Help with Cross Country Bank

I have a Cross Country Bank credit card since 1998. I have not had any major problems until September of last year.

I am now retired due to terminal medical condition, so needless to say, most of the income in my home is from my wife.

My wife became very ill in Sept of last year, she missed a great deal of work, and our income had been cut in half. We were late 2 times, both Sept and Oct and Cross Country raised the intrest to 29.9%. I called them and told them why were were late and asked for help, I was told they had nothing to offer. But then in Nov, we started to notice a Over the Credit Limit fee being added, this fee is 35.00. It is not because we are using the card, in fact we have not used the card since Sept of last year. The reason why we are getting charged the over the limit fee is due to the intrest charge. Due to our income being almost 1/2 of what it is, we simply can not afford to pay the month min amount, plus the amount needed to make sure the intrest charge the the next billing cycle will not take us over the limit again. So we simply make the mim amount, plus the 35.00 over the limit fee every month, and we have been on time since Oct.

Then this Feb my wife got worse, and the doctors finally found the problem, and she had to have a major emergency operation. We have disability insurance, but it took 6 weeks before it started, and it was only about 2/3rds of her normal income. Still, even though my wife was in the hospital, no income, we continued to pay Cross Country both in Feb and March. But then this month, April, it came to the point that we can not make the payment that will be due April 17th. We simply don't have it.

As soon as I realized I was not able to make a payment this month I contacted all of my credit card holders. Of the 4 we have, all BUT Cross Country would not work with us. The other 3 credit card holders all deferred our April Payment, and 2 of them even lowered our intrest rate to help. But even with this help on the other credit cards, we still can not make the Cross Country card payment. So I called Cross Country, I was able to speak with a supervisor, I told her of the problem we were having, and we needed help. She told me point blank there IS NOTHING they can do. I explained to them that our other credit card holders were able to help, and I even reminded them that we have been excellent customers since 98. She again told me there was nothing they could do. I asked her that if they could at least reverse the over the limit fee for the past 2 months that I could possibly make the mim payment, and this would keep our account current and get us under our limit enough so the intrest charge would not put us back over the limit again. She once again told me "Sorry we can't do anything, and that we should have taken there credit card insurance policy." I then told her that I would not be able to make the payment on April 17th and I was sorry. She informed me that 7 days after the due date, they would call me, and regardless of my "problem" I will be responsible for the min payment, over the limit fee, plus any late fee's, and they would continue until the account was current.

I don't know what else to do. I have tried everything. I was calm, I was not rude, or anything else. in fact, I have to pat myself on my back for being so nice. My wife and I are trying to keep our account in good standing, it's not that we don't want to pay on our account, but making the house payment, food and my children come first. I really did not think I was asking for much, just a little help.

Do you have any ideas on what I can do? Thank you in advance. I can make one promise, when my wife is back to work, and things are back to normal. We will make every effort to pay off this account, close it, and inform every one we can about there policy and the way they treated us after being an excellent customer for so many years.

 

Thanks for your idea. But back in December with Christmas, 2 children, and 2 grand children, our home loan owners helped us with an intrest only payment. I did not want to push my luck with them and ask them again since it's only been 5 months.

As I said, once we are back on track. We will pay off that account and close it. And I will write to every credit agancy I can and file a complaint where I can.

While I realize our credit will be hurt, it won't be distroyed, and I can always make a note in our credit file complete with contact dates and everything else with regard to why that account was in late and had problems. I am sure that any "good" creditor that looks at our comments and how we "tried" to work with CCB will not hold it against us.. "We hope"

My wife is doing much better, and in fact has returned back to work full time today. Thanks again..

Best wishes