Beware of Fleet's bait and switch scheme. I recently applied online for a Fleet titatium Smart card and received approval with an offer for 0% BT for six months if I BT at the time of approval. Well, I took advantage of the offer, but when I received my first statement, I was shocked to see a fat 10.99% BT rate on the transfer. I immediately called the CS department, and ran into a wall. The CS department told me that there was no such thing as a 0%BT offer on their credit cards and that the best that they could do was the 10.99 rate. I asked them to look in their own web site to see for themselves and informed them that I HAD a copy of the TERMS and CONDITIONS which offered this promotion. No dice....the CS reps refused to do anything for me and thus I asked to speak to a supervisor (this despite the fact that the CS reps claimed that nobody could do anything to change the rate). After waiting 10 min to get hold of a manager, I explained the situation and even faxed the manager a copy of the Terms and Conditions which I had saved at the time of approval (thank god) to prove that I was offered the O% BT rate. The Fleet manager promised to look into it and asked me to give him 24hrs to solve the problem. However, he did mention that he couldn't guarantee anything and asked if I would settle for 5.9% BT rate if he coudn't get me the 0% offer. In response, I told him, "NO WAY!!!". Either Fleet gives me what I was promised, or I'm contacting the BBS and FCC for false advertising. To think that I'm supposedly a prime customer.....I wonder how Fleet treats its sub-prime clients??? We'll see what happens in the next 24 hrs.... Nevertheless, this experience has really opened my eyes to the deceptive and devious practices of Fleet Bank and I will surely not give them any further business. I recommend that everyone think twice before applying for a fleet product.
EXACTLY THE SAME SITUATION HAPPEN TO ME. I DID A BALANCE TRANSFER ON THE INTERNET AND THEN RECEIVE MY STATEMENT SHOWING A 10.99% TRANSFER RATE. I PAID OFF AND CANCEL MY CARD.
Whardy... Did Fleet lower your BT rate?? I will wait until tomorrow to see what happens. If they don't lower my rate to 0%, I will transfer the balance to another card and proceed to cancel my fleet card. Either way, you can be sure that I will contact other consumer agencies to let them know of this fraudelent practice.
Fleet has been reported numerous times to statewide and national agencies. They were even served with a class action lawsuit on October 4, 2000 for deceptive business practices such as increasing interest rates, withholding payments until after the due date, etc. I filed reports against them with my state's AG office and the Comptroller of the Treasury no body wants to do anything because Fleet is 1) too big and 2) they line our representatives pockets with nice hard cash If the class action lawsuit that was filed against them hadn't done anything to turn service around and to change the deceptive practices I don't believe anything will.
After waiting more than two days for Fleet to call, I called CS again and spoke to another manager. I was told by this manager than there had been several "misunderstandings" about the 0% BT offer and that Fleet was going to implement some program starting next week to address this issue. Basically, the manager admitted that Fleet was implementing this program to "safe face" with several clients who had similar experiences and requested that I call her back on Monday so she can give me the 0%BT offer. I will call back next Monday and see what happens. If this is not settled by Monday, I will cancel card and transfer balance to another card (BA or Citi). Man, what a hassle!!!
If history has taught us anything, this is the typical criminal behavior we've learned to associate with Fleet and First USA. Saar
Send a letter to fleet confirming all this... send it certified rr... then if push comes to shove you have more documentation for a small claims lawsuit
I'm a little fuzzy here. What would be the benefit of transferring the balance again and cancelling the card? Isn't the BT fee assessed the minute the transfer goes through w/ no grace period? This the way I understood it. You have a card from Bank A w/ a $1000 balance @ 15 percent. You transfer it to Bank B that offers 10 percent on BTs. You will save money - but the $8 or so that would represent one month's finance charge is assessed immediately. So if you then transfer again to Bank C, you're transferring the NEW balance which includes the $8 finance charge to Bank B, and paying Bank C's interest rate on finance charges you got from Bank B! So you've lost all leverage with Bank B for a non-litigation solution to the situation....and even if you do finally manage to get the bogus charges from B reversed, you'll still owe the interest on them to Bank C, assuming they treat you in good faith. Wouldn't it be smarter to stay with Bank B for now and keep pushing them to honor their deal? Once they've agreed and taken the charges off (and possibly offered you something by way of compensation) and the account "settles down" for a few weeks, you can skedaddle with your original $1,000 balance to Bank C and yell "Suckahhhh!" over your shoulder. (I'm not saying Fleet isn't wrong here....they absolutely are. But having been through small-claims court once, I can honestly say that I won't do it again unless the amount of money at stake is more than $500. That's a conservative estimate of my own time and costs from one fairly simple action - and very little of it was recoverable.)
Have you gotton a pre-approved offer from fleet,or did you apply for the card online?The reason why i asked is because i just received a pre-approved offer from fleet,and their terms clearly indicates a special 0% rate on purchases only not balance transfers!If i wanted to do a balance transfer then they would charge me a 9.90% APR no good for me because i am only paying 5% interest on all off my balances until paid in full1So i can't accuse fleet on my behalf for any false misleading information on their offer because it was written in stone so i just threw it way.Just make sure you havn't overlooked anything with their terms involving balance transfers.
I receive this same offer practically every week (sometimes a couple times per week). The 0% offer has been for purchases only. Balance transfers are at the fixed rate of 8.9 or 9.9%. Depends on which offer I have been sent. I have been sent everything from Platinum to Smart card. I have never seen 0% on balance transfers.
Here's what I saw on Fleet's website for Titanium: ANNUAL PERCENTAGE RATE (APR) for Purchases 0% (.00000% daily periodic rate) until the 1st day of the billing cycle that includes the 8-month anniversary of account opening. If no intro rate, 10.99% (.03011% daily periodic rate) for Fleet Customer,11.99% (.03285% daily periodic rate) for non-Fleet Customer. Other APRs Balance transfer APR: 10.99% (.03011% daily periodic rate) for Fleet Customer, 11.99% (.03285% daily periodic rate) for non-Fleet Customer. Cash advance APR: 19.8% (.05425% daily periodic rate) today. Default/closure APR: 21.99% (.06025% daily periodic rate) today.1
