Beware Cross Country Applied Card Bank

When making on line payments there is a $ 6.95 payment fee which states it will be added with payment by the consumer checking the box.While it is added , increasing the monthly payment, it is not subtracted, but actually added again 2 days after payment is posted. I have been attempting to resolve this for several months now without success, each time it is listed on my statement as a charge.

While I know this is an outrageous fee,it is easier for me to keep track by paying my bills on line. I never really notice this until my acct would occasionally go over the limit with very little activity on the card, and sure enough I was being billed the $6.95 fee after I already made payment by checking the box, and including it in my payment. I have made repeated phone calls to them about this,and each time they have responded that it does not matter if there is minus sign next to the $6.95 on my statement,as I included it in my payment, so it would cancel out. Not so. If it is added to my total balance it accrues finance charges. This, I tried to explain, and I may as well have banged my head against a brick wall. I wondered why my acct. would mysteriously go over the limit , and why they would agree to waive the fee each time I complained. Seems if they were "caught" in this practice, they would waive the fee, but never admit any wrongdoing.

Again my acct went over the limit by $1.00, interestingly one day after the billing cycle closed and i had already made my payment.
This evening I phoned and spoke to a 'Charles C5R", who actually after 10 minutes, agreed with me that there is a difference if the $6.95 payment fee is deducted automatically as implied, when I addede it to my payment, than to it being added to my overall balance and accruing finance charge, as small as it may be, which in this case put me over the limit.

I kept telling him "look at the statement and you will notice no minus sign next to the $6.95 payment fee. He looked up 3 months of statements and said this only occurred once, this month. I made a payment on 10/17. The billing cycle ended 10/22. The payment fee which I included in my payment was not deducted but added after the billing cycle ended. His response was because I made payment so close to the end of the billing cycle it occurred. I responded BUT you deducted my payment, which included the $6.95 fee before the billing cycle ended, then turned around and billed me after it ended for the $6.95 fee. I know they have ripped me off by this practice, which he would not admit was an "error", but he agreed to waive the over limit charge, 'a one time courtesy" due to the issue and he said it would not happen again. Funny, they have done these "one time courtesy" waivers on at least three occasions this year. I asked him if they could review my account to determine if this has occurred regularly and he refused and reminded me that he was waiving the $35.00 over limit fee as a courtesy.Although he "promised this would not occur again, two days after I spoke to him, the $6.95 fee was added, exactly two days after they posted payment on my acct, which as I stated included the fee on my end of it. I filed a complaint with the BBB and received a response from Cross County, again with the same illogical explanation; that because it is added as a debit, does not mean I am being billed for it, that the computer automatically adds it..... and so on. Also the Bank CEO stated that my conversation wiht "Charles C5R never occured". So,I do not expect any resolution. I have just begun mailing in my payment. Now because I have read so many complaints about this company, I was suspicious when they posted my mailed payment one day after the due date although it was mailed in a week prior. Being concerned they will now add a late fee, I phoned and actually spoke with a pleasant American, who assured me they would not do that. She provided her first name and ID #. We'll see. But beware of this company. There are so many complaints and lawsuits !While they gave me credit at a time in my life when no one would and actually helped me establish credit, I recognize this has really in the long run cost quite abit. Lessons learned

As I said, I know they have ripped me off, but the statements are so confusing, I cannot decipher them, and I have a Master's degree. Seems coincidentally, there are other fees that happen to be $6.95. I really think this is a deliberate attempt to put balances over the limit, particularly if someone has a high balance and is already close to going over. I plan to stop using the card altogether and pay them off as soon as possible, as well as mail in my payments to avoid this $6.95 on line payment fee.