Bank One, Serious Ripoff! Undisclosed hike in interest rates... Unnecessary overlimit fees! Wilmington Deleware

When my husband and I began banking with Bank One, everything was rosy (as it usually is). We had our checking & savings accounts with them as well as a platinum credit card. Things started to turn sour when we noticed that our interest rate had risen from 9% to 18% after only one month.

Of course we contacted Bank One Customer Service and the reason for their action was very disturbing. Just three weeks after receiving our Bank One Credit card, my husband and I made a large purchase which used up almost 75% of our available credit. Even though the entire purchase was paid off in full when we received our statement, our interest rate was doubled because Bank One considered us a "future credit risk" as soon as we made our big purchase.

Customer Service Associates as well as their supervisors all told us that they didn't care whether the entire purchase was paid off. Their policies were perfectly legal and there was no way they would reduce our interest rate.

This is when our experience with Bank One went from bad to worse. About 5 months after opening our checking / savings accounts with Bank One, we encountered a serious problem. When my husband tried to use the ATM, it stated that his card had been deactivated.

Suspecting nothing major had gone wrong, I contacted Bank One's Banking Customer Service and was told our account had been FROZEN! The really insane thing was that no person we spoke with could tell us why our account had been frozen. Everyone we spoke with said they couldn't see why our accounts weree frozen, just that they were.

So with no reason whatsoever, Bank One refused us access to over 5,000.00. In addition, this affected our platinum Bank One credit card as well. As we always paid our credit card bill from our Bank One checking account, our payment (which was made the day before the account was frozen) was returned unpaid.

Needless to say, our credit limit was immediately reduced by 75% and we were charged late fees for the returned payment and overlimit fees because the reduction in our credit limit put us over our new limit.

If these aren't deceptive business practices, I don't know what is. After receiving notification of a class action law suit against Bank One, I realized that we were not the only family that Bank One had ripped off.

I have, however learned from this situation. When we opened our new checking and savings accounts with a much more customer oriented bank, I read absolutely every word of every pamphlet or piece of paper given to me before signing anything! I no longer throw away those pamphlets we receive in the mail from banks or credit card companies we deal with. Instead I read them thoroughly. Bank one has tought me NOT to trust banks no matter what they promise.

Shelly
Katy, Texas
U.S.A.