Until Today, I Was A Customer Service Rep For Cross Country
Written: Oct 26 '01
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Pros: Yes, it does help re-establish credit or help someone establish it for the first time.
Cons: All of the fees.
The Bottom Line: If you want a card that will help you with your credit despite the fees, then this would be the card for you.
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| Ginger_1's Full Review: Cross Country Bank |
That's right, I quit my job with Cross Country Bank Today. Well, when an employee is within his/her 90 days, the employee has no time whatsoever for sick days and so on. Twice, I missed work because I was very ill, had a doctor's excuse and still received a written warning. I was told I had one more chance or I was fired. I hit road construction this morning, and ended up being 20 minutes, so I turned around and went back home. Fortunately, I have two interviews elsewhere the beginning of next week, so I intended on quitting anyway.
Now, what I would like to do is a big run through of how some things work with Cross Country Bank. I will go ahead and let you know that I do not agree with many of the policies and the fees that are assessed to customer's accounts. That was one of the reasons why I was in search of something else. I don't like how many of the customers are treated.
#1) First of all, if you are considering applying for this card, I will tell you that it is a good card to re-establish or establish your credit. When you make a payment, the whole amount you paid goes toward the available credit on your card, so you can spend it. What you have to watch out for is on the closing date of the cycle, the finance charges are taken away from that available credit.
Another thing is the $100.00 account origination fee, which is a one time fee billed on the account upon opening, and the $50.00 annual fee. Those fees come right off the top whether the account has been activated or not. Once it is approved, the account is considered open. I don't think the fees should be applied to the account until it is activated because many customers don't realize that even if they don't activate, the bill will come, that they need to call in and close it to not have to pay the fees. Just watch out in the envelope, the fees are disclosed, it just isn't on the application, but on a separate piece of paper, a small piece of paper.
If you apply for this card, chances are, you would get either a $250.00 limit or a $350.00 limit. The application says you can get up to $2500.00, but normally it is $250.00 or 350.00, and the $150.00 in fees are taken away from that when the account is opened. The best thing to do is to make small charges and pay them off as you go so that after 4 months you can get a credit line increase on your account then make larger charges. The only thing is that on the first credit line increase, a $100.00 processing fee is billed. If you are given a $350.00 increase, then the $100.00 is billed, you have $250.00 of it to spend. After the first increase, you can get an increase every six months after that for no fee. It is amazing though how the card can help your credit in a six month period.
#2) We all know that if an account goes over its credit limit, that there are fees that will be incurred. It is like that with most credit cards if not all. That goes for late payments as well. Cross Country Bank has no grace period whatsoever. If a payment is received 1 day late, there is a possibility it will assess the fee and then there is also the chance that it won't. As for the overlimit fee, if the account is overlimit for one day, the overlimit fee is assessed, even if it goes over the limit the same day a payments posts. These fees are $30.00 a piece by the way. I don't like that there is no grace period because due to slowed mail, many payments are late and if a customer wants a fee removed, they must fax or mail in a letter to the disputes department. Customer service has not been given the ability to waive fees if the company views them as "valid."
#3) Next I will talk about the phone pay fees. It is $3.00 to make a payment over the internet, $5.00 to do it over the automated phone pay system and $7.00 to do it with a customer service representative. Yes that is a little steep, I agree. It takes the payments 48 to 72 hours to post because the payments are done as electronic debits to the checking account and it depends on how quickly the payment can be debited from your account. Even if you mail your check in, it is done as an electronic debit to the account. Cross Country Bank keeps a copy of the check in case you need it, but charges $3.00 to send the copy. The process is called Check Truncation, it was started by the federal reserve and the Automated Clearing House (ACH) is the instrument that is used to debit the checking account. The good thing is that if there is an ACH error, then the customer can do a replacement payment over the phone for no charge and can have any fees that were incurred by that error waived from their account.
#4) Other fees include the $30.00 returned check fee, $30.00 replacement card fee, which is assessed to the account if your card is lost. Now, if the card is stolen, there is no fee that is charged. The cash advance fee is $5.00 or 5% of the amount you withdraw, whichever is greater of the two. Statement copy charges are $3.00 per copy, just as the check copy charge is. Also, if you want a copy of the application you filled out, it is a $3.00 copying charge. If you call the automated system to get your balance and other information, the first two options are fee, but every one after that is .50 a piece. Balance would be option one, available credit would be option two and so on. There is also the $30.00 additional card fee. That is charged if you want a second card or if you want a card for a joint user on your account.
#5) If you are given the $250.00 credit limit, then your first $35.00 payment is required up front and goes toward paying down $150.00 in fees on the account and raises your available credit from $100.00 to $135.00 until the finance charges are billed on your first closing date, then the available credit won't be $135.00 anymore. That is if you haven't made charges on the account. If charges have been made then of course the available credit will be lower.
#6) Another thing is that the company doesn't have a 1-800 number. Actually, the main reason for that is that there are 5 million credit card customers with Cross Country Bank and not quite enough representatives yet to handle it all. There are about 10,000 representatives employed by the company and the company is expanding, so one day there may be a 1-800 number available.
#7) There is a program called Applied Advantage where you get Convenience checks with your account, a free 100.00 increase after two payments, car rental discounts, credit card registration, household registration, and priority customer service. It is $34.95 per year. Later on, you can get upgrades like to the gold preferred and silver preferred cards, which have nice benefits with them. Also, all Mastercards are being converted over to visa cards because Visa is recognized more places worldwide. So if you have a Mastercard through Cross Country Bank, when your expiration date approaches, you will be receiving a Visa card through the mail, which will contain all the same information that was on your Mastercard, the account number is just changing.
Well, I really hope that this has helped someone out, and has helped anyone who is thinking about getting the card. It is a great card to help you with your credit, just isn't meant to make huge charges on, but to charge a little bit at a time. Hope I was helpful :)
Recommended:
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Epinions.com ID:
Ginger_1
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Member: Ginger Gillenwater
Location: Ironton, Ohio
Reviews written: 142
Trusted by: 15 members
About Me:
Love to read, write, play computer games, movies, and simply making people happy.
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