Hi folks. Just found out a good buddy is having trouble with his Direct Merchants VISA. According to him, he is being called every night regarding his account. Due to a hardship, he is about 2-3 months late on CC bills. He is now starting to catch up but cannot make full payments, just partial ones. Does Direct Merchants have a retention department? If so, anybody ever negotiate with them on payments? Are they workable? Anybody have a number to retention or a specific person to deal with? Also, does the "only communicate with me by correspondance" only work for CA's or does it also work with CC companies? I would appreciate any feedback regarding this bank. Thanks!
I didn't know they had a Visa card I thought it was a Mastercard only I learn something new everyday!!
My husband and I have dealt with them just recently. They are very unreasonable and are very quick to send your account to a legal firm!
"Correspond with me by mail only" is for collection agencies, it doesn't apply to the original creditor. They all do this I think, when I was having bad times and had prime card issuers, they called often also. Discover, FUSA, Citibank etc. Times are tough, they want their money. I hope he finds a contact to try to negotiate something. Let us know..
They are quick to raise interest rates, last Feb following the family accident, other half's rate jumped up to 28% from 19.9. Payment was five weeks late. First month I got them to remove the late charges, and correct CRA's entries. Second month called very outraged and they reduceded the interest rate back to 19.9%. In July they dropped the rate to 15.9 and in October gave a $300 line increase. It really depends who answers the phone.
