A Site for Keeping Up with the Hartigans
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Saturday, March 19, 2005 A scam is a scam is a scam no matter how you look at it. Sorry, this is a long post, but I hope you read to the end and comment with your experiences regarding this.We're actually pretty observant lately when it comes to bills, loans, credit card and bank statements, checks we've written etc. Since we've been victims so many times of check fraud and identity theft. I'm finding lately it's not just the average "Joe thief" trying to rip us off. Credit companies have come up with some very cleaver schemes and scams to try to make it so you incur late fees, interest, interest increases and finance charges. Which I want to share with you all, along with the local/national news media. First a few things: Yes, you should read the 38 pages, 4 point type in a tint of 12% black terms of agreement/changes of agreement/changes to your account book you get bi-weekly from your creditors. You should also read through every single solitary thing on every 3 page bill you get. You should also read the remittance envelopes, provided for your convenience, to submit your payment. Trust me. ***You should also know the time it takes to read all this crap and keep current with their latest BS scam will most likely cost you your job, throw you into bankruptcy and thus render it impossible to pay your creditors anything. Which will then screw up your credit and possibly land you in jail for 10 to 20 years for fraud because the last check you wrote bounced. As you all know, we don't have the advantages that Martha Stewart does when it comes to fraud. So here are the scams I am aware of: Scam # 1 Creditor sends your bill and the "for your convenience remittance widow envelope". They have also conveniently printed your mailing address on the reverse side of the remittance slip. If you're not careful, you could put the slip it in the envelope the wrong way, with your address in the window (theirs being on the back of the slip) and conveniently mail it back to yourself. Now, if you're like most Americans, you try to make your payments on time, but usually cut it very close to the due date, god forbid the due date is Sunday and you mail it Wednesday. If you do and make this mistake you're screwed and can expect: LATE FEE: $1 million (I know, I'm exaggerating, but it seems like it doesn't it?) Scam # 2 Bill pay online: Easy! Convenient! Save the Stamp! Save the Check! You will also no longer get the paper reminder bill in the mail. You will most likely get a "reminder" via email. Problem: their automated email might not always work and you might not get your reminder. Thus, you miss paying the bill. You get a HUGE bill the next month complete with a late fee. Apparently they don't think they should be held responsible for their email "glitch". You should be held responsible for not checking your accounts every other day to see whom you owe what and on what day it is due. (see ***). Apparently they are the only creditor you owe and should have a complete handle on their billing schedule. You can however notify them that they did not provide you with the reminder and they may remove the late fee. Once. After that, you're on your own. Scam #3 Bill Pay online: Date and time stamp. Most creditors will allow you to set up a bill payment date. For instance, they send you the email invoice the 15th; the bill is due the 30th. You can log in and set up the payment for whatever date you wish. Here's the scam, better make sure you set up the payment before whatever "cutoff" time they have and it better not be on a weekend or holiday, because then it is credited the "Next business day" and not the day you created the payment. Now you're screwed and can expect LATE FEE: $1 Million. As far as I'm concerned, they could process my payment on Christmas, I don't care. If I made the payment before midnight on the due date, I made the payment on time. Screw your system. I made the payment on time. Scam #3b Bill Pay online: Watch for this new trick. Your bill is due the 30th. You can set up the payment for the 30th, but you’d better set it up at least 4 days prior to the 30th. You can set up the payment on the 26th to take place on the 30th, but you cannot set up the payment any day after that to take place on the 30th. The creditor requires 4 days to process your “request”. Try to set up the payment 1, 2 or 3 days prior, sorry, the earliest you can set up the payment application date is for 4 days from now, making your payment late and you can expect: Late Fee: $1 million. Btw: The government LOVES this one. Scam #4 Bill Pay online: No date or time stamp/sorry system error. There are also creditors that will only allow you to make the payment at the time you log in. You can't set up the date. The payment is automatic at that moment (hmmmm...curious how some payments can occur the moment you make them and some take 2 to 4 "business" days). As I stated before, paycheck to paycheck, wait to the final minute, American attitude. So what can you expect? You can expect a system error. Of course it is Friday, the bill is due Sunday, you must make the payment TODAY and of course you cannot because...their system is down. Check with your friends. See what creditors they have, you'll be amazed to find that most everyone's due date is on a weekend or holiday, approximately the same date, and when they try to make the payment online on the Friday prior, the credit company is having "system errors they are not responsible for". You can expect LATE PAYMENT: $1 million. Scam #5 This one is my favorite, the "balance transfer" scam. It mostly concentrates on credit card companies. You have an account that you haven't used in awhile. So to entice you to use it, they call you and offer you six months interest free on a balance transfer. Now, we all know that 0% interest means we pay off that debt a lot faster, so we jump. After you complete the transaction, then you get the "verbal fine print" It's called a 17% of the balance transfer fee, and (my favorite scam of all) a 22% interest rate if you make any payment late within the six-month interest free period...ACCRUED! But you won't get that notice unless you make the payment late. Which they will inevitably try to pull scams 1-4 on you to have this scenario occur. So there you are. Take time out of your 20 minutes of free time every day and spend it on the fine print of your bills so you don’t get nailed with the: Late Fee: $1 million. Better yet, share your experience of your creditors trying to take advantage of you here. As I plan to share this post with the local and national media. Ciao’ and Good bill paying carma be wtih you. posted by me | 7:25 PM | 2 comments Sunday, March 06, 2005 Hmmmm....I thought I had a lot more books  I think it's time for a field trip to Barnes and Noble. So that project only took 12 days (actually it was 17 from start to finish, but you can't count the week he was at work). He took a day off, now he's doing something in our bathroom... posted by me | 1:09 PM | 6 comments |
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