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They jacked up the rate on my Mastercard, so I opted to refuse the change and close the account. Well, needless to say, the first month thereafter, the rate had been jacked up. I called them, and they said that it takes a month or so for their accounting to get corrected, and it would be fixed probably by the next month. Well, the next month rolled around, and I was still getting charged the higher rate. I decided to give them one more month to correct it, and, when they didn't, I gave them another call. This time, the fun really began"
First, they told me that the opt-out deadline was actually a month earlier than it was. In other words, if the notice gave the deadline as, say, May 21st, they told me the notice had said April 21st. Too bad for them I still had the notice in hand, and was able to read it off to them.
They then put me on hold for awhile, and came back saying that, yes indeed, the deadline was May 21st after all, but that they hadn't received my opt-out letter until May 25th. Too bad for them again that I had not only sent my letter Express Mail, but also with tracking and delivery confirmation -- so, not only could I tell them that it had arrived several days before the deadline, but was able to read off to them the name of the worker who had signed for it, and let them know that I would be happy to fax them the signed receipt, as well as a copy of the initial notice with the proper deadline on it.
After a few more minutes on hold, they came back saying that they had to refer the matter to their accounting department. Sure enough, a couple of weeks later, I got a letter informing me that I had done everything properly, they were resetting the interest rate and allowing me to pay off the balance under the earlier terms, and credited the extra interest I had paid as principal instead.
The moral of the story is that, while credit-card issuers are utterly unscrupulous, even they have to back down when you have the facts in your favor and evidence in hand.
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