Credit Card Fraud [my Opinions]

[HARDCORE]

Contrary to popular belief, all credit card fraud is not perpetrated by the consumer. Rather, some of it is undertaken by the credit card companies themselves. And if you doubt the analogy that a few in three piece suits are as big a crooks (or worse) than the (so called) little people, then I invite you to re-examine President Bush?s recent campaign to expose, fine and imprison some of this nation?s biggest wheelers and dealers!

My family?s credit is A-1, even though we live on (near) starvation income. To put it bluntly - "WE PAY OUR BILLS!" We do not always eat well (if at all), and we sure as hell don?t dine out, accept for the occasional burger and pop (If we are lucky we get to embellish our meal with a bag of fries)! But we always pay our rent and honor our obligations before we do anything else!

For 14 years, I have been fighting the VA over benefits (past and present) that I am due! I have been ridicules, belittled, had records altered and destroyed and even been threatened. ?All of this I can prove, no bull shit involved!!? But I am still fighting and will never roll over to no man!!

When, however, other private sector entities attempt to get in on the action, maybe because they mistakenly think that my advancing years renders me senile, incompetent or gutless, then Mister, I draw the line! ?And today was just such a day!?

Again, I always pay my bills, our credit is good, but a day or so ago, my wife received our monthly notice, advising that our credit card was overdrawn. It is a small card with a $300 limit. Enough to cover car rentals, etc, when we go out to pick up our son at university, where he attends on scholarships and loans, like so many middle class and poor kids today. Will these kids too be next to be declared non-entities by the federal government, just like it is now attempting to do with older Americans (ref: AARP & Saturday's rag)?

Well to make a long story short, this credit card (national) with the $500 credit limit (always paid as agreed) had dropped the credit line from $500 to $300, without notification. When we called them this morning to inquire about this, they then (and only then) notified us of the drop in the credit line, and by doing this attempted to hit us with a $35 over-limit fee, citing that we were $83 over our limit. In other words, we owed them $383, or $83 over the new, lower limit, that we had not even been notified of!

We questioned this and were informed that this was because of inactivity (two years card unused)! That is strange, as the last time the card was used was on April 26 of this year, and the card had been used (and paid as agreed) several times between February and April 26, again of this year. If this amounts to two years of inactivity, then this Credit Card Company and the major bank behind them use a different form of math than I! ?And again, the account has been always paid as agreed!" Our credit is excellent, right across the line!!

Well you would think that a simple call to the card company and bank would clarify the error on their part, but not so! After running through a barrage of buck-passing, lies, excuses and dribble, they (Card Company) said that they would look into it, and this only after we adamantly insisted that we would not pay overcharges for their error, their not notifying us of a drop in the credit line limits for so-called inactivity over a two year period (again, the card was used several times in the last few months alone), and redundantly, and again, the card was always paid as agreed!

Bottom line, maybe President Bush should spend a little less time figuring out who we will fight next, and more time on the economy and busting more of these corporate thieves (opinion), who feed off of, not the rich, but rather the middle class and less affluent!

And while he is at it, maybe he can explain why, even with changes in upper level personnel at the VA, many vets are still being subjected to maneuvers designed to see them dead before their cases are addressed and they are justly compensated!?

VERITAS