Unionplus credit card- household credit services HSBC Nevada Predatory Lending Evasive Non-disclosure Exploitative Carol Stream, Illinois

I got my Unionplus credit card with the naive notion that as it was endorsed by Unionplus and the CWA (I am a member) and would therefore be a safe bet. The APR of 12% was also very attractive and was promoted as being a special deal for Union members. They offered me an opening line of credit for $3500. Initially all was fine, I was occasionally late with a payment mainly due to bad organisation but had no problems, In fact they raised my limit to $4500 and occasionally hit me with a late payment fee. In those days I used to mail payments and sometimes it seemed like even if they should have gotten the check a day or so early I got hit with a late charge of $25. Then they raised my limit to $6500. I was nowhere near reaching my limit at any point so it didn't bother me much but I thought it odd they didn't ask. My balance did strat to creep up though as I bought plane tickets for my mother to fly over from England and obviously the minimum payments got bigger and bigger and the apr would fluctuate upto 14.5 or maybe even 19.5 but would go down again once I went for a period without a late payment. They congratulated me on my Premier Status and put the limit upto $8500 and about this time my wife started to have problems with her work and her income went down. She worked from home and also started to get into online purchasing so our balance started to really grow along with the minimum payments and the late fees got upto $35 but hey I was Prier and in good standing so they just put my limit up again to $11,000. Not once had I requested an increase but they just kept dangling the carrot despite my late payments. Our finances really fell apart around this time, our balance got upto $9000 plus and I rather than being a grown up beried my head in the sand and ignored their calls and got 30 days behind and then 60 until I finally called them and said "I needed to sort something out". They closed my account and put the interest rate upto 24.99%. Eventually by mid 2008 I had gotten back on my feet and started to make payments on time and did so for the last six months of 2009, even paying extra, but hardly making a dent in my balance. I checked the Unionplus site todau for support info and as a previous member on this site reported it stated that after 6 months of on time payments your starting APR should be re-instated. So, I emailed them a question re this and today got a cal from a woman I could barely understand who seemd more interested in what other cards I had until she heard my account was closed and that the only other card I had a only had a limit of $300. She offered to transfer me to a financial consultant and the call went dead. I called them back and eventually spoke to a representative who siad she would try to find out for me if what I claimed was true. 15 mins on hold and she comes back stating that the reduced APR would most likely be re-instated automatically. I asked what it would be ... back on hold. She came back ... she couldn't tell me but if I just waited until after the next payment it might say on the next statement or if not on that one the one after that. Incidently when I told her the previous rep had just dropped me she laughed. It kinda felt like I was in a Monty Python sketch. I made a complaint to the Unionplus/CWA site as I am surprised to find they endorse such predatory lending when their site is strewn with guidance on good credit advice and debt management. They will get back to me in within 10 days. So it seems I just have to wait to see whether they will lower my rate and what it is and to be honest I am not holding my breath. It's disgraceful to me that I am completely at the mercy of this company and they can charge me whatever they want, throw credit at me without consultation and then they act like they have no knowledge of their own practices or charges and can just dismiss my request for basic information about my account. My only access to information seems to be via the on-line statement and 'after-the-fact' and 'maybe' this month or 'maybe' next month.  Should I contact the "ministry of funny walks" instead. Seems I might be taken more seriously.