Thread: Bill Collectors (rant warning)

Every month the credit company will run a monthly billing, sending the customer a bill with a total balance, minimum payment and a due date.

The outstanding balance on that date determines the new payment due.

I still don't understand the objective of this thread

Originally Posted by Navaja

Every month the credit company will run a monthly billing, sending the customer a bill with a total balance, minimum payment and a due date.

The outstanding balance on that date determines the new payment due.

I still don't understand the objective of this thread

Me either, I just wanted to rant a little bit.

That really sucks...

If they continue this behavior, report them to your state's Attorney General. You may find that you are not the only one who has encountered this type of credit harrassment. It ounds to me that they have a scam going to force consumers to pay the outstanding balance on their accounts early.

BTW...wasn't GE Credit one of the financial institutions which received a federal bailout for bad mortgage loans?

Originally Posted by jhenry

That really sucks...

If they continue this behavior, report them to your state's Attorney General. You may find that you are not the only one who has encountered this type of credit harrassment. It ounds to me that they have a scam going to force consumers to pay the outstanding balance on their accounts early.

BTW...wasn't GE Credit one of the financial institutions which received a federal bailout for bad mortgage loans?

This was not credit harassment. He failed to adhere to the terms of the contract, and ignored subsequent written letters and refused to accept the telephone calls.

Failing to read the contract does not absolve you of the resulting problems, and by ignoring 2 different forms of communication (the letters and the calls) you cannot claim goodwill or due diligence anymore.

Originally Posted by Navaja

Every month the credit company will run a monthly billing, sending the customer a bill with a total balance, minimum payment and a due date.

The outstanding balance on that date determines the new payment due.

I still don't understand the objective of this thread

The rant was the whole idea of getting a late fee for paying early. Due to the nature of the loan they don't actually have a payment due, just a minimum payment amount. It's like a credit card but interest is deferred for 6 months, and I didn't realize until after I got the first statement that there was a "minimum payment". However, since I had already paid $75 (min payment was $15) during that month I didn't act on the statement. What I missed was that the "statement date" was May 5, and the date I paid was May 3. So while the $75 was deducted from my finance amount, it didn't count towards my may statement. I just thought it was dumb, that's all.

BTW, this is regarding my first payment on this account, so I didn't have any previous statements to go by.

It doesn't seem so complicated to me. $500 interest free for 6 months is about $2.50 in your pocket, if instead of paying immediately you put the money somewhere at 1% annual interest.
Whether it's worth going through a loan application, and then servicing that loan isn't for me to decide, as there are probably more important intangibles beyond the direct financial gain.

Since you're 24 hopefully you've learned a lesson - you have to understand the contract you're signing on and stick to the terms no matter whether they make sense to you or not. That's something to think about before, not after you sign on. The contract says they will send you a bill every month and you have to pay the minimum payment within a set period after that. You clearly failed to do it, hence the penalty.

Of course, the bank is counting that a lot of people are not going to repay the loan on schedule or not within the interest free period and they'll make money from the penalty fees and the interest beyond the 6 month period. The fact that it has worked for decades and continues to work only shows that the banks are smart enough to understand the psychology of their clients and take advantage of it.

I think if somebody is naive enough to not have the common sense to look after their own interest they will be regularly taken advantage of. Doesn't matter if it's right or wrong, it's a fact and there's only one way to change that.