Normally I’m not one to knock what anyone does for a living as hey you gotta put food on the table. But these bill collectors are major pain in the asses.
Long story short I had a credit card from Applied Card Bank that I haven’t been paying since they hit me with an over limit for a charge they approved. I do not think it’s fair for a credit card company to deliberately approve a charge that puts you a few cents over the limit and then slam you with a $39 charge. This just isn’t good business, if anything they should have declined the charge. Seeing as how I’m considered a credit risk since I do not have a good rating, these are the kind of companies I get offers from. It’s my own stupid fault I should of read the fine print and not salivated at the thought of having another credit card to support my newly started online business.
Add to the fact that they charged me an over limit charge for something they approved, I’ve had some health issues which have cut into my earnings potential as of late, so I cannot afford to pay a bogus over limit fee.
Anyhow they’re collection agency calls at least 6 times per day. Always the same 1-800 number on the caller ID. One time I answered just in an attempt to get them to stop calling. First the guy goes on a spiel about how this is the last step before bring me to court. LOL Now you and I know a big company isn’t going to waste they time and resources bring me to court over a measly $800. Knowing that this is more than likely scare tactic, I ask “Are you a lawyer or a bill collector?” The answer was “I’m not a lawyer but I work for one.” Yeah he works for a lawyer like I work for Google by displaying Adsense. 
I decided to try and talk to this guy who other than being a bull shit artist seems okay. I break down the charges to him explaining the card had an initial credit limit of only $200 out of that $200 I was charged a $69 account activation fee plus my first yearly free of $39 bring my starting credit limit to a whole $92. For nearly a whole year I paid more than the minimum payment every month on time without fail. Now because of a charge that put my literally $.03 over my credit limit your client decided to slam me with a $39 over limit charge, then when I didn’t pay the bill they slammed me with another $39 late fee and that in the four month I haven’t paid the bill they’ve slammed me with new over limit and late charges at $39 a pop every month. My total bill is now nearly $800. This is in just 4 months of not paying for a credit line that totaled $92!
I said to him Do you really think this is fair? He actually admitted that it wasn’t fair but all this was covered in the agreement I signed when I started the account. So, I ask what can we do to make this right? I can make a one time payment of $492. I explain to him that I haven’t been working as much as usual and cannot afford it. I start pissing and moaning; Hold it you want me to pay you nearly $500 for a $92 credit line? Loan sharks give better rates than this. He says well that’s all I can do for you. So I say thank you for your time, I cannot pay right now, please stop calling me 6 times a day.
Did it work, no? This company calls me at least 6 times a day they start at 7:30 AM. Most of the times, I let the machine pick it up, they leave no message. On the weekends they call at 7:30 then 7:45, 8:00, and 8:30 in the morning. This is them trying to act as an alarm clock they call and call to wake you ass up out of bed. Then they call the rest of the day at intermittent times. They finally stop calling around 9 PM.
It amazes me that collection agencies can do this, If a regular person did this I could file harassment charges! I would change my number but that now costs $40. I have to get in contact with the phone company and see if there is a way I can block this number from ringing my phone. I suspect once they get wise that they’re number was blocked they will just call from another number.
I wholeheartly believe this is a big part of the reason why our economy is in the crapper. Companies pray on the weak with predatory lending practices by going after people with poor credit rating giving them a $200 credit limit which is reduced to $92 after the initial inflated charges then slamming them with inflated fees. When the bill piles up and the person cannot pay it they harass them to no end. Come on is it really a surprise to these companies that I didn’t pay my bill? I already had a poor credit rating. That’s they whole point of credit scoring to protect banks against giving loans to irresponsible people.
For me it’s a matter of principal, don’t deliberately approve a charge that will put me over the limit then hit me with an exuberant charge for going a few cents over the limit. If I won the mega millions tomorrow I still wouldn’t pay these animals with all the inflated charges and harassment.
