OT: Weird Credit Card Issue

[Dutch]

It's almost funny how you can get blind-sided with bills these days, but this one is one I never expected! It's not the end of the world, but it's definately a punch I didn't see coming.

In April of 2001, I packed up my family and moved to Turkey (I'm in the military). I shut down my DirectTV (sadly) among other things and later that month, I paid off a final $10 on my credit card that I was using to pay for my DirecTV.

In October of 2003, I finally return to the USA and rent an apartment until I could buy a house. Well, in June, I purchased my first ever home and the family and I moved right in.

What's first? DirecTV! Hell, yeah, I've been MISSING watching the NFL Sunday Ticket and it was almost that time again.

So I call up DirecTV and say I would like to hook up my dish (I have one on the house left behind by the previous owner). No problem. The guys come out and give me new set-top boxes and take away my crusty old 1999 models I had kept in storage.

I give some DirecTV representative (by phone) my information and she asks if I was ever had DirecTV before. I say yes. But I never give her any credit card information.

Little did I know (I should have), they still had my credit card info on file from when I was in Los Angeles and the initial bill is sent there.

Now, my mistake is that I did think it odd that I was never charged anything in June of 2004 when I first got set up. In July 2004, I started getting bills on a monthly basis (plus $50 for 4 months) to pay for DirecTV and NFL Sunday Ticket. Since I never gave the DirecTV people my credit card information, I ASSUMED they would sent me all my dues via mail. And outside of the initial setup fee, they did send it by mail. But they sent that initial setup fee to my old credit card company and I didn't realize that, until tonight.

I get a call today from that old credit card company. I'm surprised to hear from them. They are asking where their $515 dollars is!

Yikes, I don't know what they are talking about, I haven't had that credit card in years and think to myself it must be some sort of identity theft. But it's not, it's interest rate charges on whatever the initial bill was for this DirecTV.

They had been sending my bills* all this time to my old California address. (*The initial bill and the monthly recurring bills with interest fees tacked on NOT monthly DirecTV charges.)

The lady that called tonight said they would send the bill to a collection agency on Friday. That was before I had any chance to realize what was going on.

I HOPE it can get cleared up in the morning when I call them and they realize it's just a series of unfortunate events.

Anyway, it's just got me stunned right now and thought I would share.

[Joe]

simply amazing

[Swaggs]

Make sure to act quickly, so your credit rating doesn't get hammered.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Umm, dumb question I guess, but ... shouldn't the bills have bounced back to the c.c. company as "undeliverable" at some point?

[Dutch]

I have no idea, John, to be honest. I should find out tommorrow.

Originally Posted by Swaggs

Make sure to act quickly, so your credit rating doesn't get hammered.

I WILL pay the bill immediately if they do not understand the situation. I'd rather pay the 500 bucks than get a bad credit rating. I'm trying to buy a 2nd car right now.

[mhass]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Umm, dumb question I guess, but ... shouldn't the bills have bounced back to the c.c. company as "undeliverable" at some point?

Not a dumb question, but the answer is stupid. My first house was in a high-turnover, very young neighborhood so like 35 twenty-somethings had lived there before me. I got credit card bills, alumni donation forms, Planned Parenthood literature. . .I just stuck it back in the mailbox. Some a-hole kept getting his statements and pitching them.

[Dutch]

In case anybody wanted the follow up.

That first bill was all I had to pay to the credit card company. They waived all late fee charges and interest charges. So, I only had to pay roughly $45 bucks!

Thank you MBNA for being so kind, helpful, and understanding. Yay!

(Then we promptly cancelled the card since I am on a strict diet of one emergency credit card ONLY.)

[RainRaven]

I work for MBNA Dutch and it is good to hear they took care of it for you properly.

[Draft Dodger]

glad (but surprised) that they did the right thing

[Vince]

I was going to post ealier that I thought you would have a very good case for getting rid of those late charges anyways, especially because you never authorized them to charge your credit card.

Glad to hear that things turned out well!