Sears Premier Card, Sears National Bank Ripoff! No purchases for 1 year - timely & over minimum pmts. result in higher balance. Atlanta Georgia

I last charged on my Sears account Nov. 2002. Each month I make sure I pay on time or early and 90% of the time pay more than the requested minimum. One month I paid more than twice the minimum and made a payment the following month when the statement said that no minimum was due. Would you believe that after one year, my balance is larger than when I first began?? The interest rate is approximately 21 %, but it must be compounded by the minute or hour.

I called customer service because as a cost accountant (!!) I was confused as to how this could be. I assumed that they would see an error and rebate me the overpayment of interest. Oh NO! They rudely told me I should have not paid so close to the due date. The statement drops on the 10th and I should be paying then. I said I do not receive the blinking statement until the 20 something and it says the due date is the 7th. They could not reasonably explain this to me.

I have transfered the balance (it isn't large) to my 7.99% fixed rate credit card and telling them to go jump. I would have done it a long time ago, if I had taken the time to analyze my statement. I do it all day long and unfortunately, it's the last thing I want to do in my free time. I can understand if the balance had not been reduced by a whole lot -- but not increase! I'm not closing the account because it could affect my FICO score since I have had this account open for almost 20 years. I just never kept a balance before but, I had to have that fridge!

So, beware. If you have a Sears card-- pay it off and don't use it. I won't even look at their advertising anymore, much less buy from there.

Cindy
Northport, Alabama
U.S.A.