I am deliquent on 7 cards but only one has been harassing me since it was 2 days late. The others have just kept adding it to my bill each month. This card company called me 8 or 10 times a day from 8 am till 10 pm and even on sunday mornings. Mostly automated caling things and since I have an answering machine, they were all hang up calls. This is a card that I closed 3 years back because they just kept raising the interest although I paid my bill 2 weeks early everymonth. I made timely payments for almost 3 years but can no longer do it. They have turned it over to an attorney and I got a call sunday morning and today. I have written the credit card company and explained my situation but they have ignored it. I was sending a small payment to them but it made no difference to them and I can no longer send it anyway. I have no money for anything except rent and food, and feeding my child. I am a few weeks away from not even having rent money, so I’m in serious trouble.
I have no one to turn to, no friends, family is at a distance and the main reason my life fell apart and I got into this situation of not having enough money. I don’t own anything, not even a car so I have no assets. They have called twice. How long will it take them to actually take me to court? This law firm is from another state.
I am 3 months deliquent on my cards.
I have called various numbers to get legal assistance and only got automated recordings and have been told that they don’t handle bankrupcty cases. I have zero money for an attorney to file bankruptcy and there doesn’t seem to be any legal assistance available to me in HOuston. Plenty of free consutlations available, but actual legal representation assistance, zero.

Technorati Tags: 3 years, answering machine, assets, bankruptcy, cards, credit card company, enough money, friends family, legal assistance, legal representation, serious trouble, sunday morning, sunday mornings, timely payments, zero money

As of January 2009 eBay will be discontinuing checks and money orders as acceptable payments from buyers. I’m looking for different online credit card processing websites that PREFERABLY don’t have a setup fee. I wouldn’t necessarily (unless this is needed) need one of those plastic card machines unless it’s mandatory to accept the cards, etc. I believe there may be some online checkout services (I was thinking maybe Kyozou or something) that may be adequate. Anyone? Thanks!

Technorati Tags: cards, checkout, checks, credit card processing, ebay, kyozou, money orders

I am setting up a stall at a festival for the first time, and wasn’t sure if I needed a machine to accept cards or if everyone just carries cash anyway.

Technorati Tags: cards, setting up a stall

I’m looking to avoid the ridiculous cost of a land line for my business. I already have a cell phone for business use. Is there a way to connect a basic credit card terminal into a cell phone?

If not, what would be the most cost effective way to accept cards? This is a small restaurant and service needs to be speedy!

Technorati Tags: cards, cell phone, credit card terminal

whenever i go to downtown vancouver homeless people are trying to sell me parking tickets they buy from automated machines using stolen (then cancelled) cards. are the card companies able to track these transactions once a card is cancelled? can the police catch these people?

Technorati Tags: automated machines, cards, homeless people, parking tickets

I work at a hotel in Arkansas and I just had a guest from Nevada yell at me telling me that credit card imprints are now illegal. I don’t understand why american express would issue a credit card machine if they were illegal and if they were just recently made illegal why they wouldn’t call/mail all of the people they issued them to. He said that we can keep doing it until someone sues us I’m assuming he means himself since I imprinted it anyway it sounded to me like something was fishy since we have government and military people stay with us all the time and haven’t said a word, he told me it was due to the new privacy acts or something like that but i couldn’t find anything on it. It is a legitimate credit card imprinting machiene issued by american express.
Wow thanks alot! I thought it might be something like that, I know that we put them on reg. cards in case our system and back up both go down, and also to make sure the number in the computer and the number on the reg card match since people like to switch c.c. at check in and the computer doesn’t always save the second card so the wrong card could get charged. I feel a whole lot better now haha I just didn’t want my manager and what not to get in trouble. I’ve only been doing front desk for about 7 months since my hotel opened like i said we have lawyers and high ranking govt. officals come through all the time so i assumed that they would have told me by now.

Technorati Tags: 7 months, american express, cards, credit card machine, front desk, imprints, lawyers, legitimate credit, mail, match, privacy acts, reg card, whole lot, yell

i sell jewelry at local street fairs and have one of the old school credit card machines where i take an imprint of the card and come home and run it on the computer. today when i tried to run one of the cards it came up as declined. i have an imprint of the guy’s card, his name, and driver’s license number, is there anything i can do about this bad card and to get my money? it’s not a ton of money but it’s enough that it is worth putting in some time and effort trying to get him to pay for the stuff he bought at the fair.
i do not have any of his contact info, just his name and driver’s license number, and it is an out of state license. no phone number, no address.

Technorati Tags: cards, Credit Card Machines, jewelry, license number, money, old school, phone number, school credit, state license, street fairs

So, I’m looking to get my first credit card soon to begin building my credit. Being that I turned 18 half a year ago with only a single bill under my name, I still have 0 or next to nothing credit. Therefore, when I go to look for one, I’m on the lower or "limited section".

My banker at one bank told me to use CapitalOne first since that’s what they used and it should work out fine. I believe I fall into the category of "Limited History" or "Limited Credit". There’s several different cards that look like they all do the same like "Platinum" and "Young Adults". However, when I go to see if I pre-qualify and say that I just want low interest rates and have limited credit, they pair me with the "Classic Premium". Is this the right choice for me and am I on the right track?

Some other concerns were that my banker told me to always pay the minimum balance on time, but leave an "outstanding balance". Any help on just what outstanding is if anything other then having something left to pay? We agreed on me paying the minimum balance then half of whatever was left. She said by doing this, I’d build credit much faster and be good after 6-8 months at which point I’d drop CO, get a credit card from my current bank and another one elsewhere.

Some other small questions are about the APR percent (what it means; how it works) and when I get the annual fee. There’s also a problem I saw during the actual application of the credit card. It requires that I put a monthly rent payment and yearly income but I’ve only had my job for 7 months and don’t make rent payments yet, so what would I put there?

I’m just here for another opinion and confirmations. I’ll most likely speak to my banker on the phone during the process as well since she only set the foundation. Thanks for any help and I apologize for my poor knowledge thus far.

Technorati Tags: 7 months, cards, credit card, job, low interest rates, minimum balance, platinum, poor knowledge, right choice, yearly income, young adults

I have a low credit score but I don’t have any major debt. When I graduated from high school, preparing for college all these credit card companies were sending me cards. so like a idiot I used them not thinking about my credit score. I got behind on all of them. I had like 5 and i had to settle with the majority of them so i could get rid of them. However, now 6 years later I want to buy a house and get a car and my score is jacked up. I have paid all them off through settlement. but they are still reporting negative on my credit report. I have a phone bill of 1 I need to pay that’s still on there but my score is poor. What can I do to speed up the process for me to be able to at least get a car and a house. I know I have to pay that phone bill but how do i get those write offs and charge off, gone forever. Any suggestions?

Technorati Tags: 6 years, cards, credit card companies, credit report, credit score, preparing for college

So I am totally unsure about this, my parents own a small restaurant and we had a credit card machine for around 1 year, my dad never opens the merchant service mails untill last week, the letter said that someone filed a credit card fraud and 2 times as we look at the date of the transaction we found the recipe of the payment and it was both same person signature paid with different cards, and they filed for a refund both time.

My question is if this person comes back, We know who it is and wanted to know what we can do to help stop the person.

Technorati Tags: cards, credit card fraud, credit card machine, dad, merchant service, parents, signature

I need to get an old fashioned credit card machine that takes card imprints for an upcoming craft fair. It’s a one time thing so I don’t really want to spend the time or money to customize a merchant plate. Will the machine still take the cards imprint without it, or does it need the merchant plate in order to work properly?

Technorati Tags: cards, credit card machine, imprints, money, time thing

Contrary to popular belief, it’s not illegal but against Visa policy to require ID for acceptance. In other words, you CANNOT deny a sale because I refuse to show ID.

Visa’s official statement:
Some customers write “See ID” or “Ask for ID” in the signature panel, thinking that this is a deterrent against fraud or forgery; that is, if their signature is not on the card, a fraudster will not be able to forge it. In reality, criminals don’t take the time to practice signatures: they use cards as quickly as possible after a theft and prior to the accounts being blocked. They are actually counting on you not to look at the back of the card and compare signatures—they may even have access to counterfeit identification with a signature in their own handwriting. “See ID” or “Ask for ID” is not a valid substitute for a signature. The customer must sign the card in your presence, as stated above.

How many of you knew that?
Visa official statement from merchant agreement:

Although Visa rules do not preclude merchants from asking for cardholder ID, merchants cannot make an ID a condition of acceptance. Therefore, merchants cannot refuse to complete a purchase transaction because a cardholder refuses to provide ID. Visa believes merchants should not ask for ID as part of their regular card acceptance procedures. Laws in several states also make it illegal for merchants to write a cardholder’s personal information, such as an address or phone number, on a sales receipt.
Banja, it’s not for my protection. How is it protecting me when I give a random stranger access to all of my personal information?

Technorati Tags: acceptance procedures, card acceptance, cards, contrary to popular belief, criminals, forgery, fraud, fraudster, handwriting, merchant agreement, merchants, phone number, presence, purchase transaction, random stranger, sales receipt, signature, signatures, visa policy, visa rules

I recently had a horrible experience with a jewelry store. I will leave out all the details, put to wrap this up, the services they provided were not up to par. I followed their return policy and returned the merchandise. We recieved a recepit stating that the money will be put back in the account. Our cards were ran again to credit the account.

5 business days have passed since then and the money is still not in the account. We have called the jeweler and he states that it must be my bank. However, I spoke with my bank and the bank stated that the merchant has discretionary authority on a situation like this.

How much longer should I wait? and if the money still does not post, what shouldmy next action be? Any help would be appreciated, Thanks!

Technorati Tags: business days, cards, discretionary authority, horrible experience, jeweler, jewelry store, money, recepit

Here's a quote I've received from one company. Looking for a better deal if anyone knows of one:

Here's their terms for swiped cards:

Visa/MC rate: 1.69% + {content}.20 per transaction
Visa/MC Debit rate: 1.49% + {content}.20 per transaction

Monthly Gateway Fee: {content}.00
Monthly Statement Fee: .00
Monthly Minimum: {content}.00
Monthly Wireless Fee: {content}.00
Annual Fee: {content}.00

No setup, reprogramming or application fees.

Technorati Tags: application fees, cards, fee content, gateway fee, minimum content, visa mc