@haulingthescoreup wrote:
My guess is that creditors will go after anyone with a pulse, not particularly caring if their target is actually liable. Money is money, and consumer ignorance benefits the lenders.
You're not kidding!
But amongst the vultures, AmEx is the worst.
Flashback to my first year in Canoe U ... Up until that point I have never had a credit card or any type of credit and all of a sudden I started to get calls and letters from AmEx stating I owed them what in those days was a heck of a lot of money -- $7,000. Worried, I called AmEx and they tried to tell me I owed $7k on my grandfather's American Express Card. I explained to them that there is no similarity between our names or our addresses and, in addition, my grandfather passed away long ago. They told me not to worry and they'd take care of the problem. I then started to get offers to open a new account on an almost weekly basis -- all of which I ignored.
Fast forward to the end of my second year at Annapolis ... I get served with a summons and complaint on the now $10k AmEx account. Worried, I again call AmEx and they tell me not to worry about it. They recognize, they assured me, their mistake and promised it would be taken care of within hours.
First term of my third year and my account at Navy Federal is frozen and drained of all my stipend money. I called AmEx and this time they tell me to go pound salt. I am called in for a "chat" by the Superintendent who summarily reads me the riot act and threatens me in no unclear terms with dismissal and a bill for $200k for my education so far. He gives thirty days to get my crap in one bag or abandon ship.
So I sue AmEx. The judge is particularly impressed by AmEx's utter stupidity in even beginning to assume that I can somehow be obligated on the American Express account of a relative who passed away when I was under one year old and finds AmEx committed fraud upon the court and was grossly negligent. AmEx gets spanked with slightly over $100k in real and punitive damages. I clear $40k.
Any time someone walks into SJA with an AmEx problem I salivate. 
edited for unneccesarily descriptive terminology 
"Canoe U", huh? 
* adds to list of great military slang *
It's hard to know what to make of whatever moronic internal collections schmuck at AmEx who decided to dog you. At what point does persistence bring more points than common sense and the ability to analyze data??
Congrats on winning one for the Joe Schmoe against a big corporation!
And this is an illuminating post for those who have no idea of the standards to which the military is held. We civilians can goober up our credit (and finances, and love lives, and everything else) as much as we like with no repercussions from our outside lives. But if you're in the service, you have no secrets.
I had a relative who was an officer who went through an agonizingly embarrassing visit with his CO, because his wife had bounced some checks. The military takes the concept of "family" very seriously indeed.
* adds to list of great military slang *It's hard to know what to make of whatever moronic internal collections schmuck at AmEx who decided to dog you. At what point does persistence bring more points than common sense and the ability to analyze data??
Congrats on winning one for the Joe Schmoe against a big corporation!
And this is an illuminating post for those who have no idea of the standards to which the military is held. We civilians can goober up our credit (and finances, and love lives, and everything else) as much as we like with no repercussions from our outside lives. But if you're in the service, you have no secrets.
I had a relative who was an officer who went through an agonizingly embarrassing visit with his CO, because his wife had bounced some checks. The military takes the concept of "family" very seriously indeed.
@haulingthescoreup wrote:
"Canoe U", huh?
It's hard to know what to make of whatever moronic internal collections schmuck at AmEx who decided to dog you. At what point does persistence bring more points than common sense and the ability to analyze data??
Congrats on winning one for the Joe Schmoe against a big corporation!
And this is an illuminating post for those who have no idea of the standards to which the military is held. We civilians can goober up our credit (and finances, and love lives, and everything else) as much as we like with no repercussions from our outside lives. But if you're in the service, you have no secrets.
I had a relative who was an officer who went through an agonizingly embarrassing visit with his CO, because his wife had bounced some checks. The military takes the concept of "family" very seriously indeed.
Others for the list: The Boat School and also Crabtown U.
Even though the service branches have relaxed a bit on getting involved in one's personal financial affairs, it is still relatively common to find a service member getting either nonjudicial punishment or at least a counseling statement over mismanaged finances. Heck, even an oral reprimand can mean delayed promotions.
