Credit cards. I just got the strangest call from India about

[tsuki]

one of my credit cards. I don't use it, but I figure that it is costing them money to maintain my account, so why cancel it?

I could hardly understand him, but I think the card is offering me, no more late charges, a lower interest, one fifty dollar payment a year to be deducted and no interest on transfer balances for two years.

Has anyone else received a phone call like this? Is it just snake oil, or are they worried about backlash?

They are sending me a package, because I could not understand the Indian on the other side of the world. I will post the offer when I can read it. (I shall also look for the fine print.)

[Technowitch]

1. I have a standard spiel I use whenever I get calls like that

"I'm sorry, but we accept NO telemarketing calls here, for any reason whatsoever. Please put this number on your Do Not Call list. Thank you, and goodbye" *click*

[tsuki]

4. Usually, I just hang up, but I was curious. The companies must

know that the public is angry. They don't buy into the media. I thought that they might be taking steps to avert a backlash. I found it interesting.

[Warpy]

8. The best thing to say is

"I'm not making any financial decisions until Bush is gone." and hang up.

What I'm thinking is that this is probably a phone bank in Nigeria and they're fishing for your credit card number.

[amazona]

11. not due to backlash, been happening for awhile

I got some of these offers as far back as the late 1990s. You just have to make it onto the right list. You'll start getting them pretty often now that you've gotten your first. Hold out for the best bribe. Don't take T-shirts and junk gifts because sometimes, the same bank will have a better offer and it is supposed to be one offer to a person.

For instance, a Las Vegas credit card (may have been a MasterCard) offered many people a free T-shirt to sign up. I didn't take that one. A few weeks later, they offered $40 in gambling chips from the Excalibur casino. The people who took the T-shirt were told they couldn't get the chips. I was going to Vegas all the time at that time and cashed in the chips at the cage for a quick $40!

I think it's probably real so enjoy.

Don't keep a lot of credit cards that you're not using in your house though. Either cut 'em up or just put them in your safety deposit box at the bank.

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72

[blm]

2. My standard reply is "We won't make any financial move till Bush is out of

office. We don't trust his economic policies."

Or something like that. Sometimes I'm a bit more biting.

[EVDebs]

3. Read this Computerworld article carefully....

California leads way on ID theft legislation
www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/ security/hacking/story/0,10801,76721,00.html

pay special attention to this:

>snip<

"...Alan Paller, director of research at the Bethesda, Md.-based SANS Institute, said the California law is probably necessary because of the kinds of crime that are occurring. A group in Russia and Ukraine has been acquiring customer data, extorting money to prevent its release and then selling it anyway. Paller believes some companies are paying off the extortionists in an attempt to contain the damage"

>snip<

So, extortionists operating overseas (outside of FTC and DOJ jurisdiction) are taking unknown amounts of money from credit card companies and our legislators in Congress just made it easier for them to collect money from the victims...

Sounds like someone needs a spankin' in this Republican-run school for idiots they call Congress.

[Jackpine Radical]

5. We get offfers like this all the time.

Your card was inactive, so they're probly trying to stir some action out of you. The trick is that they offer you all kinds of stuff as a come-on (we get a lot of offers for zero-percent rates on balance transfers from other cards and the like), and then they wait for you to be 15 seconds late on a payment 6 months from now, at which time they declare you high-risk & jack your interest rate to 30% a minute, compounded hourly and applied to whatever you put on the card the very instant you run the card through the machine.

Cancel the card ifd you're not using it. Don't just cut it up. If you don't formally inform them of your desire to cancel the card, and then make sure they DO it, credit rating companies can actually use your mere possession of the card against your credit rating. I just read about this somewhere not too long ago.

[egran]

6. Indian Love Song

I may be wrong, but, I think most credit card tele-marketing calls have been outsourced to India.

egran

[LeftyMom]

7. My standard line for companies I already do business with

is to ask them to send me information in writing before I make any changes to my account. Lately it seems like they don't have the option if doing that. I figure if a deal doen't look good in writing with a few days to look it over, I don't want it.

Companies I don't already do business with are informed that if I wanted to do business with them I'd call, instructed not to call again, and disconnected.

[Toucano]

9. It's legitimate snake oil.

This post holiday season is prime time for luring people to switch over to new deals. Many are maxed out, so they're ripe for the picking.

There's likely a "we own you" clause in microprint somewhere.

[amazona]

10. if they are sending you a package...

...I'm guessing it is probably legitimate. Read the fine print, but I've received similar offers. Not always the cash payment, although I have gotten that (I think the best was for $75 but $25 might be more standard) but frequent flyer miles, air tickets, and hotel rooms are sometimes offered too. Make sure there is no annual fee that "takes back" the cash or the value of the gift you will be receiving. But if it's a fee-free card, and it looks like the real deal, I'd take it. $50 is $50.

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72