BANK CARD USA FRAUD AND THEFT WESTLAKE VILLAGE California

In April I opened an account to accept credit cards from customers as I have noticed they were asking me if I would accept them, so I looked around and found Bank Card USA was reasonable w/ the rates. When I was opening the account the rep asked me what my average ticket would be I said it could be anywhere from 100- 5000 dollars depending on the job we do but I want the flexibility to accept a large charge if needed, I gave him my company info ie; ein, void check, llc filing etc..., he then asked for my ss# and I said why do you need that the company is a stand alone business, he said for verification purposes only that I am the legal signer on the account, okay even my bank requires that.

In July we finished a job w/ a $3205. balance and they wanted to put it on their master card, cool we processed it on 7/14/08 and wait for it to come thru??? after 5 days we called and they said because we did it late / after cut off time it would take 3-5 days to hit our account day 7 I call and they said it should hit tonight, ok.

On day 9 I call and ask what the hell going on either process the funds or cancel my contract, they inform me that its been in risk management dept. becuase we are a new account and they may need additional info of my customer? ok what do you need? they put over to deena voice mail, I then get a message that they will need a copy of the contract w/ my customer, 2 years bank statements, again my business is new?, a co-signer, and other misc. B.S. I call her back trying to underestand what the hell was happening, she said my persoal credit wasnt strong enough to support the charge, hello- I did not authorize you to run my personal credit what did you do when you ran my application??? I then asked how do I refund/ return the funds held back to my customer? go online and click the transaction and click return.

On 7/24/08 as we reconciling our books and noticed a pending transaction from our bank for $147.44 I call the bank and they dont no what to make of it they send it to fraud and they confirm it is not some thing they have seen before ( a bank card w/ card numbers that dont match any of our???) they put a block on my account and ask me to close it the next day.

I re-oopen a new account and then on 7/25/08 I call and ask if bank card usa was tring to pull $ from my account? they didnt know but our merchant account was now closed??? what, why, and by whom deena said I needed to speak to mike dom, I get his voice mail and ask him return my call asap. nothing.

then on 7/27/08 again on a different account we see a pending transaction this time for $170.44 again my bank blcoks the account, on 7/28/08 I call and get mike dom who lets me know that I am in default on my contract for trying to put thru a charge larger than my limit, what limit? I ask he said the $2000. monthly limit on my application, I did everything over the phone and the rep filled in everything, ok stupid that my fualt but why are charging me for something that was not completed??? I did not recieve any funds- zero!!! he said they charge the rate even if it is not sucessful and hit me for even more to return the funds... I ask how can you take money from another bank account even though you are not authorized to??? he read the account # and it was from the second try for $170.44 I told him I have record of them pulling from the proper account and all of a sudden they have a different account?? thats fraud and illegal he we use anything to collect a debt.

I informed him that I was disputing anything until I see it all in writing and with my signature that let them take from a different account, I get a final notice dated 8/5/08 w/ a merchant statement dated 7/31/08, the notice reads " DUE TO LACK OF RESPONSE, YOUR DEBT HAS BEEN FORWARDED TO THE M. LEONARD & ASSOC. COLLECTORS" lack of reponse is laughable as I have been trying to resolve this farse for the past month. DONT USE THEM EVER..... LEARN FROM MY MISTAKES AND GO WITH SOMEONE THAT HAS TIES TO YOU OWN BANK.

Michael K
LEWIS CENTER, Ohio
U.S.A.