Discover Card Consumer Reviews - Page 3

Truth be told, my first gripe with Discover goes back to an offer for a consolidation loan that they only offer to their top members with great payment history which I chose to accept but was then denied for. I'm not a big fan of soliciting an offer then not being able to deliver when the offer is accepted. Despite the earlier disrespect, I was willing to give Discover Card another opportunity to keep my business. I recently came into some money that allowed me to repay ALL revolving debt and as of now I am debt free, save for my monthly house payment.

I paid my nearly 5,000 balance (including all new charges) prior to that month's statement closing date and thought that would be the end of it. After all nearly every credit card I've EVER had has worked under the same terms, pay in FULL prior to statement closing date and pay no new Finance Charges. So imagine my surprise when I came home today to find a statement from Discover in my mailbox asking me for $109.16 in finance charges.

I sat through the 20 minute menu of Discover's automated system before getting one of India's finest (to his credit, at least I could understand him and he could understand me) to explain to me just what the score was. He explains that the fact I just paid 5,000 prior to the statement closing date (as had it been after, I'd have at least somewhat understood) meant nothing and these finance charges were actually BACK charges.

By this point, I'm not even going to argue. I simply go straight to the jugular, "Let me pay you and close my account." The customer service representative on the other side tells me to hang on, he's looking into something; which I assume is going to be a concession of some sort to keep my business in these troubled times. God knows I've given enough concessions in MY business to keep my customers happy and coming back each month, despite being "right".

As it turns out after a short hold he simply reaffirms my request to pay and cancel. I advise him, "yes this is what I'd like to do", though he'd do well to redeem my 25.19 in Cashback Rewards towards this final payment prior to taking one red CENT from my account. He advises I only have 20.00 available for redemption, so now this 109.19 dollar bill has just become 94.38. Fine, process the payment and I'll just forget the 5.19 I've "earned".

Bottom line is I'm disgusted I've ever done business with this company. From this day forward I will make it my life's mission to do everything I can to make sure this laughingstock of a company doesn't get another red CENT from anyone out there.

NATIONWIDE -- I am providing contact information for David Nelms, Discover Card CEO, so anyone can contact him directly by phone or written letter and bypass the "defensive line" and BS we all experience with the 1-800 DISCOVER call centers. David is going to dislike being contacted and addressed about issues that "should or can" be resolved on the lower tiered rankings of the company. I strongly advise anyone who has an issue with Discover Card and/or keeps experiencing interest rate re-pricing and/or other unethical tactics and/or practices to go to the top of the organization chart and contact David directly.

We need to speak in “numbers” to the CEO of Discover Card and let him know that we are aware of Discover's practices and we are not going to stand for them anymore. We can also inform David how MBNA, his former employer, suffered negative publicity and massive cardholder attrition because of unethical practices and interest rate price increases that led to MBNA's demise and eventual acquisition by Bank of America in 2005. Does David want this to happen to Discover Card as people “dump” their Discover Cards because of Discover Card's unethical and exploitative practices?

Ask David if Discover Card wants to make restitution to you for damages and consequences and explain to David what you expect from him. The CEO will usually honor your request because he wants to get you off the phone or get your letter off his desk as he does not have time to deal with customer complaints and should not have to deal with them. His thoughts are “I should not be having a cardholder contact me. That is what support staff is hired to do. Further, I should not have to take action on behalf of the cardholder or be bothered by them. Why was the cardholder not taken care of by the lower ranks?”

You can bet someone down the line at Discover Card, because of your letter or phone call, is going to be reprimanded and/or fired for not taking action on your behalf and because the complaint went all the way to the CEO. Let us do our part and disrupt this predatory and corrupt company so other cardholders will not continue to be victimized by Discover Card. Finally, we need to let the CEO know that we are aware of how the company operates and exploits people and we are going to do our job to inform the public of these practices just like the MBNA cardholders did.

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH -- We took out a loan with Citibank for my son's freshman year of college. My son ended up dropping out for medical reasons. We set auto payment through Citibank and first payment was late. They reported us to credit union. Shortly after Citi sold loans to Discover Bank. We made our payments on time and in July of 2012, we decided to pay down the loan. Bill said amount to pay and we spoke to an agent to get full amount. We made the total payment we understood to be the payout amount.

Now in October we started getting numerous calls from an 800 number, which everyone knows are either sales calls or someone annoying. They finally left a message and I called them back. Evidently we owed them $270 more because interest was continuing to rack until they received our full payment. No one left a message or sent a bill and we thought this loan was paid. The harassment at all hours of the day and night was relentless and unbearable. We felt that it was not fair to come after us for such a small amount when we were not told about it until now.

We said we would not pay it so the operator threatened us with credit report and that the so-called account would continue to accrue interest damaging our credit and that they would continue to make phone calls until we paid this small amount. These banks sell loans to each other and you have no choice in the matter. The operators at Discover are trained to harass, coerce and say anything to get you to pay what they say you owe. This experience was a nightmare and dealing with them was like dealing with automated airheads who say they will do an investigation of all taped phone calls only for another uniformed operator to call back within the hour.

DO NOT use Discover for any banking, loans or any financial transactions of any kind. They are incompetent idiots and worse the poor people who they train to harass you have no power to help you. Additionally, no supervisors were ever available. I highly recommend against getting involved with this institution, or do it at your own peril. HORRIBLE!!!!!!!

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH -- This year I decided to do my holiday shopping online with my Discover card. On Monday, I made about 5-6 purchases totally about $250 on Amazon.com & they all appeared to go through. Mind you, I wasn't even close to my limit, which is $1,000. On Tuesday night, I received 5-6 emails from Amazon stating I needed to re-enter my credit card info. So I did & they appeared to go through just fine. On Wed. a.m., I went to the grocery store and tried to purchase some food w/ my Discover card. It was declined.

I called their customer service - and they told me a fraud alert had been put on my account, they agreed to remove the fraud alert right away. They didn't phone or email me, even though they had this info. on file. I asked them why purchases during the holiday season (in small amounts) that were shipped to my street & billing address were declined. I had to go back into my Amazon account & re-enter the credit card information for each purchase. So now it's Thursday, 12/16 and I get home from work tonight to find 6 new emails from Amazon - yes, Discover Card declined my purchases AGAIN.

I called Discover & they told me their automatic fraud detection system was sensitive to the activity on my account (Hello? Six purchases during the Christmas shopping season?). So now I have to try to go do my holiday shopping this weekend, when I have absolutely no time - and am starting from scratch at the last minute, all thanks to Discover. Of course, I won't use my Discover card at the register because I'm afraid of setting off their overly-sensitive fraud detection system - and I'll be embarrassed in public when the cashier says, "It was denied"! So why bother having a credit card when they don't let you use it?

Their fraud detector would probably cause problems when traveling or on vacation, as I can only imagine how badly it would react to charges coming from another country! I'm closing this account - they are ridiculous & their customer service reps kept reading scripts to me, which only served to anger me off more. They kept telling me their fraud detection system was for my benefit, but if it prevents me from actually using the card when I need it, how is it beneficial to me. So how is that good for me? I've discovered I'm done with Discover.

Their website messed up apparently in the middle of me scheduling a payment for a month later. A payment went out the wrong month and overdrafted my bank account. I called immediately when I saw it and even my bank. My bank charged an overdraft fee to which they gave me it back and Discover of course couldn't get payment so I was returned my funds. Little did I know from no one telling me anything that it would go in again for payment. As soon as I saw it I called them and the person said it will go in 2 times and if not paid the money will return to you.

Well of course my bank charged an overdraft fee again to which this time I couldn't get it returned. The woman at my bank said it wasn't their fault, to go after Discover since it wasn't authorized, she said most companies will send it 3 times. I said, "You're kidding," the woman I had talked to said 2 times. I got home and called the bank and asked to do a stop payment on the thing, since I was getting overdrafts from them and already $35 in the hole with the bank because of Discover's tricks.

I called Discover to complain and see about getting my overdraft fees returned to me since my bank wouldn't. Well Discover wouldn't and she said, "We send it up to 3 times," I said "I was told it was 2 times," she said, "No it's 3 times." So I said, "Now my bank will slam me for $70 for you idiots sending in a 3 payments in a week's time when I clearly don't have the money in there this month for it."

I called my bank back and asked about doing a stop payment, I said, "I am getting slammed with fees from you because of them." She put it in and waived my fee, so hopefully I don't get slammed with another $35 fee from my bank, I just checked my account and the payment is trying to process. I am sooooooo sick of Discover, once my balance is paid off, that's it. No more Discover for me. (I have been a customer since 1995.)

ILLINOIS -- For a long time, I have noticed charges to my account that I cannot explain. They are automatic payments to companies. It started out with just one company, then later there was another company doing it too. I would call the company to try to find out what these charges are for or to try to cancel whatever it was, but they would tell me that have no record of me in there system (no account for my name).

I finally got fed up by all these weird charges and called Discover card to tell them I wanted my account closed. I no longer wanted the account, and I no longer wanted there to be any more charges to my account. I understood there was still a balance on my account that I would have to continue to pay on. That was no big deal. My concern was terminating this account so there could be no more weird charges. The customer service person gave me some BS about how they could dispute the charges for me. I told him I wasn't interested in doing that. I just want my account closed. The guy said he took care of it and the account was closed.

A few weeks later, I receive a new statement and guess what? Those weird charges are there again and it doesn't appear that my account has been closed. I now send an email to customer service to find out what's going on. They email me back to say that my account was never actually closed, but now it's closed. I call customer service after viewing this email to complain and to dispute the most recent charges. It was my understanding that my account was already closed, so I shouldn't be responsible for any new charges. The account was supposed to be CLOSED.

This guy gives me the run around and tells me that it is closed now, so it's no big deal. Except that they're holding me responsible for those new charges. He transfers me to some billing dispute department where I'm put on hold forever. I finally get fed up and hang up the phone. I've had Discover card since I was in college, since 1999. So I had this card for 10 years and this is how they treat their customers. I wouldn't recommend this card to anyone.

I recently refinanced my home. My mother and I bought this together after my father passed away in 1989. When a title search was done on my deed I found that Discover Card had put a lien on my deed of 4000.00. This was debt for my mother who had a 100 percent disabling stroke in 1995. Paralyzed and unable to move etc. This is okay. I was more than willing to pay this debt. Even though THEY (Discover) should not have been allowed to place anything against my home. Here now is where it gets very sticky and totally dishonest.

Discover charged me 11,000.00 for a debt my mom had and died without paying off. I am a single working mother with two kids and I had to pay this in order to refinance my home. So I guess I had to pay for my Mother dying. AND I was told by the person who handled this refinance if I did not pay this off I could not refinance ever. So I was between a rock and a hard place.

I am angry. I could ill afford to pay them the EXTRA 7000.00 for mom dying and not paying off a card. She after all, did not intend to leave this debt. She also did not intend to become 100 percent disabled by a stroke. I stopped working for 9 years to care for her or we would have had to put her in a home. I went back to work a few weeks after her death at a lower wage than when I left work when she had her stroke.

Because I was off work so long, no one wanted to hire me. So I took the first job offered. I also worked a second job. I needed a car and could not afford one, sister let me use hers. And then when I start seeing light at the end of the tunnel DISCOVER decided to take it away from me. I will fight to get back my money. Like I said, it's okay for them to be paid what they said card bill was. But it was not okay to gouge me for triple the money due. After all, it was not my debt.

Discover card will not work out a reduced payment plan. Over the last few years I had major surgery, was out of work for 8 months, and had physical restrictions for one year at work. The company I work for was later sold and a 5 year pay freeze has occurred with no future increase. At this point I joined a debt settlement law group to work with paying off my credit cards. Discover refuses to negotiate with them or even me. I was put into collections soon as the debt settlement group contacted them.

It's an endless circle with Discover. They will not accept or negotiate a lump sum payment (that is available at this time). They will not even contact me to negotiate. My other credit cards are working with the program. I am an older person with mild disabilities - where I still work but lose about 4 intermediate days unpaid a month. Help!!!

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH -- Beware of Discover Bank Student Loans. When you apply for and obtain the loan, your loan will almost immediately be sold off to Great Lakes Bank and then the trouble begins. As Great Lakes mishandles your paperwork, in my case sending me documents in mail initially then suddenly, without my knowledge, they start sending docs to a 1997 address. This older address I had never used on any form or given to them. Then, without my knowledge they take a student loan currently in deferment several years before student graduation and put it into repayment mode.

Then sending items to the 13 year old address they get no response and then wreak havoc on your credit report. When you finally discover what they did you call them and they blame Discover Bank saying they sent them the wrong address! When you call Discover Bank they blame Great Lakes saying they can't be responsible! Neither will take responsibility and you get nowhere. Horrible service, rude on the phone, avoid, avoid, avoid!

Please be aware of the ill-practices of Discover. They are nothing but crooks disguised as a reputable company. I dealt with breast cancer last year and they put me in a six month program @ 3.99% and I agreed to have the amount taken directly out of my checking account.

What they did not tell me was that it was only a six month program, so when the 7th month came and they money was not taken I called them. They told me my account was past due and my interested rate jumped to about 18%. I have been unable to get any cooperation from them in terms of decreasing my interest rate.

I pay more than my minimal payment every month and I have been unable to make a dent in the balance. They are rude and uncaring. Please do us all a favor and don't do business with them and tell everyone you know the truth about Discover, they are nothing but crooks.