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EMERGE Card fiasco/--need help!
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Posted by frustrated in CA
(208.1.253.163) on January 26, 2004 at 20:30:24:
Hi. I don't even know where to start! I have been trying to settle with Emerge Mastercard since 12/02. Their business practices are clearly unethical, and I'm pretty sure illegal. They are very nasty to deal with, however, they don't really seem to want to collect money. I have never held an account with Emerge, actually. I have never been issued a credit card by them or possessed one. Formerly I held a Providian Mastercard, which I opened in 2000. I was never late on that account and it was in good standing as of 11/2002. In December 2002 I went onto the Providian web site to make a payment as I always did. This may be a familiar sounding story--as this has happened to A LOT of people. I was not able to view my account or make a payment. There was a message with a phone # and email address for the company that was now "handling my account." My payment was due in the next few days. I called the number and I got a message saying to call back during business hours. This message never changed. I sent an e-mail and 3 weeks later got a response giving me an address to send payment. I was not about to mail off payment to a company I had never heard of or signed up with--especially since I had gotten nothing in the mail. I sent a payment enclosed in the envelope with my last Providian statement. A couple of months went by and I did not get anything in the mail. I live in California but am from Minnesota, where my parents still live. I got a package from my parents with a bunch of mail that had been sent to me in the past couple of months. I did not have a forwarding order from their address because I have not lived with them in 4 1/2 YEARS. There were some letters from Emerge card, the first of which addressed me as if my previous account had been in bad standing. Some of the wording was "this is an attempt to collect a debt" and the subsequent letters notified me that they were going to raise my interest rate to 29.999%, which in effect put my balance over my limit of $1,000. Therefore, they tacked on an over-the-limit charge of $35, plus a late fee of $35, but the finance charges which ranged from $50-60 EACH MONTH, plus their "periodic" finance charge that appeared each month and a membership fee of $59 that appeared several times. So, in a matter of months my balance went from $1,000 to $2,588. I have to this date never received a credit card from Emerge. Also, I sent letter after letter telling them to close my account and that I was excercising my right to not accept their terms and revert to my original terms with Providian. To this date Emerge had NEVER mailed me a thing. They refused to honor my notification of my current address and insist on mailing statements and letters to my parents in Minnesota. I have all of the letters and emails I sent to them telling them of my address. They would respond and tell me that they needed additional information to process my request. I finally got a forwarding order from my parent's house so that I would get mail directly. They stopped sending statements altogether. I sent an email to them and they said that they were no longer handling my account but did not say who IS. I have gotten NOTHING from anyone claiming to be servicing that debt. I don't get it. They have harrassed my mother by phone for a year. They won't stop calling her. Recently my mom got a phone call from someone from a law office, Gerald E. Moore, saying they were handling the case against me. My mother informed them that I did not live there, have not in almost 5 years, and that neither she or I have gotten any summons for court. About a month ago, I retained a lawyer to file a class action lawsuit against Emerge with several other consumers. My question now is, should I contact this Gerald E. Moore or will that just give them ammunition against me? I don't want to acknowledge that this debt is valid. But I am worried that I will never see the summons to court--because I feel that I could go to court and they would not be granted a judgement. I am afraid that I will miss a hearing and the judgement will be granted in my absense--recking the credit I have worked so hard to improve. Any advice????
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