Cardholder Reviews

Recent Credit Card Reviews by Consumers Like You!

Following is a sampling of the latest consumer reviews that can be found by clicking the "Cardholder Reviews" link above. We take pride in the quantity (our site offers approximately 15,000 reviews of 859 different credit cards) and quality of the consumer reviews that can be find on our site. New reviews are added on a daily basis. The cards are rated on a scale from 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest recommended. Credit Card: First Financial Bank Student Card Provided by: First Financial Bank Total Posts: 5 Average Rating: 3.80 Category: Student Date posted: 6/23/2004 Review: maybe i shouldn't be writing this yet, considering i've had the card less than a month. however it has saved my college-student-butt. i have a solid job, but between leaving the dorms, renting an apartment and losing hours at work, i didn't know how i was going to keep myself in ramen and pabst. i had applied for this card months earlier but never thought i'd use it... then it arrived just as i was down to my last few bucks. hail mary! no interest as long as my account stayed under 250$, and a minimum payment of only 10$! i'd heard so many horror stories that when i applied i went over the terms and conditions with a fine toothed comb, even called customer service to verify everything. no fees, no interest, and measly payments, all as long as you are RESPONSIBLE. all those horror stories are either about other cards with hidden fees, or about people who don't know how to live within their means. if you can't afford it, don't buy it. sure there are going to be tight times- that's why i needed this card! but living on credit is no way to live at all. if that's how you want to do it, this card is not for you- the limit is far too low, and the interest rates way too high (after your account goes above 250$). but if you are responsible and frugal, this card is the perfect way to stretch a small pay check or handle an unforseen expense. again, if you want something to live on this card is not for you! ...maybe you should... i don't know... get a job... or something? :) for the rest of you thrifty people out there i think this card is an amazing find! Best Feature: no interest as long as you are responsible Worst Feature: hasslesome payment methods Overall Rating: 4 Benefit Rating: 4 Service Rating: 4 Recommend: Yes Credit Card: Plains Commerce Bank Total Visa® Card Provided by: Plains Commerce Bank Total Posts: 74 Average Rating: 3.25 Category: Poor Credit Date posted: 6/22/2004 Review: I made some mistakes when I turned 18 and ran up a bunch of credit not thinking about how important credit would be in my future. I have been denied credit for everything for the past 6 years so I was so happy I was offered a second chance. The fees are high but to me it is worth it. Every month I pay my entire balance in full just so I can rebuild my credit as quickly as possible. Best Feature: Helps to rebuild poor credit ratings Worst Feature: High fees and payment posting time Overall Rating: 5 Benefit Rating: 5 Service Rating: 4 Recommend: Yes Credit Card: Direct Merchants Bank Titanium MasterCard® Provided by: Direct Merchants Bank Total Posts: 63 Average Rating: 2.37 Category: Regular Date posted: 6/22/2004 Review: I would strongly advise anyone shopping for a credit card to avoid Direct Merchants Bank (DMB). Their customer service department is very un-responsive (their service reps are also very rude) and they are very agressive in assessing fees. In my case, DMB failed to mail me statements on a monthly basis and I had to call three times to have this problem resolved. As a result, it was very difficult to know what the status of my account was and I was assessed "over the limit" fees from interest charges that accrued on my un-used credit card account. I was also assessed an annual fee and DMB enrolled me in a payment protection plan without any notice or my consent. Watch out--one late payment and your interest rate will balloon to well over 19%! Best Feature: They are happy to give you a card Worst Feature: Accelerating interest rates and high fees Overall Rating: 1.5 Benefit Rating: 2 Service Rating: 1 Recommend: No Credit Card: Newport News Credit Card Provided by: First Consumers National Bank Total Posts: 20 Average Rating: 1.18 Category: Retail Date posted: 6/22/2004 Review: After this company went bust, I continued to pay on this accout and the balance never went down. Charges that I never made would show up and everytime I tried to call them, the system would hang up on me. This account is now on my credit report and I still can't get ahold of them. The balance is over the top and I just got a letter from a collections agency. When I called them to try and get everything resolved, they wanted me to pay them over the phone and asked if I could borrow money from someone to pay them by tomorrow. I told them that I wanted a paper trail for the transaction and they were not willing to give me a payment address, they wanted me to send the payment directly into a Bank of America account. This all seems very, very strange to me and I'm extremely uncomfortable about the whole thing. This FCNB company is full of crooks and they should not be able to get away with this. Best Feature: none Worst Feature: unable to reach anyone Overall Rating: 1 Benefit Rating: 1 Service Rating: 1 Recommend: No Credit Card: Victoria's Secret Angel Credit Card Provided by: World Financial Network National Bank Total Posts: 63 Average Rating: 2.58 Category: Retail Date posted: 6/22/2004 Review: Four years ago I was shopping in Victoria's Secret with a friend. They had a sale on and I bought two bras for 12 dollars. I do not apply for department or specialty store credit cards, expecially for a whole 12 dollars. But the salesperson was begging us to apply because we would get a percentage off and they were having a contest and it would REALLY help her out. So we caved. Only after I asked her if I could apply, pay and cancel the card before leaving the store. She said yes (apparently you have to cancel after you make the 1st monthly payment, but somehow she either didn't know this or was lying to me and pocketing my cash.) So I applied, was accepted, charged it, and then paid it at the register. Done. Did I mention 12 dollars? That month I moved and forwarded my mail. I NEVER received a statement from them, and didn't notice because it was my first card ever (didn't really know what I was getting into HA!) and I had cancelled it. A year later I lost my job and had money problems. 6 months after that I had a problem getting loans at all, and figured that someone had reported me even though I worked with all of my creditors thru the bad times. And then I checked my credit report. VS had reported me for being 90 days late and then close the account, by then two years had gone by and my credit was poor. I was outraged!!! When I called to explain the situation to them the lady told me that if I paid the over $100 in late fee that they would remove it from my Credit Report. I REFUSED! We battled it out and I told her that I was not paying for something that I had ALREADY paid for!!! She lied and told me that she was the manager, and then told me that she wasn't authorized to handle my situation.. so then I said "So you arn't the manager?" and got connected to her supervisor. He basically treated me like a child and told me that he would remove it but basically I was lying and hadn't paid. DID I MENTION 12 DOLLARS???? 12 dollars seems like a huge motive to avoid paying bills doesn't it? 4 years later I applied for a Limited account. I was refused due to the VS issue. And I have good credit. So apparently it is off my Credit Report.. and it is still in their system. I did the research and found this wonderful company was behind both the Limited and Victoria's Secret. I will NEVER apply for a credit card thru this company again. Best Feature: I was given a discount Worst Feature: Customer Service Overall Rating: 1 Benefit Rating: 1 Service Rating: 1 Recommend: No Credit Card: US Airways Dividend Miles Visa® Classic Card Provided by: Bank of America Total Posts: 14 Average Rating: 1.89 Category: Reward - Airline Date posted: 6/22/2004 Review: I have accumulated 150,000 miles over the past 8 years, and also paid $450.00 in annual fees. I have TRIED several times to redeem my miles for a rountrip ticket to Europe. It "costs" 50,000 miles, and I have accumulated enough miles over the years for THREE roundtrip tickets to Europe!! But... try to use your miles for a free flight... IT'S IMPOSSIBLE!!! ... every single week of the entire year... It is impossible to ever cash in your miles!!!!!! I am extremely unhappy. I have literally thrown my money down the toilet by paying the annual fees. I have EXCELLENT CREDIT... I can have any other credit card that I desire for NO ANNUAL FEE! Bank of America should be ashamed to be associated with USAIRWAYS... NOBODY FLIES FOR FREE!! It is a total RIP-OFF!!!!!! I have been ripped off!!!!! All of my hard-earned miles over the years are absolutely worthless!!!! This card has ZERO benefits!!!!! Best Feature: none Worst Feature: cannot redeem miles ... nothing available EVER! Overall Rating: 1 Benefit Rating: 1 Service Rating: 1.5 Recommend: No Credit Card: Citi® Upromise™ MasterCard® Provided by: Citibank Total Posts: 5 Average Rating: 4.30 Category: Reward - Other Date posted: 6/21/2004 Review: Hey it's a Citibank credit card (Mastercard); it didn't cost anything to get, so what can be wrng with that. Best Feature: earns extra at grocery and some gas stations Worst Feature: has a $300 per year earnings cap for everything except grocery Overall Rating: 5 Benefit Rating: 4.5 Service Rating: 5 Recommend: Yes Credit Card: Discover® Card Provided by: Morgan Stanley Total Posts: 176 Average Rating: 3.10 Category: Reward - Cash Date posted: 6/20/2004 Review: I've had a Discover card for 12 years, and have had only dispute with them -- which they solved to my satisfaction with one short phone call. As long as you don't carry a balance, this card is a real money-saver --I've paid entire monthly balances with my cash back reward, and got a free hotel stay on other occassions. I only recently started using their web site for payments, etc., but it's well-designed and easy to figure out where you need to go. Highly recommend the card -- but if you routinely carry a balance on your card, the interest rates are probably going to be an issue for you. Best Feature: Cash back, fast response from Customer service Worst Feature: none Overall Rating: 5 Benefit Rating: 4 Service Rating: 5 Recommend: Yes Credit Card: Phillips 66 Conoco Union 76 MasterCard® Provided by: Citibank Total Posts: 1 Average Rating: 1 Category: Reward - Gas Date posted: 6/20/2004 Review: I am buyng Unocal and Union 76 regularly for about 20 years. Had no problem until the card was issued by Citybank apparently, though it is almost impossible to find out how they handle these financial tricks. I am paying my gas bill monthly in full , for an average of $300/mth now with these gas prices. It is a fact though that my card was rejected for over the credit limit charge!!! I have an excelent credit rating and credits in 6 digits value. Asked for credit increase to $1,000 and they cannot solve it yet!!! Miserable service; you should send some managers to play golf better than sabotaging the business. Best Feature: Many gas stations in S. California Worst Feature: Credit handling by Citybank or who's the new financial baker of 76 gas cards Overall Rating: 1 Benefit Rating: 1 Service Rating: 1 Recommend: No Credit Card: Washington Mutual Bank Card Provided by: Washington Mutual Total Posts: 18 Average Rating: 4.06 Category: Debit Date posted: 6/20/2004 Review: WAMU has been my bank for nearly 10 years now. And when I first joined up they were still a local bank with friendly tellers and good customer service. Over the years they have screwed me over in tiny ways--my debit card stopped functioning the day before I moved to France a few years back and after over 2 months of collect calls and being told they would order me a new one they finally advised me they couldn't ship it overseas. What a pain. I eventually had to have someone overnight it to me directly from Seattle. Outside of that incident, I've had few problems using my card anywhere in the world. And WAMU has free ATMs for everyone, not just their clients, which is a nice feature for all the Credit Union members around the country. My most recent complaint regarding this card is that I changed my checking from a Platinum to a free checking account. The customer service agent advised me that new cards would be ordered and our old ones deactivated in about a week. So a week later my card arrives, but not one for my husband. His card stops working, and we wait another week. Still no card for him. So I call and am advised that EVEN THOUGH WE CHANGED OUR ACCOUNT TYPE AND HIS DEBIT CARD NO LONGER WORKS, HE has to call in to get a new card on the account. Which is insane. Quite obviously he wants a card that works for his account, and so because I'm calling from work he has to call up and sit through the hold time for customer service as well to get a replacement card. Anyway, after all that we've decided to go a credit union. I don't suspect they will be nearly so troublesome as WAMU has about stupid little things like that. Best Feature: Your basic debit card. Works like a Visa with no problems Worst Feature: Can't get replacement cards for my husband when I call in Overall Rating: 4.5 Benefit Rating: 3 Service Rating: 2 Recommend: Yes The Cardholder Review section is a unique feature of our site and, to the best of our knowledge, there is no other organization or company that offers more consumer reviews of credit cards. It's all about consumers helping other consumers. As your might expect, this section of our site has been one of the most popular sections of our site since it was introduced in the summer of 2000. New reviews are posted on a daily basis! We hope that you will find this section of our site useful and that you will visit it on a regular basis.

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