Just found this on another board from a poster who received a latter from them, thoughtyou might find it interesting. "Notice of Settlement" in repsonse to a class action suit re: Late Charges. Seems First USA has agreed to settle a law suit filed several months ago over charging cardholders 'late' fees, when they were not late. They simply 'held' the payments until they were, then prcessed them. Most people feel they overcharged about a million card holders a month, or about 1/2 of 1% of their 60 million cardholders. Let see, 60 million payments a month=2 million payments a day. Hold the mail bags 2 days, and about 1 million payments become late. At $29 each, that's a staggering $29 million dollars pure profit!! Some people like me, complained, so let's say they only netted $25 mil a month. The period of excessive lated fees is nearly 2 years. So they collected $25 Mil a month for 2 yrs, and will pay about $75 mil in damages.
This is absolutely nothing new, and I'm very glad they have to pay at least part of what they wrongfully took from consumers, it's been going on for a long time. They've done this to me several times and I myself often thought about taking them to court, I decided not to waste my time or money, I paid the card as soon as I could and I told them to... Well, let's just say I cancelled this account. First USA is not a favorite bank of mine, I urge everyone with an account with them to review your statements carefully every month. Regards, Alex. www.Creditinsiders.com
