, etc as well:
http://ficoforums.myfico.com/fico/board/message?board.id=ficoscoring&thread.id=1325

PFD = Pay For Delete
SOL = Statue of Limitations.

Re: Aspire Visa, Scam Need Advise HELP, HELP

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 19:33:38 GMT

Thank you all, this is a good start, wish I knew about this site a while ago... thanks.

Re: Aspire Visa, Scam Need Advise HELP, HELP

Anonymous — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 19:46:32 GMT

foust wrote:

... wish I knew about this site a while ago...

Don't we all!

Re: Aspire Visa, Scam Need Advise HELP, HELP

Tink — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 21:52:49 GMT

Be very careful with them. They sued me. My case was dismissed without prejudice but that doesn't mean they can drag me back in court. It was dismissed after my attorney requested a continuance. My attorney who has been working with the CA since September and they have not accepted my offer yet. I keep geting different debt collection notices and I send them to my attorney. Good luck with them!

Re: Aspire Visa, Scam Need Advise HELP, HELP

Anonymous — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 19:30:30 GMT

AOL had an article on this company (check aol finances and do a search). Aspire is a huge scam. I had a credit limit with them for 300.00 and I missed a payment, got an over the limit fee, late fee and my monthly payment. My monthly payment was 25.00 plus the late fee (29.00), plus over the credit limit fee (29.00) , made the payments totally 83.00, they didn't get my payment in time (so they said) so I had another late fee, over the credit limit fee, it became one huge cycle couldn't keep up. Finally I closed the account. The fees kept adding up, and up until this month it wasn't paid and late fees accruing. It ended up costing me 1,800.00 it went to a collection company too. Thank God it's paid now, Never use this company. BTW, the inital charge to use the card was 150.00, plus the 50.00 annual fee. I had a initial credit limit of 100.00 after first opening the card. Also stay away from HSBC, same thing as above happened to me with them.

Re: Aspire Visa, Scam Need Advise HELP, HELP

Anonymous — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 20:43:36 GMT

mardeeloftus wrote:
AOL had an article on this company (check aol finances and do a search). Aspire is a huge scam. I had a credit limit with them for 300.00 and I missed a payment, got an over the limit fee, late fee and my monthly payment. My monthly payment was 25.00 plus the late fee (29.00), plus over the credit limit fee (29.00) , made the payments totally 83.00, they didn't get my payment in time (so they said) so I had another late fee, over the credit limit fee, it became one huge cycle couldn't keep up. Finally I closed the account. The fees kept adding up, and up until this month it wasn't paid and late fees accruing. It ended up costing me 1,800.00 it went to a collection company too. Thank God it's paid now, Never use this company. BTW, the inital charge to use the card was 150.00, plus the 50.00 annual fee. I had a initial credit limit of 100.00 after first opening the card. Also stay away from HSBC, same thing as above happened to me with them.

Welcome to the team. And thanks for the word of advice about HSBC. I'm going to be cautious when dealing with them.

Re: Aspire Visa, Scam Need Advise HELP, HELP

marty56 — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 20:52:08 GMT

Captiol One plays the same game, not as bad but they do.

I knew I was making progress with my credit score when I stoped getting pre-approved offers from them.

Aspire is the worst of the worst.

Re: Aspire Visa, Scam Need Advise HELP, HELP

Anonymous — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 22:20:16 GMT

I have to disagree with you on that....Crapital One is the biggest scam out there. More lawsuits against them than any other cc company that I am aware of.

I do have aspire and orchard. I actually had two orchard's. Orchard pulled one over on me on one card by raising my interst rate. I just paid it off and closed it. But on Aspire and my other Orchard cc, I have never had any problems at all with them.

Thing about it is all three of these cc companies prey on us with poor/bad credit and offer us a credit card. I had filed chp 13 BK and got offered a Capital One card with a three hundred dollar limit. I now owe them $1706.00. They pulled that late fee and OL fee on me. I told them I would pay them what I owed them and not a penny more because it was a scam. That was five year ago. I have two more years before it comes off my CR. I just have to tuff it out, because I will not pay them. It would not increase my credit score and they wouldn't do a PFD........so scre...them.

I am slowly getting back in the ball game-although I did recently get dropped into a lower pond of water just as my score was increasing.

Bad thing about Crap One is they will update a closed account ever now and them to show up a late payment and in return it drops your score. They do it at least once a year in order to show you made a late payment in the last 12 months.

Re: Aspire Visa, Scam Need Advise HELP, HELP

Anonymous — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 23:34:05 GMT

Hasn't Aspire been sued?

Re: Aspire Visa, Scam Need Advise HELP, HELP

marty56 — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 03:01:47 GMT

They are both legal loan sharks. I'd love to see a class action lawsuit against them. I would pay to be on the jury.

Re: Aspire Visa, Scam Need Advise HELP, HELP

Anonymous — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 03:16:33 GMT

here is the link from AOL I was talking about concerning this card and others. It's very useful. http://money.aol.com/fool/credit/canvas3/_a/the-worst-credit-card-ever/20070125162409990001