sdo@celerity.UUCP (Steve Oualline) (03/11/86)
I once had a letter send to me that said that I had a pre-approved MasterCard waiting for me and all I had to do was send in a postcard to get it. No mention was made of any annual fee, so I sent in the postcard. The credit card arrived with a bill for the $25.00 annaul fee. Since this was the first time I had heard about an annual fee, I returned the credit card cut in half and told the company I was not about to pay for an annual fee. For the next several months bills arrived for the annual fee. I send the company several letters explaining to them why I did not owe them any money. They ignored them. Finally a bill arrived that said words to teh effect, "Please pay promptly so that you won't damage your credit rating". I called the company and told them that 1) Extortion is demanding money from someone by threating them. 2) They were threating to damage my credit rating if I did not pay them $25.00 that I did not owe them. 3) I was not going to talk to them again. My next call would be to the Attorney General to swear out a criminal complaint. That was the last I heard from them. Note: If they had done anything to damage my credit rating I would have sued for libel as well as filing a criminal complaint.