Will's story

A small Fleet horror story, but it is in the tradition of their lack of caring so I thought I'd share it.

A month ago I was contacted by Fleet's credit card fraud department because they noticed that a transaction had occurred on a credit card that I hadn't used in two years.

(Incidentally, I'd stopped using Fleet's credit card because they when Fleet took over Baybank - a much better bank I might add - Fleet dropped the ability to have one's monthly credit card bill automatically paid from one's savings account. As everyone knows, if one's monthly credit card bill is automatically paid, Fleet stands no chance of "earning" late fees and interest. So I'd stopped using the card out of protest, but I kept it for emergencies).

It was good to see that Fleet keeps an eye peeled for transactions that seem out of the ordinary, which this certainly was. Some kind of internet porn company has charged me. Anyway, I agreed with Fleet's credit card fraud department that this was a fraudulent charge, and when they said they should cancel that card number and issue me a new card, I agreed. Situation resolved, I thought.

A month passes, and my new credit card statement arrives. They've given me a new credit card number, as promised. But in some kind of sick joke, Fleet took the fraudulent charges and carried them forward to my new card! They even typed "Item has been transferred from lost/stolen account" on the bottom of the statement.

So there it was, Fleet putting criminals first and the customer second!

That's my story. It's less than a hundred bucks, but to me, that is a week's groceries. That's part of my rent. You understand.

Naturally, I've continued to protest the charges: I am now filling out a Dispute Form that comes with the credit card statement each month. I hope this second effort on my part will one day soon resolve the charges. But of course because a month has passed, interest charges and late fees are about to pile up... all on a card that I never used.

To those who may say, "well of course they needed your dispute to be in writing, they couldn't take your word on the phone!," I'd humbly suggest that had they sent me a "Dispute Form" at the time, or even mentioned that any further action would be required at all - rather than leave me with the impression all was resolved - Fleet wouldn't have been able to obtain late charges and interest fees from me. They're profiting from a criminals charge.

With Fleet, sometimes even _not_ using your credit card can be an expensive proposition.

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