Fleet has a class action lawsuit pending on them since October 4, 2000. They are famous for increasing interest rates, holding payments until after the due date, and a couple of other deceptive practices thrown in for good measure. They are considered prime, but I have my doubts. Dani PS I forgot to add their charming customer service department on a scale of 1-10 I give them a negative 5.
Fleet Bank sucks. I had my checking with od, credit card and home equity loan with them. I paid them off two years ago, early. They have the worse customer service of any bank I ever dealt with. Their credit card is merely a way to sucker the consumer. As long as your utlization is under 25 percent on ALL revolving accounts your interest will remain. If you charge up things for example, Xmas on any account, including theirs, do not be suprised with an increase of 10 percent in APR. If you have a fixed rate of 12.9, they think nothing of jacking it up to 22.9. Read terms and conditions clearly. I agree with SAAR on this. They are one notch up from CCB. Rumor has it ,they were inquiring about Providian National Bank, a New Hampshire Bank and Fleet is HQ in Boston. Possible purchaser of CC portfolio, they did buy Advanta
The Fleet Platinum card has been reviewed by 34 Epinion members, of which 85% do NOT recommend it: http://www.epinion.com/finc-Credit-...num_MasterCard/display_~reviews/listype_~opnr The Fleet Titanium card has been reviewed by 4 Epinion members; All 4 do NOT recommend it: http://www.epinion.com/finc-Credit-Cards-Standard-F-N-Fleet_Bank_-__Titanium/display_~reviews Saar
I'm not trying to be a Fleet cheerleader - but I think that positive info should also be considered ... 1) Big H - that's not been my experience. I've charged the Fleet card to the max w/bal xfrs with no change in interest rates. I've done the same with other cards and my ratios have fluctuated from 10% to 60%, again with no rate changes from Fleet. NextCard screwed up a bal xfr (paying off the Fleet card with an xfer to NextCard), stopping payment on the bal xfer check - which caused Fleet to post a return check charge to my account. With one call to a very good & responsive customer service rep., Fleet reversed the returned check charge, assured me that no negative actions would result (that was 18 months ago, still no problem), and gave me a name/# to contact if anything did go awry with the account. 2) Dani - your characterization of Fleet is not incorrect. They are a prime issuer - they are the largest bank in the northeast - by far. They are also the 7th largest bank in the US, and 9th largest V/MC issuer. Calling Fleet sub-prime would be like calling B of A or Wells Fargo or US Bank/Firstar a "subprime" issuer. Fleet doesn't do secured cards - they're pretty conservative on limits, increases, and initial approvals. I've never had a problem with payments posting late - either when I've mailed them, used PayTrust, or used their on-line payment system. 3) Saar - I use Epinions alot (if you read the Fleet epinions, mine was one of the positive ones). BUT... as is usually the case... an unhappy customer will tell 20 people about how pi$$ed off they are, while a happy customer will only tell 2-3. There are loads of negative epinions about many of our favorites around here- - 11 of 52 DON'T recommend Amex Blue - 27 of 44 DON'T recommend Chase - 44 of 98 DON'T recommend Citibank ...etc. I always read negative epinions VERY carefully. It amazes me how much people will publicly bitch about a company/product when the very reason they are complaining was of their own doing (i.e. mailing payment 1 day before due, going overlimit, etc.). Why Fleet doesn't suck (for me): a- EXCELLENT balance transfer offers (from 0% to 3.9% for 6-9 months with 0%-2% fees). b- Reasonable normal APR (9.5%), c- Balance applies to our Premier relationship, lowering fees for checking, etc. d- Excellent online info & payment (both through mycard.fleet.com and homelink.fleet.com). -mj
Agreed. Actually, this statistics only reiterates my point. According to your figures, disapproval rate is only 21% for Amex, 60% for Chase and 44% for Citibank. Which means, no lender (among those we consider truly prime) gets nearly as high a degree of disapproval as Fleet does (85% to 100%, depending on the product). Saar
mj, Your opinion about Fleet is welcomed and appreciated, but I will have nothing good to say about the company...ever. The did me wrong and it was their own fault. After five months of hell they corrected it and admitted it being the fault of their internal credit department. All I remember is the time I put in investigating, writing to the Comptroller of the Treasury, the BBB, Fleet's Customer Service Department, and Internal Credit Department, and an attorney that was handling the class action lawsuit. When a company has a pending lawsuit against them I refuse to deal with them. There is a reason for that lawsuit. DMB, FirstUSA, and Cross Country Bank just to name a few. Fleet is no exception in my book. For another opinion I would recommend www.creditcardfreedom.com. This website collects opinions from current and former credit card customers and their ratings on a particular card. Fleet has over 60 responses over 75% are negative, although those that run the credit card site give Fleet's credit card a good review. With consumers, Fleet's approval rating is 1.75 out of 5 on that site, where Amex is 4.5 and Juniper is 4. That's a huge difference. Dani
Saar - point well taken. I'm just trying to balance it with a positive experience. Dani - now that you mention it - I do remember your hell-and-back story about Fleet. I've been in your shoes with other companies and I know how much time it takes to do all the dang letters, calls, follow-up. Of course you never get compensated for all that! Every company can (and does) screw-up a customer now and then - statistically, with 20+ million accounts, it will happen. It sucks that you were the unfortunate one with Fleet, and you rightfully HATE that company. Others have similar stories on Amex, Chase, etc. Best- mj
After they jacked my rate about 3 points for carrying high balances, they "never got" the large payment I sent them in retaliation to the hike. They agreed to remove the late pay fee resulting, but then they jacked the rate to about 27%. They suck. (This account started out as an Advanta). I will not do business with them again. -ingenue
ingenue, I had Edvance Card for over two yrs and I have been asking for lowering my rate. Everytime they told me we don't have any lower rate for you. My other credit cards like BofA, Citibank lowered my rate because I had perfect payment history with them. Ron.
