In the early days, my mother carried a rectangular plate, smaller than today’s cards, that was good at every Baltimore department store: Hutzler’s Hoschild’s, Stewart’s, Hecht’s. The first three are long-gone, the last is about to lose its name and be rechristened Macy’s. I didn’t understand that the cards got a percentage of the purchase and I puzzled over why these good people wanted to lend us money for free. “They don’t make money off people like us,” my mother said.
For a while, with me, they did. But that’s another story.
My mother sent me way to college with a Marshall Field’s card, for “emergencies.” (The only one I recall was a plaid skirt.) As a college senior, I got my first gas credit card (Mobil) and Neiman Marcus offered me a card upon graduation, assuming that a Northwestern graduate must be an excellent risk. Alas, my first job did not pay $10,000 annually, Neiman’s bottom line. (I was just $25 short of the mark, earning $9,975 — $22,319 in today’s dollars.) American Express also offered a card and rescinded it. Later, they all came to want me, even though — despite a brief irresponsible period alluded to above — I was a “deadbeat,” a person who paid my bills in full every month.
Yesterday, AmEx and I broke up. It was pretty ugly. American Express was my online card, demoted to that status because of other infractions. But it’s the card with no set limit, right? So when I decided to make my Hurricane Katrina donation and my annual contribution to Health Care for the Homeless, I went to JustGive.org, a very handy omnibus site that I had used a year previously for all my donations. (Except for Viva House, which isn’t linked.) The amount I entered was only slightly higher than what I gave in October 2004; it was my plan to hold back my donations to the Enoch Pratt Library and an animal-based nonprofit* until my royalties were reported at month’s end. My card was declined.
I called American Express and was told: “Well, this is a lot more than you normally charge in a month, based on your last six months.” I said: “But it’s not more than I charged a year ago at this time and it’s for charity.” “Sometimes, you were late.” “I didn’t receive my bill for two months. I discussed this with American Express and my records were squared.” They said they wouldn’t allow me to charge this donation unless I arranged for a conference call with my bank to prove that I had this much money in my checking account. I told them we were through. The woman said she was sorry, over and over again. I said: “You’re not sorry. Please don’t say that. You don’t actually have any feelings whatsoever about this, other than a desire not to do or say something that would get you in trouble. What I need you to do is move me through the system to someone who can actually fix this.” She hung up on me.
It’s so over. I know the letters will start again soon, perhaps calls as well, although my Caller ID system dumps most telemarketers into an automated system that requires them to identify themselves before putting the call through. They will write and call, plead and beseech. But I have a perfectly lovely relationship with Citi Mastercard, plus an ATM Visa/debit card. I’m not going back. I wouldn’t even go back for a black AmEx with the fee waived.
I hate credit card companies. I hope some of you do, too. Please share.
*I normally give to Greyhound Pets of America, Maryland chapter, but I’m looking for a Katrina-related animal cause this year. If it’s greyhound-related, so much the better. Last year, the money I gave to GPA-MD went to greyhound shelters in Florida. I’d appreciate any leads on this.
Go to the Humane Society website: http://www.hsus.org/
There are too many scams out there right now to trust random websites or “organizations”.
Giving is wonderful, but you should always be sure you are giving to actual charities.
I dumped Amex seven years ago – get this:
They shut down my card because I had suddenly started making <i>too much</i> money.
I finally secured work as a writer and thus, started spending like there was no tomorrow. Because there wasn’t, of course. Actually, I just bought a couple of things, but my next month’s bill was about 3 times what it had been for the past couple of years.
They didn’t call me, or write me. No one politely asked if I had indeed spent $xxx at Hugo Boss. They just shut it down. I called them and they explained the situation – my charges went up, they called <i>my bank</i>, not me, and found that my account had more money in it than it should have.
“Excuse me? You contacted my bank? Why?”
“To make sure the charges weren’t fraudulent.”
“Um… okay, so they’re not. So can you turn my card back on?” (paraphrase)
“No, we’ve closed that account. If you’d like to re–”
“No. You’re dead to me.”
True story.
I’ve lived happily ever after with nothing but one Visa and one Mastercard.
My brother was out to dinner on a first date with someone he liked very much, and found out that his card was declined for payment(as it turned out, through a mix-up) only when the waiter returned to the table and, with great pomp and circumstance, cut the card in two with a pair of scissors.
There’s also a great scene in SAY ANYTHING (definitely not cheese) where John Mahoney is humiliated in a similar way, learning that his credit-card accounts have been frozen in front of the attractive store owner (sales clerk?) only when she tells him, one after another, that his charges have been declined.
Just to let you in on a little secret, when I worked at the airport, if you got a notice from the card company that told you to keep the card, and if you cut it up and sent it to them the credit card company would pay you $35 for grabbing it, and of course publicly humilating their customer. only the biggest and burliest of agents did it though, because you know – people would come over the counter at you. I was not about to take a punch for Mastercard, no matter how sweet the pot was. I bet snotty waiters get the same incentive – bitchy salesgirls as well.
Also I think that http://www.noahswish.org is doing a lot of pet rescue after katrina
I’ve never had an American Express because the year I wanted one, 1984, I didn’t make enough money in my own name, and they wanted $45 to add my husband and use his income. But he had a free corporate Amex at that point, and I didn’t want to pay them. So all the offers since then have gone right in the recycle and/or shredder.
There’s a reason a lot of places won’t take American Express.
My experience is similar to Lois’s.. When I really needed an AmEx card for a job involving lots of travel expenses in the mid 80′s, they rather rudely turned me down because I earned maybe $200/yr less than they required at the time. I swore I’d never apply again..
Then I finally gave in a few years ago and did get one, but only because I wanted the flyer miles. What a disaster that was! Everytime I would charge groceries or gas in an adjoining suburb (and there are so many out here NW of Chicago), they would decline it at the register! So embarassing… When I’d call them to complain, AmEx said that I did not ‘inform’ them that I was ‘traveling’! Yeah, I traveled 15 minutes from home. Have cancelled that card and will never ever reapply. Creeps.
On the other hand, Citibank Mastercard has been great – I highly recommend them. We’ve earned many thousands of American Airline points, one for each dollar spent, and with no problems or rudeness to contend with, ever.
Try http://tigresq.tripod.com/
Funny that this should be the topic of today’s post. This afternoon, for the first time in my life, I had the experience of having my credit card “declined.” The salesperson was ever so polite (perhaps because it was a small store that keeps an electronic record of your purchases–which is scary in itself but another story–and the computer screen was showing a nice list of my prior purchases).
At the end of July I had changed from a United Plus Visa to a Citibank MC because I wanated to accumulate American miles instead of United. I applied and was approved on-line and thought great and how easy. Except for the little problem that the on-line application would not accept a PO Box as an address. I live in the Colorado mountains, to where the US Postal Service does not believe in venturing; anything sent to my physical address disappears into a mysterious black hole. I called and before I could get half of my explanation out, the woman sternly told me, “We have to have your physical address, it’s the PATRIOT Act.” It took a long time for me to establish that they could have my physical address but they just couldn’t use it to send me things (you know, like bills) if they wanted me to actually get them. She finally said that it was fine but then I didn’t get the card so I called again. It had been sent to the physical address, surprise, surprise. I went through the same explanation. I happily thought that I had succeeded when the card arrived in my PO Box. However, I discoverd today when I called them from the store (in a state of shock and embarrassment) that I apparently failed to pay my first bill. I have this irritating habit of only paying bills after I receive them and of course, they had sent the bill to the physical address. I live in a relatively small community and now get to be known as the town deadbeat. Thanks Citibank.
Sorry that this post went on so long, but the fact that I got to experience the frustration and embarrassment of having a credit card declined for the first time in my life and then came home and read today’s post made venting irresistible.
PS My mother also had one of those 4 store credit cards but for some reason only shopped at Hutzler’s and Hochschild’s.
Oh, Oh Oh…I HATE American Express and am on my own (or so I thought) campign to see them go down. Whenever someone tries to use that card at my store I share this story:
I had the Am Ex card since I was 19 (almost 20 years) I used it every month and enjoyed the “privilage of membership”, dutifully paying my annual dues to belong to this ridiculous “cult”. When they called to sell me premium car rental insurance, I did. When I had a small accident with the rental car, I took it back to the airport and was told by Am Ex that I was not to worry because I had “premium” car rental insurance and was covered for $100,000. I boarded my flight thinking happy thoughts about my “privliges of membership”. Then came the letter denying my claim and telling me that I owed $8000. The accident was a non reportable one (I hit a parked F 150 pickup truck which suffered no damage and my friend I was visiting was a retired police officer who told me that it wasn’t necessary to call the police) Am Ex was denying me because I had no police report. I got a lawyer and fought them but still paid $1000. To think I was paying them every year! And Laura, they never called, never seemed to care that I dumped them. When I called to cancel them, they did offer to waive the yearly fee, but I told the agent that unless they paid me back the $1000 I was not returning. Now I look back and think why would I return to them?
We had belonged to Hot Line, which offered insurance for stolen credit cards. Syd began with them in 1981, paying $45 for a three-year period by check. We suddenly realized that we hadn’t heard from them in awhile, not really remembering the last renewal. We have been dropped since 1999. Why? They wanted only credit card transactions and our record showed checks. Did anybody notify us, give us an option, or even let us know that the fee is now $100 annually because of covering identify theft? Of course not. These big companies with employees changiong constantly just don’t give a hoot about the customer.
Re the 4-store charge card…..When I came to Baltimore I had one. I remember it as the four “H’s” ……. Hecht’s, Hess Shoes, Hoschild-Kohn, and Hutzler. Is Hoschild spelled correctly?
My first credit card was an Amex. I got the application the week after I graduated from college. I was jobless, and listed my occupation as “writer” and income as “variable — $0-$12,000/year.” (This was in 1978. An income of 12K a year would have been a dream come true.) I got the card. Of course I went out and started buying rounds of drinks, chimichanga platters, stupid clothing. The $50 fee I considered a tax on my own heedlessness; if I had to pay the balance every month, I wouldn’t overcharge.
To some degree, it worked. But I dumped them over the same crap everyone above has already mentioned, and over time, I’ve grown to hate credit-card companies with the white-hot fury of a thousand suns, even while I accept them as part of modern life and sometimes carry a balance. If I could make one change to the standard public high-school curriculum, I’d drop one subject (gym, most likely) and add a financial-literacy course. It would strive to prepare students for the avalanche of bullshit, mendacity and crapola the credit industry will bury them under in their lifetimes, and give them a fighting chance to resist.
Here’s a story about a Fleet Bank Visa. I can’t remember why I broke up with them, but for the next three years, they sent a “bill” every month, which showed a thirty-dollar annual fee, but no balance due. I’d call every now and then and ask them to stop, but they didn’t.
Okay, so at some point, Fleet Bank sold its Visa business to another bank — and reported me as owing thirty dollars. And then finance charges began to mount up . . . the new company, bless its heart, wiped it out.
AmEx, prodded by JustGive.org, had already come crawling back. Too late!
I have hung out with AmExp over 30 years. When I was doing a research project in New York City in the late 60′s, I left my purse on the subway, along with $1,000 worth of AmExp traveler’s checks. I went to their headquarters and they reimbursed me immediately with no questions asked. An experience like that stays with a person for a long time!
I had more trouble with AMEX. The concept of activating my card seemed an alien concept to them so that, by the time I went on a business trip to Atlanta with Diane, I was chewing fingernails wondering if I’d be stranded with no way to pay for emergencies.
It gave me great pleasure to cut the card in half and kill that account.
Of course, when I recently emerged from a serious amount of debt, AMEX had the nerve to send me an application.
How come those apps never have a check box marked “Go to Hell”?
Sorry for your troubles, Laura.
For us, AMEX works great. We have one of those freebie versions that gives you $$ back as a percent of your transactions. Even so, we =only= use our AMEX for online transactions and Costco.
We use =only= AMEX for online transactions, because AMEX has their great chargeback policy. AMEX’s chargeback policy is one reason stores and services won’t use AMEX.
I learned about chargebacks during my stint as director of customer service and support (yes! hah!) at a dot-com back during the boom. Our dot-com provided all sorts of services which people would pay for online with their credit cards. Some of those services were fees for conferences.
After the conference, the charge would show up on their bill and some folks would dispute the charge. AMEX would back out the money and refund it to the cardholder without ever contacting us. We’d get a fait accompli message from AMEX saying that the money had been removed from our merchant account. Huh?
My job (and my staff’s) was to contact the customer, convince them that they rilly rilly rilly should pay the bill, and resubmit the charge with their approval.
Time. Pain. Disgruntled customers. Parents saying, “I didn’t make that charge and my Johnny would certainly not have used my card without my permission to charge that student conference! He never would have!”
“Well, ma’am. Johnny not only charged his registration but also that of two of his friends. All three attended the conference. Maybe you should have another chat with Johnny. May we resubmit the charge?”
To make up for all that trauma, AMEX, bless their bean counting hearts, spent nine months backing out a $4.95 GeoCities charge that Yahoo! kept charging me each month after I’d canceled my account. I’d go online. Check my account statement. Click the box next to GeoCities and tell AMEX that I was disputing that charge. AMEX would back the charge out and credit me $4.95. The next month Yahoo! would charge me for GeoCities for that month. I’d dispute the charge and AMEX would back out the $4.95…. Finally, after nine months, Yahoo! suddenly realized that I’d canceled my account months earlier.
True embarrassment is when the guy running the cash register at the Goodwill declines your platinum Visa.
I haven’t used cc’s for about year and a half.
My mother would never use/wear an item charged until the bill was paid (in full). She was thrilled to death to have a gold card or something like that and hadn’t used a cc in ages. So when came time to sign for the bill, she waved the gold card to the waiter eager to use it, but she hadn’t a clue where to sign, etc., so I coached her through it. I was worried to death what the waiter was thinking, like I was taking advantage of her or something. Every now and rare again she’ll charge something ‘to keep the card working’ .
Jeanne