SST Card Services review: Unlawful billing tactics and arbitrary fees! 168

I had an account in good standing with Washington Mutual. I paid on time, and paid my bill in full (down to a zero balance every month.) I was stunned when it was sold to this company - a collection agency in podunk Missouri.

As of today, July 2, 2007, SST's website where I make my payments is no longer in existence.

I googled SST and was amazed at the number of complaints and lawsuits they have pending. I want to contact them, but don't knoe how. I just want to pay my bill before they start sending me to collection. I don't want to go through this nightmare all over again.

Thanks

I also have incurred late charges and my min. payment jumped from 153.00 a mo. to 350.00 a month with no explanation. I was one payment late but paid it. Their phone system says they have the payment and my balance is 194.00 which I paid today. But the online min. payment says 350.00 still. Like they never got the payment. Yet it is posted on the account. So I went by the phone amount and what I thought it should be. I should now be current, except when I made the payment... AFTER it accepted it... it told me it may take up 2 days to process. The due date is tomorrow, a Sunday. I would think fairly it would be due on Monday if they do not accept payments on Sat. or Sun. Who knows. I'm sure I will be charged again for a late payment. I also noticed my APR is now 29.99% I incur a little over $100 a month in finance charges now... my balance is 4500.00. So I can't easily pay it off yet. But I will be checking into a better card and doing a balance transfer. I am glad I found out about this card, I had no idea. I actually found out by just trying to search for the payment website. Instead a bunch of complaints came up... scary! I know how evil some credit card co.'s can be. I had no problems with Providian and even Washington Mutual.. but I also got no notice of the change... and change in terms. Which is illegal. Thanks.

Wendy

I had my Providian card sold to these guys in April with no notice. When I called the woman at their customer service told me this was a very bad card and to pay it off ASAP. I opened a 0% Mastercard and did a balance transfer. I was then bill $19 in "finance charges" which I have tried to pay twice over the internet. Twice it was returned due to "insufficient funds", I notified them I never got notice of this and have money in my account, they then told me the account number was wrong.

I have now been locked out of their website for 10 days, it got to the point that they were offering me the ability to pay over the phone for a $10 fee, these sharks aren't getting my money. I had my brother log onto his computer, change the account number and pay the $19 yesterday. They have called me 3 times today.

I am up for a class action suit.

You guys need to pay your bills on time and learn how credit cards work. When you pay off a balance, don't look at the balance on the statement, you have an average daily balance and will have finance charges accrue on the account. It's plain and simple and is the case with every credit card. You guys say they up your apr? might be true, but when you guys signed up for your credit card you took on that responsibility. If you're late, your apr might go up, PERIOD. If you cant pay on the card, you should have never ran up the balance in the first place.

My account was turn over to SSI and my finance charges went sky high. I don't understand what went wrong. I am trying to get out from under them. I think its a ripoff.

I was sent a letter informing me that my Providian account was sold to SST, no call or previous warning, perhaps asking me if I wanted to pay my account in full before they sold it?! After the letter I was harassed by this new company which I wasnt exactly sure what the name of my new company was. I paid my account online in the past with no problem, all of a sudden my account was three months behind bc the routing number was incorrect. That is their fault, I never changed my banking information, I had always paid the account on time, and the computer was confirming my payments. Three months behind! I supposedly owed over two hundred dollars when my usual balance due was 48 dollars. I was appalled. And they refused to fix their mistake, so I was stuck paying this unfair amount. I am furious and obviously it affected my credit. The website is never available and trying to call them is unbearable. I want something done about this too, as I see everyone is having the same problem.

I am not sure if the way they handled my account breaks any laws, however it definitely is not very nice. I had a Providian card which was than sold to Wamu and then sold to SST. I initially had a 14% interest rate which was maintained when my account was sold to Wamu. I was not receiving paper statements, as I opted for online billing notification. When my account was sold to Wamu I received notice from both Providian and Wamu, both online and via postal mail with information re: where to send payments and new account numbers. When my account was sold to SST, I never received notification but then got a phone call letting me know that they had not received my payment and I now owed them a late fee. I had been sending my payments electronically to Wamu through my banks online bill pay service which takes two business days to process. It was taking two additional weeks for Wamu to forward the payment to SST, so my payment was late when they received it. SST refused to remove the late fee and increased my interest rate to 29.99% . They have no program which would allow for my rate to be reduced either based on review of circumstances or for paying on time for several months. The following month i received another call from SST stating that my payment had again not been received, I produced a canceled check showing the they had deposited the check prior to the due date, yet it has been 3 months and they still have not removed the late fee. As much as I am displeased with SST, I am equally upset with Wamu for selling my account that was in good standing to such a notoriously sleazy company. I feel this really tarnishes the reputation of Washington Mutual.

I agree with many of your complaints. The thing is what do we do? I closed my account and have been attempting to pay it off, however it is difficult with the high interest rate. I have noticed that even though I have paid my account in plenty of time, online, in the past, I still get a late fee. I think that they apply this thinking people won't catch it. I really get frustrated with the fact that I can sign up with the online payment service and the next month my sign in info won't work.

Well, I just got my daily call from SST and of course it has frustrated me. I know I owe on my credit card, an honest debt, but the fees that they want to hit with you with, even with an honest mistake. No mercy. I wish I could afford to just get rid of the whole balance and not have the stress. Getting calls every day does not make me pay my bill any faster. I pay when its due. Harassing me just adds stress to my life. I'm tired of the mess. They need better customer service. They do not have to ask me a ton of questions to verify who I am. Customer Rep hung up on me today. She asked my name, my address, my phone number, last 4 digits of my social, and then wanted my mothers maiden name. I just refused to give it. Sheeesh I had already given enough. Anyway she hung up, very professional thing to do on her part. I called back spoke with someone else. Answered 2 questions and dealt with their issue of being over the limit because of their finance charge... yeah hurray... another fee. Any way she said they only were supposed to ask 2 confirming questions. Some people just like to be rude on purpose I guess. I'm tired of the mess.

This company is the worst credit card co. ever. They took over a providian account, never sent statements, locked me out on-line, can't give me account number on phone, and increased the rate to a ridiculous and criminal amount.
They don't send statements so they can charge you out the wazooo.

When is the FTC going to do something about SST?

I too along with others had my card sold to SST and my interest was raised. They are not willing to work with you and I think I am going to let this go to collections because this is such a scam. I have tried to pay on time and get them to work with me but who can make there payments. I would also like to join a lawsuit.

I had my account sold to SST in Feb of this year by Washington Mutual. The first thing that happened was that my FICO score dropped because I now had a new account opened on my credit file with equifax which made me very angry as I have worked hard to maintain a good credit history because I have looked at credit histories every day for the last 20+ years in the car business and know how important credit scores are. Then, get this, SST never sent me a new card and swears that it must be a problem with the mail service in Titusville Fl because I never recieved any of my cards which they say they sent 3 times and never recieved a statement from them at all EVER. My rate went from 9% with Washington Mutual to 29.9% with SST because I was 2 days late with my first payment but I had , and still to this day do not have, an account #, an address, or even a card that would have this info for my acct. I now pay my bill over the phone and have to use my ss# to pull up my acct. and I use the 800 number on my caller id the first of every month. I have to pay a fee to use this service but I have no other choice. I have good credit and need to know how to fix this problem without opening another new acct. Thanks. Lisa
p.s. If anyone out there has an idea Email me ldj32780@hotmail.com.

My providian account was sold to SST and I was not aware of this until my bill came. They charge more in late fees and my interest rate increased. I had to do a debt management plan for my 3 credit card companies in order to keep up. Capital One and Discover approved my proposal plan for debt management and everything has worked out great with them. My debt management company, Care One, sent SST a proposal on July 16, 2007 and they said they never got that proposal in the mail. We then faxed a proposal on August 15, 2007 and they never got that fax. What does it take for them to receive something?! I need to fly there and hand them something personally in order for them to receive it and process it!

*you have an average daily balance and will have finance charges accrue on the account. It's plain and simple and is the case with every credit card. *

This is absolutely NOT TRUE. I have many credit cards, and only SST has sent me statement after statement, billing me for interest on interest. Before they took over my account from WAMU, I paid it off with WAMU. Then they billed me for interest on the account, already paid off. I sent them a check. Then- the will billed me again for the interest on the previous interest. This is ridiculous! The account was paid off... before YOU, SST, took it over.

People- it's a game. The interest upon interest game is played so you slip up... thinking the account is paid off, and miss that next bill cycle. Then it's hello $39 late fee. Plus, interest on that late fee.

Right now... a bill is before Congress that would outlaw this practice by SST. I hope you contact you're local representative urging their suppost of this. SST is right to collect if you are legitimately past due, but this company is playing games, to get you to be late... and that's not right. That's why we need Congress to act... and don't expect the Republicans to help you out on this either. They clearly represent SST on this issue.

Sst sends the bill already late or like this month no bill at all. I got behind two months over the limit because of all the extra fees they charge.

john Hall

This is very redundant. The same thing just seems to keep happening and my situation as well. Account sold, no statements, high fees, charging late fees inappropriately, harassing phone calls. The main thing I would add is that Providian/Washington Mutual should be held accountable for selling personal information without permission first. Also for continuing to sell to this particular company after so many complaints. Add me to the fight.

Here's a number to contact at JP Morgan Chase ~ [protected]. It is their executive office and you can contact them about your complaints RE SST. We are closing our account, still working to reverse finance charges from the over 31% interest rate that it shot up to. Count me in on class action. Thanks to the rest of you, I will be requesting a faxed notification of the closed account and keeping a very strong paper trail! Again, file a complaint with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. They have an official form and you can mail it or FAX it. They then are REQUIRED to contact JP Morgan Chase and investigate the complaint. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency web address is: www.occ.treas.gov or you can just google them to link up. You can also call them with your information. Make sure you HAVE contacted SST and asked to speak with a supervisor. It's good to have the time line also of how they don't respond. Their number is [protected]. contact your senator and let them know your situation via e-mail and ask them to jump on the credit trap legislation band wagon.

I agree with you all. My wife and I had a CC with WAMU and it was sold to SST. No problems until I had one payment go through that was a saved account on my online account page. I had paid the bill before with this account and then all of a sudden this one month they couldn't process that account. I was told by 3 people that it was because of insufficient funds in the account. I faxed them my bank account with the balance and then they didn't know what it was. I double and triple checked my routing and bank #'s and they were confused why it wouldn't go through. I even checked with my bank and they said everything was fine. This was all the day after my payment was due. Since we couldn't figure it out I paid it with another account but they wouldn't take off the late fee. Plus since it was late it defaulted me to 32% interest! and that is where I am stuck at now. Needless to say I am transferring it to another card. These guys are horrible!

We have had nothing but problems with this company. No one seems to know what they are talking about or doing. We receive statements every other month or two or etc. When we send a check they say they have not received a payment. My wife have bill pay and it comes right out of her account and they still tack on late fees or over the limit fees. We have had it with them. I believe this company is a rip off and needs to be sued.

After being locked out of my online access to my SST inc VISA account early January 2007, I contacted SST via phone. I wanted to make another on time payment. All my payments have been on time via internet. During a 10 day, give or take, process of calling/discussing my problem I was still locked out. Of course they mentioned paying via phone with a $10. fee. I refused.

A same and copied complaint as another customer menioned.
However, I paid the balance off and left the account open. It is best to do this for you FICO score.

Providian sold my account to SST card services without my permission and then SST raised my interest rate to 31.49% from 15% with NO LATE PAYMENTS! This company should be put out of business and investigated for questionable business practices.

I HAVE BEEN CHARGED 5 TIMES FOR LATE FEES FOR NO REASON.

this is highway robbery,,,no way to pay on line,,,

I strongly agree.

Let me add my unfortunate "SST" story to the rest of these. I was making twice monthly payments for my bill. AS a result, I never had a late payment. However, my payments were not posting on my account for sometimes up to 30 days. I did not understand why and called Customer Service. No one there could tell me why either. This month I made one payment rather than two, which was mailed approximately 20 days before it was due on October 8. The check cleared my account on October 5 (3 days before due date). I received a phone call from SST on October 15 telling me that my payment was late, I would be assessed a $39.00 late charge, and that likely I would be put in a high risk, high interest rate category. I explained that I sent the payment. The customer service rep checked and determined that I had the wrong address (no other reps told me this when I called them earlier). She told me that if I would fax a copy of my bank statement proving that my check was accepted and did clear, that they would reverse the charges. I faxed a copy at a cost of $4.00 and called to find out if they received it. They did not. I was asked to fax another copy at $4.00. Five days later, I received a letter in the mail telling me that my claim was declined and that the late charges would still stand. I called and tried to resolve this matter; SST did not budge on the late fee or interest rate hike. I told the customer service rep that I was done doing business with them and to cancel my card. To which she replied that I would never be able to open an account with them again... AS IF!

I was hesitant to keep my account when it was sold to SST by Washington Mutual. I decided to keep it with the idea that if I had one problem out of them, I would cancel the card. My suggestion for anyone reading this who has an SST card is to cancel it right away before they have an opportunity to charge you for the "privilege" of their company. I will never do business with them again!

Last month I was unable to make a payment on line. Finally I called the number listed on the bill and made payment by phone. The representative waived the fee as the web site was down. I was later advised that the payment had not been made and they charged a late fee, which put us over the limit therefore adding an over the limit fee. I made 4 phone calls and got no solution. At one point my husband spoke with a representative who hung up on him. He does not use abusive or fowl language but he was annoyed. Finally, in frustration I called them back and said I would make the entire payment online Nov 2. I was told that after I made the payment they MIGHT consider waiving the over the limit charge. When I went onto the site to make the payment on Nov 2 it TOOK MET 62 MINUTES TO GET THE PAYMENT MADE. WHEN I TRIED TO PRINT THE CONFIRMATION THE SITE SHUT DOWN! I have never had this kind of trouble with any other card company or site. Their representatives are poorly trained, unprofessional and rude. Surely something can be done to make this company accountable for their poor business practices. Advise smb!

I keep getting statements saying that I am behind. I am not. Now I'm trying to contact them via phone and email to no avail to PAY THEM OFF. Automated service keeps disconnecting my calls no matter what option I select. I just want to Talk to a person and pay my debt! Were are these people?

my account was transferred without my consent to sst as well. When I tried to go on line to make my payment their site would not let me in. I called them by phone only to be told that they were "updating their system" and that I should try again tomorrow. I tried again the next day and was unsuccessful. I called them again, by this time my payment was due and I was able to complete the transaction. Of course, when I received my statement I had a late fee. When I called to explain, they were rude and told me that I was nobody since I was on one of their "special programs" and they were doing me a favor. Lets get the class action suite going. They are rude and should be put out of the country.

I HAD AN ACCOUNT WITH PROVIDIANE. THEY SOLD IT TO SST WITHOUT MY PERMISSION. I AM HOPING I DON'T GET SCREWED OVER, SINCE U CAN'T REACH THEM. I GUESS PROVIDIAN DOES NOT LIKE GOOD CUSTOMERS. I PAID OFF MY BALANCE EVERY MONTH. IF I GET SCREWED CAN I JUST NOT PAY THEM?I CAN'T REACH THEM, THEY CAN'T REACH ME. WHAT IS IT? THANKS

I agree with all peoples statements. I was paying my bill off with providing as stated then my card got sold to SST. I have always paid my bills online. Mysteriously last month they stated I didn't make my payment which I did. They failed to take the late fee back and they say they have no record of me paying it and I received an email stating I paid it. I was met with poor customer service and now they call me constantly! Up to 6 times a day. If they see that I am on the phone they will continue to call back time after time and buzz in on my phone call. I am glad to see that I'm not going crazy that these people are jerks.

Kimberly.

i am having problems with sst when it comes to paying my bill online. When i try to pay it will not allow me on the site and then i am charged the 39$ late fee which is not my fault. Then to pay by phone they charge the 10$ fee. How do i get out of this cycle? The interest rate also went to 31% and i have always paid on time when it was with Providian.

I dont understand how any company can have the law on there side, it has been the same with me late fees overcharges phone calls, and hang up calls.

Never in my life have i been involved with such a bunch of crooks.

As soon as my account was sold to SST trouble started. 1st; I missed my first payment because I recieved the letter after I sent my payment and they said it would still be accepted by Washington Mutual, but it wasnt, 2nd; my intrest rate went through the roof, 3rd; my routing number changed all of a sudden ( even though it was saved and was the one I used for previous payments). I am a single mother and doing my best to survive and they are trying to drown me! I cancelled my card the 1st month I had problems (the 1st month they took over) and I am still having problems. Something needs to be done, NOW!

I have read comment after comment and swear this is my story over and over again. What do you do? All of the above are true for me as well. I have paid my balance due in full, yet still recieved a bill with $108.79 owed? and a finance (31.24%) charge of $2.79 due. The current balance shown is $2.79. I am locked out of the online services, via phone my account will not pull up and I have called the VPs office and mobil number. Please if anyone has a solution to end this nightmare, please let me in on it.

My account also was sold to SST from WAMU. Half the time their website does not work to pay my bill online. But, they will be happy to charge you $10.00 to do it over the phone. I made a mistake of getting a $20.00 advance at an ATM machine with my card. Now I get socked a $17.00 per month finance charge for the advance, because it is charged on my total account balance. I have tried to resolve this issue with SST but to no avail. Any complaints towards this ripoff company is valid.

I agree with everything that has already been stated. Several of my payments have not been applied to my account, however they have cash the check against my bank. In addition, they would hold my check that I would send via snail mail for a long time... before processing...(well after its due date) So I started making my payments online... Now, just recently I changed my bank account payment information online... and they entered the wrong routing number... my routing number is no where near what they have down which resulted in 3 missed payments. They never notified me to let me know that the routing number was inaccurate, they just kept supposedly processing my payments. I honestly believe they entered the wrong routing number on their end purposely... so that my payments would not apply. I am so ready to SUE this company! What do we do?

I don't know how they can operate the way the do and get away with it. I was a Washington Mutral card holder who's acct. was sold to SST. They screwed me the very first month. I usually divided my payment between my bi-weekly paychecks. Did this with them and ended up with late fees and having to make an extra pymt. The my balance goes down but my pymt goes up. They said it is to help me pay my balance, what a joke I just called them to see about getting my 29.09% rate dropped so more of my pymt goes to the balance. HA, was told the only offer they have is to close the acct. and pay 25% of the balance. NOT going to happen. They are joke. Then I recieved a offer from WaMU today for another card. That isn't going to happen either. IF you get SST try to pay it off. THE are crooked.

Im online this morning trying to pay my cc bill due today and the website is not there! i was a WAMU cardholder, and had been for 1yr. I never missed a payment and I always payed more than the minimum required. One day I logged onto Wamu and was told that my account had been sold to SST. The experience has not been great at all. The online site is always down and if you call over the phone you have to pay $10 along w/bad cst service! Why are these people still in business w/all these bad business practices? Theres one thing i'm glad I didnt do, once Wamu sold me for no reason, I kept the account closed and never activated the card that SST sent me that would have locked me into their terms.

I never heard of SST until I received a statement from them in the mail showing I had a balance of 250 Dollars and my payment was 5 days past due. I called them and explained I never had an account with them. They told me they were Providian Bank and now have a new name, SST. OK fine I made a payment. I then found out they lied to me, and they purchased my account from Providian. Under California law, the practice of purchasing a credit account from another bank and attempting to collect the amount due without permission of the customer is illegal. They are also not allowed to report this as a negative transaction to credit monitoring/rating companies. I wrote SST a letter and explained this to them. They have not called me since then, there is no negative credit report from SST on my credit rating. If you had an account with Providian, Washington Mutual is the legitimate owner of Providian credit card accounts. If SST ended with it is because they purchased the debt from Providian at an amount of a few cents per dollar of the balance once owed to Providian.

I really cannot complain about the service of SST because I, personally haven't an "account" with them. However, I do realize, having dealt with this shady company on an intimate level that politics reign supreme. i. e. It's not what you know, but who you know and what shade of brown you want to allow your nose to get. I cannot stress enough to the the unknowing and unsuspecting credit card account holder that if you are an unfortunate soul that finds yourself in this ever-so-comprising position...pay this company not a dime. Pay this company not a nickel. Pay them not a single red cent! For if you do, you will be on their self contained "hit list" and will be harassed, bothered, singled-out or, at the very least called by a self-righteous sheep in their late teens asking you to beg, steal or borrow from your friends, neighbors or your elderly, invalid great-aunt that cannot make ends meet with a fixed social security income let alone assist in a non-relevant narcissistic credit card bill. Last time I checked, food, water shelter and clothing were the main factors of human survival. Never had a fifth factor nor an eleventh commandment of "Thou shall pay 29.9% interest on you visa bill" has been etched into a scroll of slate. There are strength in numbers. We cannot allow further travel of this vehicle of self reliance and ill prosperity. Simply stated...refuse to pay. Do not pay late fees. Do not pay check by phone fees. Understand one thing for certain; after one-hundred and sixty(160) days of account delinquency, Visa accounts are charged off and are no longer a pressing issue. Thereafter, reverse snowball-effect takes place. Less hassle, less phone harassment, less stress, more self worth, more professional and personal productivity and your "debt snow-ball" has melted. In closing, conservatively stand up for your beliefs, values, personal rights and turn the symbolized political and financial cheek on SST. THERE IS STRENGTH IN MORALITY AND MAJORITY. Thank you.