Sears Mastercard runs a scam

http://www.bartcop.com/

-snip-

Subject: Sears

My Sears Mastercard statement came recently with this message (REALLY!):

If you pay more than the total minimum due (but less than calculated acct balance.)
we may apply excess amount to future total min due sums for up to 2 months.
FINANCE CHARGES STILL ACCRUE.

I just copied it exactly from my March statement.
If I want to pay down the balance, how can I?
Sounds a lot like 'theft by conversion'.
Chriss



Chriss, welcome to Bush's Amerikka, where "Screw the little guy" is the official motto.
According to Bush, Kerry and the networks, this is what America voted for
-snip-
-----------------------------------


wow, what a scam

Don't take that crap.

on the phone or on line to denounce this. That is far worse than anything she ever did! If she turns toward the Sears-Big K consumers she will earn the respect of many more millions than this stupid administration, that is still persecuting her, while their crooked friends are still totally free!

... that they're going to trip you up if you try to pay down your balance in big chunks. They're going to do whaever they can to slow you down.

So you can either pay the entire balance -- which, for some people, is impossible for whatever reason -- or you can resign yourself to being indebted to this loanshark for just about forever.

Unreal... you might want to get on the phone to your state Attorney General's office on Monday. They might be VERY interested to learn of this little scheme.

In the good old days - a smart class action lawyer would have made Sears stop this scam (okay, the class action lawyer would have made some money - better in the class action lawyer's pocket then in Sears' pocket - and this scam would have been stopped).

the next month (maybe 2) there will be $0 minimum due. In other words you can skip a payment if you choose. Finance charges will continue to accrue on the unpaid balance. You do not have to skip the payment if you'd prefer to make one. You could continue to make payments until your balance is paid off. The difference is the minimum due may reflect $0 as you go along.
I had another credit card once that did the same thing.

What you said makes sense... What Sears said sounds like they're holding back portions of the payment to apply them in the future.

Does Sears know the future or something? If Sears has a payment then they need to credit it immediately to the customer's account and not keep it in some other internal account that gets siphened off for next month's balance. I can't even imagine what sort of creative accounting would have to go on to have a policy like that.

And what's with the "we may" thing? Is there some random number generator built into their payment processing system to determine who gets screwed by this policy and who doesn't?

it's legal.

Learn to live on cash.

Unfortunately, I don't recall offhand which company the card was with. I had harged something and made my first payment (which was a lot larger than the minimum due). When I received the second statement, I compared it with the first and noticed the finance charge was exactly the same. I called to complain and was told that you had to pay finance charge on the TOTAL ORIGINAL amount until it was fully paid off. On other words, if you charged $1000 and paid $200 per month, it didn't matter. you would be charged interest on the full $1000 until it was paid off. I paid it in full immediately and cancelled the card. Probably should have reported them but I didn't really think about it. I figured that it was probably legal just because that's the way things seem to work in this country. And that was 20 years ago. It has gotten a LOT worse since then.

The check cleared for 200 but they only keyed in 20. Then they charged me an over-limit fee. Then they lied and lied and lied about correcting it.

Then I said screw it and filed bankruptcy, which was an eventuality, anyway, due to lack of emloyment and hub's getting jacked for about 12K in bonus from an employer. Thanks, MBNA, for inspiring me to do what had to be done.

The best thing to do is PAY THEM OFF any way you can, even if you need to go to a credit union for a fixed rate loan to do it. Then cut up those cards and mail the pieces back to the company. GET RID OF THEM. Even if you're the type they call deadbeats, the people who pay the balance every month, that doesn't mean disaster won't strike and that you won't be able to pay that balance off in the future. That's what they are counting on and why they haven't already canceled your cards.

You can live very well without credit cards. Debit cards work just as well for online and store purchases, and you don't have to worry about the mail getting a payment in on time to avoid a junk fee.

the ATM bank card?

I mean, that info is linked to my life savings. Yes, there are allegedly some fraud protections in place. But that's just not a nightmare I wish to experience.

:scared:

having two accounts (with two different debit cards). You keep a very small balance in the one account, which is the one you will use for online transactions. When you want to purchase something online you transfer over just the exact amount of that purchase. If anyone tries to use that account number at a later date, there most likely won't be much of anything in there.

I do that and it has worked great. I don't worry about some unknown online entity having access to the number on my MAIN account, because I never give it out. I know it's not an 'ultimate solution', but it's another layer of protection for sure.

on edit: added a word

stuff extra or "found" money (mileage reimbursments, etc if you get them from work) in this account. do not tie it to any other account, such as your life savings. :)

dg

Are you yet another person who hasn't heard of a Visa debit card?

Nothing personal - I'm just constantly amazed by the number of people who don't know what a debit card is.

All this means is that you won't have to make a payment next time if you don't want to, if you paid a lot extra.

For example, let's say your minimum payment due is $100. You pay them $500. All $500 is credited towards your balance, but since you paid them a lot more than the $100 due, you can skip a couple of payments if you want to.

Why they have to phrase perfectly common-sense instructions in a manner so as to totally obfuscate the intent of the message is beyond my comprehension.

It sounds as if the terms mean that they are holding the money for future payments, which allows interest to accrue.

I've worked in financial counseling and Sears is - by far - one of the worst credit companies for consumers.

sears didn't like my new-found "deadbeat" ways & cancelled my account.

dg

and you can't get it off unless you can pay the full amount all at once, or large amounts equal to about six months payments at a pop, which they would still spread out over three months.

Maybe it's an option they give you which would be nice to have, and not something they use against you which really would be onerous.

If this is their weapon, when rates go up they'll have finance charge-captive debtors. And they have all kinds of ways to make rates go up now. Miss a payment anywhere in your financial world, for any reason, and they can all pounce at once. And with this they can lock anyone who can't pay off their cards into the longest, highest-rate scheme imaginable.