Orchard Bank Credit Card Correspondence
1441 Schilling Place
Salinas, CA 93912
Dear Orchard Bank
Dear Orchard;
You are a pain in the arss. Just no other way to explain your existence in my life.
I applied for your "card" and requested a $2,000 limit. I have several cards but was advised to get another "to better build my credit with more payments recorded" so I applied to Orchard. I received the card....300 dollar credit limit---big deal I spend that much for an evening at my favorite Bistro. Ok, so we'll just use this once in awhile and get the payment record established. We'll make some "scheduled" payments so we can stretch out the record. We'll make a $15.00 payment and then charge some more when we reduce the balance. BINGO, two days late because of the hurricane evacuation and two amazing things happen that I really should have expected from your scam-infested organization.
1. My payment "arrived late" ( two days) and so I was charged a "late fee"
2. The "late fee was more than twice the payment. This was almost funny except that by this time I knew that in your next move to improve my credit, you would report this to TRW, Experian, my aunt, Uncle, all my kids and Jiffy Lube.
You did as expected. Within a nano-second of a heartbeat, there it was "LATE PAYMENT 30" indicated in all its glory on the consumer credit report.
Thank you so much Orchard, we will now do what we can to make sure that others do not fall into your credit-improving scam---especially on the net.
So, being retired and nothing to do but alert my fellow citizens that wish to improve their credit ratings, we shall relate this experience with your shameless organization on the net. Now, you may not be aware just how strong the net is. If one were to BUY the time and material to contact a million viewers on the net looking for card applications, it would cost a pretty penny. (Look at what your net presence cost figures are.)
BUT if I want to get the word out with very little effort to those same million viewers, all I have to do is put this story on about 350 blogs discussing credit, on another 50 or so blogs talking about spam organizations and buyer-beware scams by companies such as Orchard and all its affiliates, and a few web sites that we know will be visited by robots and sent on to another million sites for reading in Google, Jinks, and yahoo.
This will be my way of saying "Thanks so much Orchard for your stupidity in action." We'll be playing on your local blog soon--watch for us!!!
CIAO
Actionwriter
New Braunfels, Texas