Applied Card Systems Aka Cross Country Bank CROSS COUNTRY BANK FAILURE TO RECOGNIZE CLOSED ACCOUNT AND BOGUS LATE FEES Internet

I paid off the Applied Bank Card on 12/08. Then confirmed the cancellation with a call to customer service and a request for a pay off balance if any. The payoff balance was 19.00 so I sent it in along with a hand signed letter that the account was to be canceled and their services where no longer needed.

Three months go by and they send me a statement claiming I owe them 36.00 for their accounting mistake and I also owe them for three months late fees.

I call customer service to dispute this and am told to fax or send a letter of dispute because that's how they handle disputes. They also tell me that it does indeed show that my account was closed 01/09 but can't help me with the present problem through the customer service phone line.

Two months after sending in the letter of dispute and not receiving an answer the constant phone calls start from their collections department. They offer no help in resolving the problem except for fax or sending in a letter of dispute. When I ask for the fax# and address again they give me the run around by asking for a good faith payment of 50.00 and ended the call by never giving me either number. He also threatened many times to destroy my credit rating.

I believe these people are in the business of running up bogus late fees and threatening peoples credit rating to comply. I refused to send in the 'good faith' payment because it would make me look guilty should this go to court. I was a customer for 9 years in good standing and this is how they treat me?