Continental Finance
Reviews and Complaints

I received a confirmation of approval from this credit card company and when I received my card, decided I did not want to have any more credit cards at this time.I did not activate that card nor did I make any purchases.I cut the card up the moment I opened the envelope. I am being sent a bill for charges for activation and annual fees when the card was never activated.I have no way of activating the card either, as I cut it up into about a hundred pieces as soon as I received it. What course of action do I take so this will not ruin my credit?

Did anybody see the "Frontline" program on PBS last month entitled "Poverty, Inc."? This card is what these shameless exploiters of the poor cheerfully call a "fee-gathering" credit card. "Fee-pigging" or "fee-hogging" would be a more appropriate term for the card these porcine criminal predators issue...

There is the $200 "processing fee, " the $50 "annual" fee, the $12 monthly "maintenance" fee and perhaps most infuriating of all, the $4 "internet payment" fee or $10 "pay-by-phone" fee. You pay $4 for the privilege of paying your bill instantly and doing their work for them.

What is the only way you can pay your bill without charge? By sending them a check in the mail. That's right - the slowest, least reliable method, the one that has the highest probability of being late or lost, the one they can hold for up to SEVEN days after receipt - that's the one that's free. Because that's the method most likely to "gather" their usurious, larcenous "Late Payment Fee" ($35) or "Over Limit" Fee ($35).

Don't believe their pious, laughable laughable nonsense about "helping consumers rebuild their credit." They are doing you NO FAVORS. What else do you call paying $435 a year for being able to charge $180 in goods and services? You can't even use this card to "pay at the pump" because all debit cards have to be approved for $300 BEFORE you pump. If you pay your bill online and on time every month your credit limit will ALWAYS be $296 because of their "internet payment fee."

Last but not least, there is their "every six month $100 credit increase" if you pay your bill on time every month. This so-called "consumer benefit" is automatic - you have the option to "opt out" of this and I would very much advise that you do so. Why? You guessed it - every time, your "$100" credit increase is just $75 - after their $25 "credit line increase" fee.

Yes, at other banks a credit line increase is something you can earn by doing the responsible thing and demonstrating your trustworthiness over time. With the greedy jackals at Continental Finance, it's just yet another way of sucking you dry and making you more likely to become one of their "Golden" 24.75% interest rate "Penalty Pricing" chumps - er, "customers."

Make no mistake, folks - the only thing "Gold" about this card is the amount of it these vile robber-barons make off the backs of the working poor who are unfortunate enough to have both bad credit and bad judgement.

If you are trying to repair your credit history and don't mind being raped by one outrageous fee after another in order to carry a worthless card with a laughable, useless credit limit, then this is the card for you.

Otherwise, stay the hell away.

I have tried to get hold of them to find out my blance and why i can't use the card..i get that the card does notmatch there system.they don't show your balance online no nothing at all.. but they show when your payment is do too.

I received an offer for a credit card and figured why not. I Received my card and tried to activate it. To my surprise for whatever reason they had the wrong home number for me. Ok i did it while at work maybe i keyed in the wrong number on the application. I called to number to speak with a representative and she verified my information and still would not help me to activate the card.

I just wanted to say that I am a Continental finance customer, and luckily my only complaint prior to being upgraded to their gold card was that it took two weeks for them to post my payments. Even though the payment had already been taken out of my bank account, it seemed to take forever to become available on my credit card account.
Once I received the gold card and tried to activate it I was very disappointed. I called a total of four times (during different times of the day/week) and was on hold for more than an hour each time. I was very frustrated and even calling the regular customer service number on the back of the card got me nowhere at all!
I looked on this site, and found an alternative number for them. I just wanted to let everyone know that:

******IF YOU ARE HAVING TROUBLE REACHING A REAL LIVE HUMAN BEING*****CALL [protected].

After calling that number, I was helped by a very polite woman in less than a minutes time. She activated my card for me.

I opened an account with Continental Finance hoping to improve my credit and credit score. To make a long sotry short, they ripped me off for $300.00 of "start up" fees and then call my house 6 times a day to harass me about when I am paying my bill. The entire time I had the credit card, I made a $15.00 purchase and a $9.00 purchase on the card. I get a phon call from Continental Fiance asking me when I am paying $272.00. When I ask them for what? The rude ignorant woman on the other end of the phone said, "for the $9.00 purchase last month on your credit card". I informed this rude, ignorant woman that I was NOT paying $272.00 on a $9.00 purchase. She stated, " well that's the balance, you knew when you opened this credit card that it was a high finance card and that is the balance due". When I received my income tax refund, immediately I paid off Continental Finance. I sent them a check for $272.00 with a note on the bill and a seperate letter attached stating, "CLOSE THIS ACCOUNT IMMEDIATELY"! 2 months have gone by and just this past week, every day 6 times a day someone from Continental Finance calls my home and asks me when I am paying my bill. The one day they called supposedly I owed $52.00, the next day they called, I supposedly now owed $112.00, the next day they called, I supposedly now owed $94.00. I spoke with 4 different Supervisors with Continental Finance and yesterday(4/24/08) a Supervisor by the name of Mark told me he would straighten this all out, zero out my balance and this account would show "PAID IN FULL" on my credit record. Just this morning Continental Finance called here again asking me when I am paying $172.00 due on my account. After I lost it on the woman and screamed in her ear regarding this disgusting daily BS with Continental Finance, she told me, "there was no documentation in my file from Supervisor Mark that the account is zeroed out and closed." There is no documentation on my file period of the letter I sent in and no documentation from the 4 different Supervisors I talked to regarding this matter. I am filing harassment charges among other charges against this rip-off, fraudulent comapany. I will not be harassed and ripped off any longer.

I had a $300 Continental Finance Mastercard. We paid off our account and had a credit of $33.03. We immediately called on Feb 8th to close our account, they charge a rediculously high monthly fee of $12 for having the card so we wanted to be rid of it.
We were told the account was closed and that we should expect a check in the mail in 30-60 days. This seemed like a very long time to me, but since it was only $30 we just waited.
March 19th I receive in the mail, not a check as promised, but a statement showing that a $12 account maintenance fee has been charged to my account and I now have a credit of only $21.03. I call again to find out what the problem is. I spoke to a lady named Kaylee who assured me that the maintenance fee had been credited, the account was closed, and I should received a check in the mail for $33.03.
It is now April 14th. Today I received, not a check as promised, but another statement! This statement did not show the credit of $12 that Kaylee was supposed to have done, but another $12 maintenance fee charged to my account! My current credit was only $9.03. So I called once again, spoke to Jonothan who said that the prior people only put a block on the account and did not complete the process of closing it out. He assured me that he had closed the account, he put in a request to have the two maintenance fees credited, and said I should expect a check in another 30-60 days. That means I will receive a check in June for the credit on my account that I closed in February! He could do nothing to speed up the process and simply apologized for the inconvenience.
While I understand that mistakes sometimes happen, this is just stupid! If the first person in February made a mistake why didn't the person in March fix the issue? This seems more like a scam than a series of mistakes to me.

Do not bite! I was desperate for money, and decided to go for the Continental Finance credit card for those with bad credit. I got 50 bucks! They promise a 300 dollar credit line, then you get 50 bucks. I now owe 438.00. Why? Because I owe the 50, plus 250, plus late fees and oh man, this is a con job! Please, do not go here, this company should not be functioning, they should be outlawed. I have written the attorney general, and advise all of you to do so when you are cheated, we all have a voice, lets get rid of these evil peoples greed, be counted, complain!~! If nothing more, let the authorities know. Do not get a card form this company!

First of all what kind of credit card company charges you to make a payment? This company has been nothing but problems. After a bad divorce, my credit like a lot of people hit the skids. I signed up for this card with the promise of outstanding customer service and rebuilding my credit. The first couple of months went fine. However I noticed that when I made my payments, they charged me EXTRA to make them! Things got worse and I lost my father and daughter in a car wreck so needless to say some things slipped my mind. Once getting back on track with bills on my own I noticed that I had neglected this credit card. I attempted to make amends and set up a payment schedule with this company. The woman, LaQuisha that I talked to on the phone said that I was full of crap and it's people like me who make her hate her job! I asked to speak to her supervisor and was called a deadbeat ### and hung up on. Upon calling back I got another person who did not care to hear my complaint but instead took my information. I have been making automated payments since to get this paid off but still get harassing phone calls from this company. My suggestion to anyone who is considering this card is to NOT get it. They are rude, unthoughtful people who obviously all hate their jobs.

Attempting to repair credit rating, company advertised on Experian Credit Report, so I believed company was legitimate and applied for credit card. card sent i did not activate after reading all the terms and excessive finance charges. I was sent a bill for $250.00. I want this acct closed since i did not activate card. Continental Finance Co used name of Delaware Bank which is the only reason i trusted applying believing they were sincere and trying to help people.

I started out looking on the comp. trying to find a company that would in some way help me start to regain good credit. I found continental finance and I went with them. When I got the card I called to activate it and the lady on the phone said that I had to make a payment on it, but I still had 2 weeks until the bill was due. I told her that I know when it's due and I will call then to pay it.

I tried to use the card after the first payment was made and I started running into problems. I tried to prepay at a gas pump and the first couple times worked but then when I did it about the 3rd time around it said denied. I called and asked about it and they said that it doesn't let you prepay cuz of security issues. When I called up to make my second payment on Dec. 17th I used my bank card and they kept trying to run it and on my bank statement it showed 4 charges for a dollar each... according to the person on the phone those would come off and I wouldn't get charged. The big thing I ran into was that they kept saying that the zip codes didn't match, so I called the bank and they said it was all correct on their end (since I've been with them 4yrs now). Continental made me call back the next day and it strangely went through then.

About 2 weeks again before my due date in Dec. I started getting calls from the company telling me your bills due in a couple weeks how would you like to set up payment. I mean I was getting 3 calls a day and it would start at 7am. They had my house and cell phone number and I kept telling them to stop calling me that I'm a big girl and I know when my bill is due. It was like they were trying to hold my hand and make me look like an idiot!... or that since I had gotten a card based for bad to no credit that I must have problems paying my bill on time.

I called them again finally around the end of Dec. telling them to stop the calls and they kept coming so I called back later that week and a lady said that there weren't any notes claiming that I wanted them to stop. The first guy I told said it may take a couple months and the other lady said it would take 24-78 hours. I haven't gotten a call since, so they may have gotten the hint, but who knows with these people.

In Jan., I was going out of state and I decided to put all the money on the card and pay it up so I would only have to carry around one card... WRONG! They told me that the money would be there instantly and I ended up with out money for 3 days! talk about bad! When I got my statement it said that I was late on my payment which wasn't true. Again I tried to pay early and I got the same hassle about my zip codes not matching and finally they got it to work. In the month of Dec. they didn't charge me a late fee and the month of Jan they did but they got their money on the same day each month down to it coming out of my account the same day as well!

I was so upset with them cuz in their disclosure it states that " if you are late 3 months in a row then your apr goes up and then keep it in good standings for 3 months and it goes back." I wasn't even late on any payment, but I guess they thought I was on this one and they MARKED MY CREDIT and charged the fee! I couldn't reach them at ANY NUMBER! I was SO mad that I started crying cuz I felt so helpless. So today I started digging and thank god I found this website and got a number off it. I called and talked to a "jennifer" she said that she would talk to her supervisor about the late fee of now 35.00 (which they claim went up at the first of this year from 30.00) and she was able to get it dropped off. I asked her about the reason why my due amount is 97.00 and she said that it was the late fee and maintenance fee! I said NO WAY will I pay that! Jennifer proceeded to call me a pessimist and that I wasn't taking her offers. I asked her about the 3 months in a row being late and why the first time they miss mark me as late I went into collections... her response and I quote "I... aaahh... eeerrr... well, I don't have control over that I will ask my supervisor and let you know" she refused to talk about it after I went on hold for 15 minutes. I told her I will not pay that amount cuz there fore I would STILL be paying the late fee and she said "well, look at it this way you will have 97.00 added to your account to spend then." I told her if I want to spend that much I would pay that much but I don't want to! She said she couldn't change it and I asked her why the automated system says that you can make payment arrangements or push the due date and she said they can't push the due date back unless I make a payment and it clears... hhhmmmm... I told her I just made a payment a week ago and it cleared so why can't you push it back. She had no answer for that and she was just getting upset with me.

What she offered me in the end was to post date using my check card for the 22nd, my next payday, but my bill's due the 18th. She said that we can post it out, but you would have the late fee charges placed on your acct plus the maintenance fee but our supervisor can go back in and credit it back to your acct! I said "well it would mark my credit then!" Jennifer's response was "well my supervisor should have the power to go in there and show that the mark against you was paid up" ... (with a dumb founded look on my face right now...lol) WHAT KIND OF IDIOTIC COMPANY WOULD OFFER YOU THIS KIND OF DEAL IF THEIR MAIN POINT IS TO HELP YOU RESTORE YOUR CREDIT, NOT MAKE IT WORSE!? I mean come on. I told her about this website... no site name given of course, but I told her that theres A LOT of people that are out for blood with this company and I am NOT going the route she was offering, so I told her to give me the number to someone that can take the 35 plus other fees off my NEXT BILL DUE SO i WASN'T PAYING THE 97.00 and she put me on hold and said that she conveniently found someone in her office that COULD IN FACT get that amount dropped! 5 minutes before she said there wasn't anyone at that BUILDING IN DELAWARE that had that power, but she somehow found one? So in all I got the late fee taken off my balance that they purposely added, throwing me over the limit,(but never got charged a over limit fee) and my monthly amount back down to where it was supposed to be. I have ALWAYS paid double or triple of whats due every month, and theres NO WAY I'm going to let a sloppy, immature company try to screw me over. I was raised to stand up for myself and I wont let people like that push me around!

I received the card with a $300 limit and a bill the same day for $250 and I have even activated the card. How is this, you can't get a hold of anyone to cancel your card!

This company is a rip-off and a scam! Their cust. service is a joke and a complete waste of time because in their own words-"we dont have a customer service!" they harass you and are ignorant. I run a call center and believe me, i will spread the word that this company is a waste. So take this as your notice- cancel my card or i will file charges against you in a court of law in my state!

I would like to know where Continental Finance Credit Company finds the people that work for them. Ever since Septembe my husband has called to change the payment date on his credit card and every month they say that they have no record that we have even called to have the date changed. Every month, even though the account is current , they have charged a late fee and an over the limited fee on the credit card. I don't understand where they get their information on customer credit cards, DO THEY PULL IT OUT OF THE AIR, DON' T THESE PEOPLE POST NOTES ON CUSTOMER ACCOUNTS WEN THEY TALK TO THE CUSTOMERS.

I filled out and application for a continental finance card,on they website the card came seven days later. The first time i charged was for twenty four dollars. The next week I receive a letter from them saying my account was closed, first of all you suppose to get a three hundred credit limit, in the letter they said i owed them money for two hundred and forty seven dollars. That left me fifty three dollars to charge continental finance never said anything about upfront charges. Now i have a bill to pay for two hundred and forty seven dollars since i refused to give them my checking account info they closed the account, i never had this much trouble with a credit card company like this in my life. I found out they was scammers also i never paid them the money i told the women i wasn't paying for nothing i didn't charge on the card, i went through this company only for one reason they didn't check your credit score. I have read other customers are going through the same thing i am second i am not going to let them get away with it cause i am going to take them to court and they will get sued. Nobody try to scam me and think they going to get away with it everybody needs to know about these scammers.

Please be aware of this company...

On 8/17, i was given authorization from a friend to use his checking account to pay my credit card first initial payment to your company. The transaction was completed. Unfortunately, on 9/27 i received an email from my friend stating your company had deducted $58.95 a western union payment out of his checking account. And another transaction was done on 10/8 and 10/26 and i did not authorize this transaction and at that time i had not spoken to anyone at that company and now his account is $-400.00 overdraft. I have explained this on every call that i have contacted this company and no one can seem to help. I am disappointed because i have been interacting with your company since october and this problem is not resolved. According to the better business bureau of delaware this company has 229 complaints and i am very skeptical about dealing with this company. Every time i call i receive conflicting information about this account and one person tells me the fax has been received and to wait for corporate to respond in 3 days and the other representative says send in the fax again. I have been disputing long enough and i am tired of waiting. I have not had any luck and surprise to see hidden fees and fraudulent finance charges that were not disclosed clearly in anything i have received and i feel this company is fraudulent and do not care about there customers. I want to hear a call that was reported to authorize a payment in september or october or november. To resolve the problem, i would like the company to send a full refund to my friend account where the money was deducted from. And i want this account closed with the late and additional fees on my account credited because i have been trying to work with your company and i have been calling frequently to get this resolved. I have faxed your company bank statements that were provided to me by the account holder. The next step is to file a fraudulent charge on the company. I was given a fax number of [protected] that i have sent supporting information to and no one has called or contacted me via email about this. And today is 12/7/07 and still it hasn't been resolved. Can anyone help? Upset, frustrated, and aggravated in texas houston, texas
U.S.A.

I was expressly told that if I didn't activate this card upon receipt it was null and void. I called after reading a complaint on this site to the [protected] number in the complaint and decided I didn't want this card and was told don't activate it and it will be okay.

I've never used this, but now have an inquiry on my credit!

i applied for a credit card and i have never even activated it and they sent me a bill for 247.00 for the card and only leaves a little credit I do not and will not activate this card and they demanded there money two weeks after i apply for the card . I feel if i dont activate it then i have nothing and they have nothing am i not right