GE Capital Consumer Card Company GE Capital Consumer Card Finance Charge & Acct security Ripoff Dayton Ohio

I noticed on my bill that GE CCC was charging me $34 for account security and an additional $48 finance charge.

I contacted the company and learned that the account security was an option to pay off my account should I become disabled or deceased and could no longer pay the account. Apparently they automatically sign you up for this and it is your responsibility to decline the service or pay. They agreed to remove the charge and credit the account back 3 months.

I was then told that the finance charge was effected due to a 60 day delinquent payment and that the special offer my account had been opened up on had been cancelled as a result in addition to the interest rate going to 24%.

The account was opened through my doctors office three months ago and was initially declined due to an insufficient credit history. I furnished a previous address, as I had only recently moved to my new house, and the account was granted. After thirty days I did not receive a bill and called to inquire. They told me they had sent the bill out to the previous address. I informed them the address they had on file was incorrect and furnished them the correct address. I was told that I needed to make the minimum payment, which I could do over the phone for $10!! or I could send by mail. I mailed the payment as you could imagine. The next month again I did not receive the bill and I called again to find out what the problem was to discover they again had the wrong address. This time the zip code was incorrect. I informed the customer service rep that I would set up an automatic bank transfer since they were having so much trouble with sending the bill, which I promptly set up. Apparently since the second payment was also late, a result of the address mix-up, the special interest rate was cancelled.

I informed the customer service rep of the above circumstances and was told that there was nothing they could do. I re-iterated the face that the reason that the payments were late was due to the fact THEY had been unable to correctly file my address and was again told that it was my responsibility to make the payments and that there was nothing they could do. I went as far as to ask to speak with the manager about this outrageous financial penalty that cannot or would not be waved by the company - I was told that no one had the authority to waive the fee.

This has to be the best scam in the world to screw up the billing address and then claim it is the customers fault they were unable to make payment despite any effort by the customer to clear up the mistake. It was bad enough they attempt to sucker the customer into paying a bogus account security charge in the hopes they will not question the charge on the bill. They were not even the least bit put off when I informed them that I was going to close the account outright

This has to be grounds for a class action law suit by everyone this has happened to.

John
Austin, Texas
U.S.A.