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Commentaries |
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Credit Card Commentaries |
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Direct Merchants Bank Platinum MasterCard®
Issued by Direct Merchants Bank |
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| Total Posts: 55 |
Average Rating:
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Category: Regular |
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Showing 1 - 10 of a total of 55 Commentaries |
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1-10 | 11-20 | 21-30 | 31-40 | 41-50 | 51-55 |
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| "Avoid this company ... it''s all about their profits!" |
| Logged in today to discover my $ 3000 credit card limit had been cut to $ 300. When I called, they explained it wasn''t about me, but that HSBC needed to move the money to accounts that were more profitable for them. Huh? Being a loyal customer of the bank for several years isn''t important. Neither is good payment history. What does count is keeping large balances floating month after month so they can profit from the interest. And they claim they do this to reduce their risk? Called and closed my account. Good riddance. |
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| Most attractive feature: None |
| Least attractive feature: Raising interest rates and lowering limits without notice |
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| Posted by: Chris |
| Date: 3/2/2009 |
Recommend?  |
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This person does not recommend this card.
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| "Direct Merchants Platinum Master Card" |
| I got this card in 2003, gradually they raised my credit limit to $5,500. All of a sudden (2009) they have reduced my credit limit to $400.00. I have a beautiful record of using the card and making prompt payments. I have made large furniture purchases recently and then paid them off quickly, keeping a low balance. No late payments. They sent me no letter and said so when I called to see if there was a mistake. They said they "just do it" to reduce their "exposure"??? They said they consulted no credit records - my Experian score is currently 780. I don''t get it. Will close my account. Also have same complaints as others with unexpected rate hikes, etc. |
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| Most attractive feature: None particularly |
| Least attractive feature: Customer service, rate hikes, sudden lowering of credit allowance |
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| Posted by: Janie |
| Date: 2/26/2009 |
| Recommend? |
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This person does not recommend this card.
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| "Stay Away!!" |
| I had this card for a while. One time I had to dispute a charge - they didn't respond to it in the legal amount of time they are required to. After I worked the dispute out with the company and BBB THEN they decided to act on their part and made the situation worse. Anytime I called the 800 number on the card - I could never get an option for a person - only for card balances. I never signed up for the Credit Protection Program but there it was every month on my bill, when I wrote (cause I couldn't call) to complain, I got a letter stating that I needed to call the Credit Protection Company to cancel it (which is owned by HSBC the same company that does this card). I would cancel it and in 2 months it would be back, I'd cancel and 2 months later there it was. I finally transferred the balance over to another card with a better interest rate. I left that account open however, but just received a letter from them stating due to inactivity - they've cancelled the card. Knocked my credit score down a few points by doing that. Bad company! |
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| Most attractive feature: There is no best feature or service. |
| Least attractive feature: Everything |
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| Posted by: LKM |
| Date: 5/2/2008 |
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This person does not recommend this card.
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| "Direct Merchants Bank Platinum Mastercard" |
| I have had this card for a year and a half now. I was started out with a 1500 dollar credit limit and a 13.5% APR. At the time I was just establishing credit. Most of the times I pay in full, but have left a balance on the card sometimes. Unfortunately this card does not offer any type of rewards and Direct Merchants Bank is not able (so they tell me) to switch this to a rewards account. Also since getting this card card I have built up my credit and have several other credit cards with higher limits and lower APR's (check out the BOFA Amex, they gave me a 7.9% fixed). Direct Merchants bank will not raise my credit limit which is a bummer but I dont really need it anyway. I called to cancel the card the other day and they gave me a promotional 3.9% APR for 6 months and then lowered the regular to 11.34%. Not great, but at least they are willing to do something. I will probably cancel the card anyway, but in my time of having the card I have never had a problem with them not recieving payments or not getting bills like everyone else. Direct Merchants Bank offers online account access which is really easy to use, I make my payments through there. I did have one problem with the card, when I got married I went to buy my wifes wedding ring and the card was declined. I called and was told that since I had not used the card in such a long period of time it went on security hold, but a quick call cleared everything up. I can live with that. This card is not as bad as people put it out to be. |
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| Most attractive feature: Never had any problems with customer service, payments or any other feature of the card |
| Least attractive feature: No rewards, does not accept credit increase requests |
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| Posted by: Joshua |
| Date: 5/3/2007 |
Recommend?  |
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This person does recommend this card.
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| "HSBC not letting me sleep" |
After 6 yrs of excellent payment history, and a credit score over 700, we began seeing steady increases in our card over the last 8 months. After a supposed non-existence of a proposal from a credit counselling service, we now get up to 5 calls/day from HSBC, even though we continue to send them money every month. Good luck with this company!
Trey |
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| Most attractive feature: none |
| Least attractive feature: universal default and HSBC now in charge of the account |
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| Posted by: Trey |
| Date: 2/21/2007 |
| Recommend? |
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This person does not recommend this card.
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| "NEVER GET THIS CARD" |
| I HAVE NOT USED THIS CARD IN OVER SIX YEARS AND THE INTEREST RATE KEEPS GOING HIGHER EVEN THOUGH I AM NOT LATE WITH PAYMENTS. MY BALANCE IS STILL ALMOST AS HIGH AS IT WAS IN THE BEGINING. STAY AWAY FROM THIS CARD. THEY HAVE PLACED UNAUTHORIZED PURCHASES ON MY CARD TAKES FORVER TO GET THEM OFF |
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| Most attractive feature: This card does not have any best features or services |
| Least attractive feature: HIGH INTERESTS RATES/RUDE CUSTOMER SERVICE |
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| Posted by: rjt |
| Date: 7/14/2006 |
| Recommend? |
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This person does not recommend this card.
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| "Way Too Greedy SOB's" |
I've had my account with Direct Merchant going on 7 years. All has been relatively fine. NEVER a late payment. NEVER over limit. Then HSBC stepped in. My APR went from 14.29% to over 25% in ONE MONTH! And they have now tacked on an annual fee of $29.
Calling Customer Service gets you absolutely nowhere. You will get "but if you close your account you won't be able to get a reduced rate later". And the answer for the jacked up APR?? Increase revenue!! I wonder how many other companies out there would like to "increase revenue" by 10% in one month!!
If you get an offer from these jerks, no matter how tempting the offer may be to begin, just send it to the shredder knowing you just saved yourself money, time, and aggravation. Their line-of-credit is a slavery sentence.
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| Most attractive feature: Sending the card through the shredder. |
| Least attractive feature: Customer Service, surprize "re-pricing", new annual fees |
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| Posted by: Mark |
| Date: 6/19/2006 |
| Recommend? |
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This person does not recommend this card.
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| "This Card Sucks!" |
I got this card and it seemed cool until HSBC took them over. HSBC is the one who owns the predatory lenders like Household Bank and Orchard Bank cards.
I had trouble accessing my account one month and they charged me a late fee. Then HSBC claimed I was past due like $47 when online it said it was only $16. Then when I paid it I started getting calls 10-20 times a day from them trying to collect money. Each customer person I talked to had claimed owed a higher amount each time I talked to them. They also changed my credit limit without notifying me. The limit was lower than the one I originally had so they tacked on additional late charges.
Despite disputing the past due they just continued calling and calling which is a violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act which says you are not supposed to harrass a customer by causing the phone to ring constantly. They also changed my credit lim
Finally I had enough and contacted the Attorney General's office, the Better Business Bureau and then finally had my case forwarded to the Comptroller Of The Currency which is the part of the Federal Government that controls and oversees banks and credit cards.
A couple of weeks ago, I got a call from some guy from HSBC's skip tracing department claiming I now owe over $127 despite my informing them that the case is now in the hands of Comptroller Of The Currency and to stop calling me. These people from the skip tracing department claimed they had no knowledge of it but somehow conveniently they said
had a record of my complaints one of which warned them it would be forwarded to the Attorney General and yes even the Comptroller Of The Currency.
Apparently HSBC has done this to other people as well. Calling them constantly, harrassing them, changing credit limits to lower ones and charging late fees in order to make money. If you get a pre-approval offer in the mail from Direct Merchants Bank, Household Bank or Orchard, throw it away. You'd be doing yourself a favor as HSBC is indeed a predatory lender with little disregard for their customers. |
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| Most attractive feature: None That I Can See Now That HSBC Bank Has Taken Them Over |
| Least attractive feature: HSBC Bank Took Them Over, Lousy Customer Service, Billing Issues |
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| Posted by: P.J. |
| Date: 3/28/2006 |
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This person does not recommend this card.
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| "BAIT and SWITCH" |
| No matter what the bait is, it's usually impressive enough to bite the hook (usually a low introductory rate). However, after one has swallowed the bait and its too low into the stomach to spit it out right away, then they switch to the profound, ironic, unmerciful, robbing, thieving, rediculous, more than high interest rate. PAY IT OFF NOW!! even if you have to re-finance the house at a nice 5 or 6 percent. Unfortunately, I have been a member with them much too long simply because I couldn' pay it off. Now I can and will celebrate for 2 days. Every negative review that's on this site; I agree 10 times over with what they had to say so I won't say it again, but they are all true based on my own experience. |
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| Most attractive feature: WIDELY ACCEPTED |
| Least attractive feature: INTEREST RATES INCREASES 10 FOLD WITHOUT GOOD REASONS, WITH EXCELLENT PAYING CUSTOMERS. |
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| Posted by: JAMES |
| Date: 7/17/2005 |
| Recommend? |
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This person does not recommend this card.
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| "How can your interest rate go from 9% to 29.97% in a day?" |
| After bring a satisfied customer and using the card without going over the limit, paying late, or running a high balance. Magically one month my rate went from 9% to 29.97% for no reason. They refuse to give any explanation other than a letter they claim to have sent that never seems to get to me no matter how many times they send it. I payed the whole card off right now and closed the account. Makes no sense to loose a good customer of two years with a credit score above 680. No manager was available on their customer service lines and it seems that unless you can pay your card off at any time; you should not be a direct merchants customer. Fortunatly I had the cash available to do so. If I hadn't I would have had to get another card and balance transfer or be subjected to their insane loan shark skills. |
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| Most attractive feature: Initial Setup |
| Least attractive feature: Complementary Account Review=intrest rate 3x |
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| Posted by: Kris |
| Date: 4/19/2005 |
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This person does not recommend this card.
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Showing 1 - 10 of a total of 55 Commentaries
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1-10 | 11-20 | 21-30 | 31-40 | 41-50 | 51-55
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