Direct Merchants Bank MasterCard® Reviews

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Direct Merchants Bank MasterCard®
Issued by Direct Merchants Bank

Total Posts: 172

Average Rating: 1.6

Category: Regular

Showing 1 - 10 of a total of 172 Commentaries

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"Rotten Card. Lousy Customer Service"

I first obtained this card several years ago. My credit limit was rather small, compared to other cards, however, I only used it occasionally, so that was not a problem. I have an excellent payment history with this card. I have never been so much as a day late with any payment. I have always paid off my entire balance within 30 days. This morning I happened to go online to make a payment when I learned that my credit limit had been slashed in half. I had no advance notification that this was going to happen, and there have been no other unusual circumstances in my recent credit history **or** financial activity to justify this action. I immediately telephoned Direct Merchants to inquire as to an explanation. I spoke with 2 different customer service operators who were entirely indifferent to my complaint. They both conceded that I was an excellent customer but they said a business decision had been made, and that there was no one else to whom I could speak **or** appeal. When I asked why I wasn''''t even furnished with any advanced notification that my credit limit was subject to being reduced, I was told that the decision had only been made two days ago, but that I will be getting a letter in the mail within the next few weeks! When I asked if the letter would contain a detailed explanation as to this "business decision" I was told that the letter would state that a "decision had been made to lower my credit limit," but nothing further. I was also "cheerfully" furnished a P.O. Box where I can write a letter response if I choose. Incredible. It has always been my experience with my other credit cards that if my bill is paid regularly and consistently then my credit limit is periodically increased. Unfortunately, Direct Merchants prefers to punish, rather than reward, an excellent payment history. Beware of this card.

Most attractive feature: Too few to mention

Least attractive feature: Poor customer service and attention

Overall:

Benefits:

Service:

Posted by: TRT

Date: 2/20/2009

Recommend?

This person does not recommend this card.

"Worst Bank Ever."

They will raise your rates whenever they feel like it and will not lower them. I am glad to have this card paid off and cancelled. They tried to charge me $50 interest on my $0 balance.

Most attractive feature: No good features.

Least attractive feature: Do not care about customer.

Overall:

Benefits:

Service:

Posted by: Mat

Date: 6/17/2008

Recommend?

This person does not recommend this card.

"Bad News!!!!"

I accepted this credit card almost 3 years ago and really thought HSBC was a great bank (which Direct Merchants is apart of). I no longer feel this way. Last year in April I had a suspicious charge and disputed it, this charge made me go over the limit. Well the charge was removed however the over the limit fee caused them to jack my interest rate up by 5%. I called them and they corrected the rate. Well I just noticed they did it again. I went through all my statements and was not late or anything for the past year. Nor have I been late on anything else. I contacted them and they refused to fix it, and have horrible attitudes. Obviously they are famous for jacking up interest rates. It is funny that right after I made a 3500.00 payment my rate goes up? Could it be that they want more money because I started to pay off my bill. I am making another payment next week and closing this account, as well as all other HSBC accounts I have. I am not ok with this treatment, if deserved fine, but it was not. If I could give 0 stars I would.

Most attractive feature: Nothing at all.

Least attractive feature: Unexplained or unjustified interest rate hikes. Horrible service.

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Service:

Posted by: SS

Date: 4/16/2008

Recommend?

This person does not recommend this card.

"Self-service without customer service"

I have had this Direct Merchant Master Card for several years. I have never really used the card except for those have to situations. Then I began to use it for all medical expenses for tracking and tax reporting. I normally paid the account in full monthly by check then after a couple of payments that took to long to post, resulting in late fees that took two or three calls to get removed I used the online payment method. Then I noticed they offered online bill pay. So I input all of my bills and began to pay bills through Direct Merchants. This worked out good because I would shift the funds to savings and also get one percent back from Direct Merchants. Then after four months of paying the card off every month I logged on to find the option for Bill pay removed from my account. I called the so called Customer Service department and they advised someone would contact me on this issue. Sidebar, on several occasions I have been told I would be contacted and have yet to ever be contacted when I was told this by a Direct Merchant agent. DO NOT expect them to ever contact you when they say they will they won't. So after several weeks and three more calls someone advised me their management just decided to drop bill pay with no notification to any one. This has got to be the worst customer service I have ever dealt with on a credit card company. I still use the card in places were it is the only card you can use and pay it off monthly. I will replace them and dump the card sometime this year. On a scale of 1 to 10 they are minus 3.

Most attractive feature: 1% Cash back on all purchases and on bill payment

Least attractive feature: Customer service or complete lack of

Overall:

Benefits:

Service:

Posted by: Roger

Date: 2/3/2007

Recommend?

This person does not recommend this card.

"No customer service to speak of -- larger payments (especially checks) are routinely posted late"

Now with the HSBC Bank Nevada things are getting worse. I pay my bills in full each month so high interest is of no concern but still payments are routinely lost or posted late so it is better to split the monthly payment into several smaller ones. I avoid sending paper payments completely since June 2006 when instead of two checks I had to send five (5) consecutive paper payments within 1 1/2 month and each one had serious problems (three were delayed significantly -- one was found after 6 weeks inside sorting facility and two were lost inside the sorting facility including one of the replacement checks that was sent via registered and certified mail).

Now six months the web site did not work so I gathered enough courage to send one regular payment for $4,500.00 via post office and it was again "lost" for three weeks but conveniently "found" and applied exactly one day after the due day. In the meantime to avoid paying interest I have already send electronic replacement funds a day before due date now so there is a huge overpayment and I want my "lost and now found" money back but those morons at customer service need another couple of weeks to process the refund -- a complete disaster. One of them (apparently temps or people first day on the job) did not know that they have all the information to send a refund (routing and account number etc.) - I'm sure this info is on my check like on every other check. Another one just plainly said he did not have access to my account and could not help me but gave me a fax number to "Payment Reserch Department" for "faster" refund -- he did not know where this "Research Department" was located when asked or what bank it belonged to so then just for fun I asked him what bank he works for or what bank he represents -- he wasn't sure at first but a few momments later after some whispering in the backround corrected himself and stated that he thinks it is HSBC Nevada or something like that.

There is not much that a bank normally can screw up as far as an online or electronic payments are concerned but Direct Merchant proved again it can be done -- lately the online payment feature often does not work correctly and, I was just told, that even when it works correctly it works only every 5th day -- apparently it has been crippled in order to increase revenue or to make sure that at least some people who use online payment can not send it when they need it before the due date. If you are like me and like to pay your bills in full the only reliable option to make sure the payment will get there is to use third party electronic payment (if your other bank provides it for free or low cost) and still to avoid hassle for protection split it into several smaller ones. I usually send one early for just the minimum amount and split the rest into two remaining payments and send those closer to the due date -- from my experience the smaller electronic payments are trouble free but it seems that every time I send a larger one there are extra delays or other problems -- sometimes even with online payments.

Most attractive feature: 90 day interest free on bill pay feature, low international transaction costs

Least attractive feature: Customer service nonexstent -- and when you get to speak to someone it is painfull

Overall:

Benefits:

Service:

Posted by: Mark

Date: 1/17/2007

Recommend?

This person does recommend this card.

"scam artists hiding behind thier money stealing from the consumer"

i got this card awhile back, cant remember actually when. but i was in the army, paid on time. then our nieghborhood had an address change for 911 purposes. well i never got my bill like alot of my other mail, including other cards and bills. they called and wanted payment, told them i never recieved the bill due to the address change. the rep said: it's not our problem. then got hit with 29.99% intrest and latepayment. i called them and asked to resolve this problem. got the"if you continue to pay on time in 6 months we will reduce the intrest rate." then i deployed to iraq for the war. got back and called them again to lower the interest rate. got the same message. i was paying the minimum $ as its all i could afford. after many months and my bil got higher and higher to the point of over limit, got hit with that charge also. finally asked them to settle up and cancel my account they refused to negotiate so i told them that i will not pay extortion anymore. my balance was around $3,000 when it defaulted its $6700 now + attorny fees as i am being sued by the corrupt SOB's

Most attractive feature: if you want to be in debt forever and go to court and be sued

Least attractive feature: direct merchant bank

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Service:

Posted by: dennis

Date: 10/16/2006

Recommend?

This person does not recommend this card.

"Don't Get This Card!!! Charges & Fees Galor! Daily & Hourly Harrasing Phone Calls!"

I've had this card for a few years and have maxed it out a few times only to pay the total balance off in full. Last year I lost my job and things have been tough so I have had to use this card for groceries, etc. Back in Dec I needed groceries and checked to make sure I had credit, I did. I get a call from them telling me I went over my limit and that I needed to pay $300 now. I tell them money was there when I used it and even as we speak my account is showing I still have a credit. They tell me that what my account is showing is not correct. BS! I explain my situation and ask if they could work with me, according to them I did not qualify for the hardship because I had too much $ going out...well duh! Isn't that what it's for? Told them they had to wait until I got my refund, then they called again and this time wanted $600! Funny thing is my stmts never showed I was over or that the min pymt was that high! Got my refund and in March gave them $775. April was normal again, this month the min pymt went up, this time to $227! couldn't figure out why since I haven't touched the card and made my pmts, started checking all of my past stmts, IR has risen every month and is now up to 18.99 plus a high $$ finance charge! Don't ever be late or go over your limit because they will hound you night and day with harassing phone calls and will refuse to work with you!

Most attractive feature: None

Least attractive feature: High Interest Rates, Poor Customer Service, Outragous fees

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Posted by: Kat

Date: 6/3/2006

Recommend?

This person does not recommend this card.

"No Customer Service"

I do not possess a vocabulary extensive enough to express my opinions of Direct Merchants Bank without using terms and language I consider inappopriate and volugar.

Most attractive feature: high credit limit

Least attractive feature: customer service worst experienced in my 60+ years

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Posted by: W

Date: 2/27/2006

Recommend?

This person does not recommend this card.

"Your better off dealing with the mafia!"

This is hands down, the worst credit card I have ever had!!! I have good credit, and asked for a lower interest rate..which, of course was denied, but they instead raised my already outrageously high rate to 29.99% !!!!! I took out a loan to payoff these loan sharks in full and I am going to shred my card. For those of you out there needing financial help --Please do yourself a favor and steer clear of Direct Merchants..Try Providian instead.

Most attractive feature: None.

Least attractive feature: Interest rates, customer service

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Service:

Posted by: dn

Date: 7/24/2005

Recommend?

This person does not recommend this card.

"Horrible...do NOT use this company"

After several years of paying more than the minimum amount, I was informed by a customer service rep that I was not entitled to a lower rate...at the time it was 27%. So, to get their attention, I decided to NOT PAY. WEELLLLL....they called me back and promised me that if in 6 months I paid on time...I would get a lower interest rate....guess what? I pay 29.9% now because of my little stint (this was over a year ago) They still will not reduce my rate and I'm feeling raped by this system. I will never get it paid off now....I'll owe interest long after I am dead.

Most attractive feature: I can't think of a thing

Least attractive feature: customer service, interest rates

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Service:

Posted by: Brandy

Date: 6/22/2005

Recommend?

This person does not recommend this card.

Showing 1 - 10 of a total of 172 Commentaries

1-10 | 11-20 | 21-30 | 31-40 | 41-50 | 51-60 | 61-70 | 71-80 | 81-90 | 91-100 | 101-110 | 111-120 | 121-130 | 131-140 | 141-150 | 151-160 | 161-170 | 171-172

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