Cross Country Bank - Applied Card Bank ripoff Wilmington Delaware

I am posting or possibly reposting this report so that others will be aware of the fraudulent actions by CC Bank.

I had an account with CC bank since 1999. I paid my bills on time and only had a $950 credit limit. I finally consolidated my bills and paid the account off. Or so I thought. I paid the full balance on the account which is what I assumed would be the full amount. On the 26th of August I called CC Bank and spoke to a representative and told the lady that I wanted to close the account. She looked my account up on her computer and told me that she would close the account, and asked me why I wanted to close it. I told her that the fees and interest rate was too high and this is why I wanted to close it. She said she would close the account and I would receive a letter stating that the account was closed and I had a "ZERO BALANCE" She never mentioned to me that I had any outstanding accrued interest amounts, just that I had a zero balance.

Fast forward a couple of days and I did receive a letter stating that the account was closed with a "ZERO BALANCE".

Then I received a bill from them with a charge of $11.02 posted as a "Finance Charge". Well, on the bill it also states that the account is closed, and was closed on the 26th of August 2005 with a zero balance. So how do you accrue interest charges on a ZERO BALANCE?

I contacted them by mail to the address listed for inquiries to protect my legal rights as calling does not protect you. I know they received the letter from me and the copies of the bill and their letter to me on the 17th of September as I sent it priority mail ( costing me $4.30) with a tracking number.

Well, since the bill due date is the 29th of September, I checked online just to make sure it showed this "ZERO BALANCE".

Guess what! It showed I owed them $11.02 as a finance charge.

So I called at my expense their phone number listed on the letter that stated the account was closed. Rakeisha the customer service agent tried to finagle her way around this charge by telling me that the interest had accrued up to the time that I had closed the account. I told her repeatedly that I had a "ZERO BALANCE" and therefore , could not possibly have any accrued interest charges as I paid the account in full which included any interest charges and it was paid in full before the next billing cycle. She insisted that these charges are correct and they had the right to put them on my account. Interesting, but when I closed the account I was told I had a "ZERO BALANCE". So how is it possible to have a zero balance and then be charged accrued interest charges? Seems more than fishy to me, possibly illegal? This was done to my son as well when he closed his account. He called them , but the representative didn't bother to argue with him or to try to explain away this charge, he simply apologized and took it off. They did remove the accrued interest charge for my son. I have not received any response to my letter which they received on September 17, 2005 and I really don't know if this woman representative actually removed this "Accrued charge".

I don't know what else to do at this point but I have excellent credit now and don't want CC Bank to ruin it for me. What should I do, who should I contact about what they are doing and is it legal for them to charge me a finance charge on a zero balance account?

Jamie
New Port Richey, Florida
U.S.A.