Consumer complaint received 2022-09-09
Company: Atlanticus Services Corporation
State: TN
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Fees or interest
Sub-issue: Problem with fees

Complaint:
I accepted an offer from XXXX for an account with a credit of {$700.00} in XXXX of XXXX. As soon as the account was set up online I paid the annual fee which made the balance {$0.00}. This card was intended for emergencies only. It was put in a safe and NEVER used. I set a reminder on my phone to alert me in late XX/XX/XXXX that this card 's annual fee occur in XXXX. Circumstances had changed and I no longer felt the need to have this emergency credit card so in early XXXX of XXXX I called and closed the account. The annual fee had not been charged yet - according to XXXX 's website. My balance was {$0.00}. So after I called to close the account I crossed that task of my to do list and moved on. 
Flash forward later in XXXX and I'm getting voicemails from XXXX about an overdue balance. The account hadn't closed and because months went by without making a payment interest fees piled on to the annual fee charge. 
I called to clear this up, XXXX didn't assert I hadn't called or closed the account previously. However XXXX also wouldn't offer any solution unless I paid a {$50.00} fee right then and there on the phone. After spending a lot of time explaining how messed up this situation is, XXXX said the issue was going to go up the chain of command and to check back in 7-10 business days to see if the request to waive this balance was approved. 
It wasn't. 
So I call again. And once again after spending a lot of time re-explaining this messed up situation is, XXXX doesn't offer any solution unless I pay {$50.00} right then and there on the phone. I again refuse and am told the request to waive the entire balance will work its way up through supervisors and to check back in 7-10 business days. 
It wasn't. 
So I call again... 
At some point the account is closed for non payment but the balance worked it's way up to {$270.00}. However having to call, re-explain this maddening situation, and check back in 7-10 days to see if waiving the balance is approved -- that task stays the same. 

Each time I call XXXX behaves as if it's the first time I'm contacting them about this issue. They don't assert that I've never called or had any interactions with XXXX via phone before. But they also do not acknowledge any previous interactions via phone. 

This happened today XX/XX/XXXX and once again I'm waiting to see if my request is approved or not ( in 7-10 business days ). It's time consuming and frustrating. And while waiting for this issue to get resolved XXXX is harassing me with phone calls and emails multiple times a day to pay the entire balance ASAP. 

I don't want to pay {$50.00} on the phone to a company that already indicated via phone transaction that the account was closed with a {$0.00} balance over 6 months ago. If I pay {$50.00} to make this all go away I have no confidence it actually will. 

XXXX is either denying I closed the account before the annual fee would be charged, or a mistake was made in their system. I can't be expected to record every phone call and even if I did have something like that and presented it to XXXX they would probably just pass that info up from supervisor to supervisor to ultimately not change anything. 

And again this card was NEVER used. It's maddening.

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief