Plains Commerce Bank Total Visa Charges Ridiculous Fees Sioux Falls, South Dakota

I've had minor annoyances with this company since I first got their Total Visa card in the spring or summer of 2009. (It is now December 2009). First, they are very hard to get a hold of. You have to contact one company for your card information, another for your payments to the card, and their website is always under maintenance.

Nowhere when I signed up for the card did I see anything about a "monthly membership fee". The first several months, I wasn't charged one, then it was almost like they were trying to slide it in unnoticed. Now I'm stuck with an $8 monthly fee, on top of finance charges.

When I tried to make a payment last month, their site reported an error message so I had to call them. I explained I needed to make my payment online that day, and they said they had issued me a new card. I told them I never received it and they said they would send another one. In the meantime, they took my payment over the phone.

Today, same scenario- error message on the website, called them, said they'd sent out a new card. When I told her I'd never received a new card, she highly doubted me and kept questioning and explaining how "other people said they didn't get theirs then they found it later."  I assured her repeatedly I'd never gotten a new card. Today was my deadline date, so I needed to make the payment. She informed me they could no longer post a payment to the card in my possession because it was no longer valid since they'd "sent me a new card" and I hadn't called them to report that I hadn't received it. What?? So my only option, if I didn't want to pay a $35 late fee, was to make the payment over the phone to the tune of a $7.95 phone charge. I argued to the best of my ability but she kept insisting the "charge is valid".

I've had it with this company! I'm going to pay this card off and never, ever use them again! There are better ways to help clean up or help establish credit rather than using a rip-off company like Plains Commerce Bank! Are they even a real bank??