Thumbs Down for CareCredit aka GE Money
March 12th, 2007
Today, I received my monthly statement for CareCredit, and was surprised to see a finance charge of $1.50. I know what most of you may be thinking; $1.50 is not a lot of money, right? I agree, but my main problem with this charge is that I signed up under the terms of zero finance charges for the first 12 months. My 12 month period doesn’t expire til July 2007, so I was curious to know what was happening.
To get to the bottom of this, I called the customer service line at CareCredit. After 5 minutes of wading through the automated voice messages, I finally reached a customer rep. The customer rep asked me what she could help me with, and I told her the situation. After looking up my account, she informed me that the $1.50 finance charge came from the interest on a late fee I had incurred 2 months ago. I usually make payments on time, but 2 months ago, I was overdue a couple of days, and they charged me a ridiculous $35 late fee.
The whole point of me signing up for this credit card was to save money, but now that idea was completely thrown out the window. It was bad enough that they charged a late fee for being 2 days late, but they charged me interest on top of that. Had I not called, they would’ve kept piling up interest on that late fee until the entire balance was paid off. The customer service rep explained to me that the finance charges were being incurred because the late fee counted as a purchase and it was the last in line to be paid off. What a joke!
I don’t know about you, but this kind of seemed like a mild version of fraud to me. I question how creditors are allowed to get away with such unscrupulous behavior. They find every little loophole they can to rip people off. I won’t put all credit card issuers on the same boat, but CareCredit definitely has gotten on my bad side.
They should change their name to Don’tCareCredit!
May 30th, 2007 at 3:57 am
I’m beginning to agree. After paying $100 I thought I was down to $100 owed as a final tally, but no. I open my bill up and see I owe what appears to be the original $550 payment I started with.
It’s a good thing the feds are starting to crack down on this fraud. I’ll have to call CareCredit myself and bill them for my own time…
June 4th, 2007 at 2:48 pm
CareCredit is a pathetic company. I Used them for my Lasik surgery and was paying $200.00 a month instead of the $78.00 minimum with zero interest. I was barely late on month and instantly I was charged over $420.00 in interest and I am being charged 28.99% interest. When I called to talk to somebody they just blew me off ,so requested a supervisor and she jsut got rude to me and hung up even though I was calm and polite. She told if I had a problem then transfer the balance to another company. If you take notice they don’t offer any other way to contact their company except by phone which is intercepted by the rude individuals. I would strongly suggest not dealing with these crooks and I will let my voice be heard. Last week while I was a vetenerian clinic the clinic was offering these ideal plans to pet owners that didn’t have the money up front. Pretty sad to take advantage of people durring times like that.
June 18th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
I finally paid off my balance earlier this month. I even closed the account to make sure there wouldn’t be any additional charges. July 1st would’ve marked the expiration date for the 0% intro promotion rate. Had the promo period expired and had I not paid off the entire balance, they would’ve tacked on the entire interest that I accrued during the first 12 month period.
Phew! and Good riddance!