Platinum Benefit Group DO NOT EVER GIVE BANK INFO OVER THE PHONE TO ANYBODY Clearwater Florida

This report is full of assumptions and wrong information from the filer. I used to work for Platinum Benefit Group here in Clearwater, Florida, and can vouch that the majority of the information provided is incorrect.

Now I'm not saying that the Platinum Benefit Group is an outstanding company. They are selling prepaid mastercards at ridiculously high prices, and their sales pitch may seem deceptive. But if you listen carefully, and don't simply ASSUME things, you'd know exactly what we sell, and for how much.

In the first paragraph, you claim that PBG charged you $29.95 for a secured credit card years ago which devastated you financially. PBG has never sold secured credit cards, and has never charged $29.95 for anything. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of telemarketing companies out there that sell mastercards (or visas), and for this lady to assume it was PBG is simply wrong. We get this all the time at work. We call people, and they accuse us of taking an amount of money out of their account that we've never charged. Then we have to explain that there is more than one Mastercard company out there.

As for you bouncing checks, don't even try blaming someone else for that. With the widespread availability of internet banking, as well as ATMs, there is no excuse to not know how much is in your account at any one moment.


Now as for your most recent experience. When we call someone, all we have on our screen is a name, address, and phone number. So we ask "Is this Mr. Jones" (as an example). If your son said yes, we would have gone ahead with the pitch. At the end of the first introduction pitch (called "fronting" in the business), we ask "are you 18, a U.S. citizen, and do you have an active checking acct?" Your son should have said "no" (if he did, good, and I assume he gave the phone to you). We never once tell ANYONE that they are approved for a CREDIT card. We say Mastercard. If you assume, again, your fault. Deceptive? Yes. Illegal? No.

We would never tell you that we had you approved for a $5000 limit. Not only would we (as sales associates) be written up for that, but the company itself would be shutdown if we outright lied like that. Every call is recorded, and whenever someone does get signed up, their bank can request a copy of the recording if the customer thinks they were scammed.

If you tell us you will not give your acct info over the phone, we will either A) hang up on you, or B) transfer you to an automated system that explains how you can get our card through the mail without giving out any personal info on the phone. Now if the sales agent hung up on you, it's probably because you were being rude and wouldn't let him explain things. Trust me, some people simply will not listen.

Now as for what PBG DOES offer. PBG sells pre-paid mastercards with discounts and benefits attached to it. Sure, you have a debit card, but that debit card is linked directly to your checking acct, and can overdraft your acct. The PBG card is not linked directly to your acct, and will never overdraft. Not only that, the PBG pre-paid mastercard allows you to establish a positive payment history. What that means is that our affiliate banks will consider you twice a year for traditional, unsecured credit cards once they see that you have spending habits with our card, and they'll make those considerations WITHOUT looking at your credit report. The card also comes with a prescription discount club, dental discount club, free legal (not prepaid legal) advice, free medical advice, and roadside assistance.

Now if you have good credit and can get credit cards, fine. If you already have AAA, or medical insurance, fine. A lot of people do not.


With that being said, PBG is still deceptive and a bit pricey, so if you DO want the card, make sure you fully understand it.

I really wish people would simply listen to sales pitches carefully and ask questions about anything they did not understand, instead of assuming things. If you do these two simple things, I promise you, no company will ever "rip you off".