Why I hate First National Bank

When I received my August First National credit card statement, I realized that someone other than me was making lots of charges.  In MIAMI.  Those of you familiar with the geography of the USA know that Miami is no where near Rhode Island. 

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Sooo, I called First National.  I spoke with Amy, who walked me through the process of filing a claim, told me to call the police so that they could get a statement, told me that a new card would be issued, the old account closed, and told me that the new outrageous interest rate would be corrected, since *we* had not charged over the card's limit, some criminal had.

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The police officer came.  He took our statement and copies of the credit card statements with the fraudulent charges.

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The affidavit from First National arrived.  Our new card from First National arrived.  Our next statement from First National arrived.  They had NOT adjusted our interest rate, resulting in a huge interest charge, a minimum payment due that was more than $100 more than normal.  I called First National, went through the whole story, and was told by Joan that the interest rate would be adjusted, the inaccurate interest charged would be refunded, but that we would still need to pay the inflated minimum charge.  I argued that this would constitute a hardship for us, and since it wasn't our fault that the charge had increased, we shouldn't have to make a larger payment than we were used to. 

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Joan agreed, and set a fixed amount for us to pay until the fraud charges were resolved. I was informed that unfortunately a late fee would show up every month on our statement, but that it would be refunded as soon as it was posted.  I was happy to see that this did happen on the next statement.

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Unfortunately (and apparently), the customer service & fraud departments don't communicate with the credit department.  We started receiving late notices, because we weren't paying the amount that our statement said was due.  We started getting phone calls asking for the whole amount, instead of the agreed-upon minimum payment.  And every time I got a call, I explained the whole situation AGAIN, and would be told that it would be noted on my account.

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Finally, last week I received a letter notifying me that my account had been closed, due to the fact that we had not been keeping up with payments.  And then, today, I received an URGENT email from First National, telling me to call them.

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I called, and spoke with Kelly.  I went through the ENTIRE story AGAIN, and she agreed with me that it was not our fault that a) our card # had been stolen or b) that First National had not reinstated our original interest rate when they found out about the fraud, ERGO, we should not be paying the elevated minimum payment.  Kelly spoke with her supervisor, and called me back.  Everything was all set.  The correct minimum payment is due next week, and our credit report with First National has been set straight.  This is what I was told.  Then Kelly tried to get me to pay the bill today, and I had to firmly tell her that I would pay it next week, after Steve got paid.  (Why they're having a hard time believing this is beyond me.  We've paid on time every month since we've had the card!)

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Not an hour later, I received another call from FIRST NATIONAL, asking me for my late payment!!!!  I am beyond mad.  I reminded the woman, Amanda, that I had spoken with Kelly earlier, which she acknowledged!  I repeated AGAIN, that they would have the payment next week, as discussed.   Amanda backed down quickly, assuring me that it would be noted.

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I have already applied for a new account, to which I will transfer my balance.  And I will tell everyone I know how badly First National has treated me, when the only thing I did was get my credit card # stolen.