EMERGE MASTERCARD ripoff,unfair practices, everybody beware COLUMBUS Georgia

I don't understand how companies like Emerge are allowed to ripoff the public the way they do and get by with it. I started out with an Aria card and then it was sold to getsmart. I always paid my bill online, in Oct. 2002 I logged into the getsmart website to pay and I couldn't access my account, it said my account had been closed. I called them to see what was going on and was told that emerge had bought it and I would have to wait until I recieved a bill from them to pay. I didn't get a bill until December, of course by then my payments (2) were late.

I called and after several attempts finally talked to a real person, I explained I had not been notified the account had been sold and I wasn't going to pay any late fees because it wasn't my fault they didn't let me know for 2 months where to send a payment. (I didn't pay the late charges) My payments weren't late until then and have not been late since.

I agree with everyone else that has filed a report on this site, the intrest rate is 29.99%, this is crazy!! Today I called customer service and asked Iif I could get a lower rate because I'm never late and my credit score has gone up alot in the past year. The man I talked to told me No, he couldn't do that. He said the bank would have to review my account and decide. I could tell he really didn't want to talk to me or try to help in anyway. What good is customer service!!

If anyone has any idea on how to deal with ripoff company, PLEASE let the rest of us know. Each month I pay more than the minimum payment and the periodic finance chg just keeps going up. At this rate no one will ever get them paid off

Rose
Bartow, West Virginia
U.S.A.