Story about Target billing department tactics

[AnArmyVeteran]

I have a friend who moved about three months ago. Before she moved she shopped at Target and got an instant 10% discount. Then she dutifully wrote Target to give them her new address. Time went by and she still never received any statements from Target. So she finally called them and they told her she owed almost $90, even though her purchase was only $24. So in less than 3 months Target added late fees and finance charges on top of more fees and more finance charges and the final bill was almost $90, or $66 dollars in additional fees.

Welcome to the world of corporate domination and abuse. At one time charges like that were illegal, but after one politician after another whored themselves out to corporations they can do anything they want. Loan sharks weren't even allowed to charge that much in the past. It was illegal. But no longer.

My friend spent an hour on the phone being passed off from one person after another. It wasn't until she threatened to sue Target and protest in front of their stores did she get the charges removed. The people she talked with used tactics to try to get her to pay the full amount. Most people would have given up and paid the full amount. Most people succumb to corporate tricks and thuggery, especially those who are poorest, least educated and people who aren't aware that they can fight bogus charges, in other words the most vulnerable people in society. Corporations like Target and others use gimmicks like giving customers 10% off to entice them into getting credit cards knowing they will get much more than the 10% back in the form of late fees and finance charges.

Does anyone know what legal limits corporations can charge in interest, late payments and over-limit fees? Or can they charge anything they want?

What I find baffling are conservatives who believe corporations should have zero regulations to restrict their attacks against people. Don't conservatives ever fall victim to corrupt corporate practices? And when they do why don't they see they are supporting the very thugs who seek to harm them?

The deck is becoming more and more stacked against hard working Americans. They are being attacked from every direction by corrupt corporations from Wall Street to the oil industry. We bailed out Wall Street with hundreds of billions of dollars and we are giving the oil industry almost 50 BILLION dollars a year in subsidies, and that makes up almost 80% of all government subsidies. Why are we subsidizing the oil industry when each company makes tens of billions in profit every year? And they in turn do everything they can to screw the people.

I'm so tired of my country going to hell. When I served in the military I wasn't fighting against any real enemies. The real enemies to my country are in corporate board rooms who constantly design ways to manipulate as much money out of the pockets of people as possible.

[NeedleCast]

1. I'm confused by this story

Are you saying she applied for a Target credit card at the sales stand to recieve a discount on her purchase?

[AnArmyVeteran]

3. Yes, that's what she did. It's a common practice in stores

They give you an 'instant discount' but those instant discounts can turn into horror stories.

[NeedleCast]

7. Yup, just making sure I understood

I get those offers all the time at the Point of Sale. Never take them.

Still, not sure why your friend wasn't more pro-active about fixing this if she waited three months after not hearing from Target or receiving any statements. Did she move before she recieved her first statement? Did she leave a forwarding address with the post office?

I agree that corproate credit policies are often predatory and that the corporations that issue them are trying to maximize fees because that's where the real money is (something-for-nothing). That being said, I see these stories on DU pretty often and there's usually something in them where the victim could have been pro-active in not becoming a victim. If you get a credit card and don't see a statement within six weeks, maximum, I'd be on the phone to the company.

[AnArmyVeteran]

18. Well if you're moving and have a 1000 other things on your mind it's easy to forget.

Doesn't it bother you that a company can charge 250% interest and fees in less than 3 months? Do you want to live in a country where corporations can charge you anything they want? What if their penalty was charging you your firstborn male child if your payment is one day late? Yeah, ridiculous, but so are the fees, interests and charges they stack on top of each other. Those high fees used to be illegal in this country. Only corrupt loan sharks did it and they only took 20%. If you had an account and you thought it was closed and then one day fifteen years later you got a bill for $25,000 for a $2 balance would you gladly pay it? I don't think you would.

I have also seen a lot of stories where corporations abuse people. They spend a great deal of time devising ways to extract as much money from people as they can, while producing absolutely nothing. And because they have bought off officeholders they can even make their criminal operation 'legal'. There needs to be limits. Imagine all of the unemployed who have to carry balances on their cards or use them to exist. Do you believe they should be fair game for corporations to prey on and put them in debt forever? I hope you don't.

[supernova]

4. That's what I gather

Lots of stores, Target included, have the register clerk try to sign you up for their store credit card for a small, same-day discount. I've had this exact experience at Target, Macy's, Best Buy, Sears, Chico's and so on.

It's a big fat trap and I always turn them down for just this reason.

[Warpy]

2. Debt of any kind is pure poison

although people with stable incomes are prudent to take on fixed mortgages for reasonably priced homes.

I always sweetly decline those cards, telling them it's just one more thing for me to mislay. I know what their billing departments are up to.

[jp11]

5. To be fair, if I've got this right

your friend had a target store card, which I guess gives a 10% discount on all purchases or maybe just on your first purchase. Either way she charged something, then moved without paying the balance, didn't follow up on her own to pay money she owed. When she finally decided to follow up they had charged her late fees for not paying the initial balance?

Do I have that right?

I'm with you on many of the store card's billing departments being fee happy eager to charge you for this or that and not caring that you owed $5.55 but charging you their $30 late fee or whatever, unfortunately they can do that if you are late or don't pay the minimum. What I think is even worse is how many of those store cards are backed by crappy banks or finance companies that bring you in with a 5-9% apr then after 6-12months jack it up to 20% or higher, wasting a line of credit that you can only use with them.

[katandmoon]

6. Did she notify the USPS of her new address so that her mail would be forwarded?

[CoffeeCat]

8. You play with sharks...

...you will get bitten.

Credit-card companies and stores that issue credit cards aren't giving you a line of credit to be nice. They're
in it to screw you over and take your money. As Dave Ramsey says, "This is not a game to these companies."

You are an object.

Happily the proud owner of NO credit cards. You'll never, ever win at their game. They will get you one way or
another. Why play?

[CreekDog]

9. To sign up for a credit card to save 10% on $25 worth of stuff seems crazy

i'm not defending them, but criminy. signing up for a new credit card to save $2-3?

and look what it nearly cost!

:banghead:

they always ask me to sign up and they say "10% off your purchase today".

and i always tell them, "it's not worth it."

the only way it would be worth it is:

1) i already want that card (so why not take the bonus --but do it when i'm more spendy!).
2) it's the Home Depot/Lowe's card and I'm remodeling my kitchen and got interest free/discount for taking out the card (and paid off before the free interest expired).
3) you have a boatload of stuff and the discount is significant and the credit not harmful to you.

[NeedleCast]

10. Yup, generally the only way this works is if you buy at a minimum a few hundred worth of stuff

At the point of sale, because it's usually only good on whatever purchase you're currently making.

Or, make the purchase, get the card, get the discount, and cancel it a week later, paying off the balance right away.

[ellenfl]

11. yup. that's what i do if i have to use one of my cards . . . pay it off asap. eom

[NeedleCast]

13. It's also another "catch" the CC backer used to rack up fees

Most people are not likely to ask when they apply for the card at the point of sale what the APR is going to be and if there is an annual service charge on the card. People apply for the card to get a 10% discount of 50 dollars worth of merchandise, save 5 dollars and later find out the card has a 60$/year service charge. Lot of those service charges are billed up front so as soon as you use the card, you get charged for it and it appears on your first month bill. Nasty way to find out your five dollar savings actually cost you 55 dollars (plus interest).

[cbdo2007]

12. Sorry for your friend - but anyone else out there can learn from her many mistakes.

Don't sign up for store credit card to just save a few $$.

Use the phone or internet to change your address with companies immediately.

Follow up on debts with these companies that you do business with because you are one of millions to them and the are one of (hopefully) just a few to you.

etc. etc. etc.

[HipChick]

14. Target provides online statements

and online access to accounts with automated online billing
and that's one of the major comebacks these companies use..

[sinkingfeeling]

15. Don't know what the legal limits are, but everybody that has any type of credit card is informed

about what the late fees, over-limit fees, and interest charges are. People are get this information when they sign up for the credit. Those little sheets of paper also contain the address who is to use to change an address.

The easy solution is to decline the offers for credit cards.

[noamnety]

16. Thank you for posting this.

And I am sorry that the mindset in America - reflected here in this thread - is to immediately defend those with power and point fingers at those with the least power. It's an unfortunate substitution for deeper ethics. Some people look at the OP and immediately see the exploitation you were pointing out. Others read it and point out that the terms of the exploitation were clearly provided in fine print - as if that makes the exploitation itself acceptable.

[knitter4democracy]

17. That happened to me once with Sears. Never, ever again.

They got my name and address wrong in their computer, not that I knew that, as I was never shown anything to make sure it was right. I waited to hear from them, didn't, stupidly forgot about it, and then I found out when I ran a credit report to see if there was anything. Boy, did I find something all right! They had piled on over $160 in fees on a transaction of $43 bucks. I kid you not. I didn't have my account number, so it took me awhile in their phone system to get to a person who couldn't tell me the account number over the phone. I paid the balance of what I really owed, told them I'd sue them if they tried to get anything out of me for anything else, as it was their fault I hadn't been notified in writing of the bill, and they agreed to drop it and cancel my account. I made sure they did.

It was insane. I don't do those store cards anymore.