Merrick Bank Corporation

MsD*** accepted a “pre-screened” solicitation for an account in August 2011. The account has been used for the purchase of goods and services. Merrick has placed a temporary do not contact flag on the account. This flag will remain in place for days. This will
allow MsD*** time to contact us to explore payment plan options. Merrick has many payment plans available for situations like the one MsN*** is facing. All of these plans require that the account be closed to new purchases. Many have lower interest rates and some have fixed payment amounts. The review did not show any information from MsD*** or her designate regarding any attorney information or a request to cease calling on the account
Merrick is required to accurately report on the accounts it reports to the credit bureaus. If MsD***’s account becomes delinquent a negative report may be sent and if a serious delinquency occurs a “charge-off” report could be the result. Merrick encourages her to contact us and find out about the various payment plans that may help with her situation or to provide her attorney’s name and phone number.
MsD*** can contact us at *** to discuss what payment plan may work best for her situation. If she does not contact us prior to the day expiration we will again attempt to contact her regarding the account. I have enclosed a copy of the application for the account and the cardholder agreement that governs the account

Merrick Bank is engaged in FraudThis account was already closed mutually by myself and Merrick Bank September with Paralegal Monique F* at ###-###-####Merrick Bank already collected my $secured savings account by October and adjusted my account and SENT ME CONFIRMATIONWhomever from Merrick Bank that's responding to these Revdex.com correspondences is Mentally Ill and LyingTheir is nothing for this person to do on my account because it was already closed last year! Merrick Bank is trying to Fraudulently obligate myself for their greedy illegitimate purposes, they just won't let people go who doesn't want to be bothered with them! I don't appreciate this dumb-minded nonsense from Merrick BankPlease don't respond again!
Complaint: ***
I am rejecting this response because:
Sincerely,
*** ***

Mr*** opened a Visa credit card account with Merrick in
November 2012. In that mail piece there
was a disclosure regarding the assessment of an annual fee to the account. When Mr*** was send the credit card the
pricing appendix was included with the card which further
explained the
assessment of the annual fee. A pricing
appendix is the summary of the costs associated with the credit card account,
such as interest rates, fees and important information about how the account
works.
The first year the fee is assessed to the account in one
lump sum and each following year the fee is assessed monthly at the sum of $
Mr*** receives paperless statements and prior to that they were mailed to
him. Statements had been sent to the
address on record and there is no evidence of returned mail on the account
In accordance with the Cardholder Agreement, Mr*** agreed
to pay the Annual Fee(s) for each year the account is open and for each year in
which there is an outstanding balance on the account. If the account is closed but you fail to pay
off the full account balance, you agree to pay the amount of the Annual Fee and
applicable fees billed to your account for each month there is an outstanding
balance. The account is still open and
the full balance of the credit line is available
The credit reporting on the account is correct and accurate
according to the history of the account.
Merrick will not change or delete that reportingTo do so would be a
violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act and Bank policy
I have enclosed copies of statements reviewed, the
application and the cardholder agreement for the account

Mr*** informed the Bank of the fraud on the account on December 30, 2015. An affidavit of fraud was sent to him on January 2, 2016. Merrick has not received the affidavit back. However on January 24, the full amount of the fraud was removed from the accunt and
the interest and/or fees that was charged on that amount has been waived. No negative reporting has occurred on the account. Mr*** should receive a statement showing these adjustments to the account

Complaint: ***
I am rejecting this response because: the fraudulent infomation is reported on my Equivalent account not TransitionI have already spoke to a customer service representative who confirms that Merrick Bank is responsible for posting this fraudulent information.
Sincerely,
*** ***

Mr*** opened a Merrick Visa account in January 2012. He used the account for the purchase of goods and services. The account became delinquent and subsequently was charged-off in February Merrick does not continue to report charged off accounts once the charge off has
been submitted to each of the credit reporting agencies. The reporting status can change if there is a payment made or the borrower updates any of their information with the reporting agenciesThe date of first delinquency is the date that drives how long a derogatory report will remain on a credit file. The credit reporting history of the account is maintained by the credit reporting agencies. Good credit information can remain on a file indefinitely; derogatory information can remain on a file for 7-years. Merrick has never received any correspondence regarding this account, nor have we received any type of credit bureau dispute regarding the account until this complaint. Merrick is required under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”) to accurately report the status of accounts it reports to the credit bureaus. After reviewing the original credit application information, the identity and address, including email, and other details associated with the account, we have found it remains consistent with the credit bureau’s database file associated with Mr*** as of this dateThere has been no additional information provided by Mr*** that supports the inaccuracy of the account relationship to himself or the account usage or payment historyThe various status’ reported on Mr***’s account were and are accurate and Merrick is unable to remove correct information. To do so would be a violation of FCRA

Mr*** opened an account with Merrick in July and has used the account for the purchase of goods and services On December 29, Mr*** made a claim on the account for unauthorized chargesMerrick’s investigation of the claim revealed that one merchant, Amazon Digital,
issued credits to Mr***’s account totaling $599.89. Amazon Digital had billed Mr***’s account for monthly charges but only gave credits for Merrick refunded an additional three monthly Amazon Digital charges totaling $to Mr***’s account. In addition, Mr*** reported several other unauthorized charges which totaled $1,104.30, for which Merrick provided credits to his account. Merrick also adjusted the interest charged on the balance of his account in the amount of $due to the unauthorized charges. All of these adjustments are indicated on Mr***’s statement dated March 27, Once all of the credits and adjustments to the account were completed, Merrick closed the claim on March 22, and sent Mr*** a letter with the results of the investigation

Merrick will have a supervisor or Manager contact this account holder in the next days

A review of MrS***’ account was made. The security department who regularly monitors accounts for fraud activity detected test authorizations being made on MrS***’ account and calls to him were made to determine if he was attempting to use the account. Those calls occurred in
November and went unanswered. A fraud alert letter was sent to MrS*** on November 20, and the account was blocked from use until MrS*** called Merrick to validate the use of the card.
On June 11, MrS*** called to find out why the account was blocked and spoke to a representative who explained the issued to him. The notes on the account showed that MrS*** called in and the block on the account was removed but there is no information about issuing a new card. On August 18, MrS*** called again and indicated that he had been told that a new card would be issued. The representative who spoke to him at that time told him that a fee was charged for a replacement card. MrS*** declined to pay the fee and closed the account
After reviewing the calls and the notes on the account Merrick has determined that the account should be reinstated and a new card sent to MrS*** without charging the fee. As of today the account has been reinstated and a new card has been sent to MrS***He should receive that new card in about 7-days. If he has questions regarding the account he can contact us at ***

Complaint: ***
I am rejecting this response because: This response is not forthcoming, and trueThe calls were handled with such rudeness, and the representatives were very unprofessional. I was hung up on by Sophia, who was the first rude person I had spoke withWhen it came time to speak with a supervisor, she released the call on purposeI am not sure why Merrick Bank is being untruthfulRegarding the long HOLD times, it is industry policy within call centers to check back on customers, every 1-minutes, when they are put on hold, to ensure the phone representative, have not forgotten about the customerAlso, it is good communication skills for phone reps to continue letting the customer on hold know what steps they are doing while they have them on holdA good policy is also to apologize for the long hold times and at least explain why the customer is on hold for so long. It is rude to have someone on hold for more than minutes, and then forget about themIf organizations, such as Merrick Bank, has policies that Do No Allow at Any Time for annual fees to be Waived or Interest rates to be lowered, then they need to 1) have that set in Stone for Everyone, and Not just for certain customers, and 2) Not Set up an Expectation of a Customer to Submit Requests Knowing that they Will Not Fulfill themThese are horrible business practices. Everything that was sent back from Merrick as a response was untruthful
Sincerely,
*** ***

Thank you
Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me
Sincerely,
*** ***

Mr*** opened an account with Merrick in September 2015. Mr***’s account has had a zero balance and there has been no activity for a year or more. Merrick’s decision to close the account was based upon the inactivity of the account and no other reason. The cardholder
agreement between Mr*** and Merrick allows either party to close the account at any time and allows Merrick to do so for any reason without prior notice. Merrick will not reopen the account

A review of Ms***’s account was conducted. In October Ms*** opened a Visa credit card account with Merrick. She used the account for the purchase of goods and service. On January 31, Ms*** made a payment on the account that paid most of the balance owing off
There was interest due on the balance after that payment in the amount of $3.23. Each month thereafter a $minimum finance charge was added to that balance. Statements were sent to the same address as all previous statements of the account.
There was no payment received on the account after the January payment and in June Merrick waived the balance of the account and closed it. It is Merrick’s policy to close accounts with balances under $that consist of only interest and/or fees
The cardholder agreement that governs the account states the following in Section 2:
“No matter where Billing Statements are sent or when they are received, your obligation to make timely Minimum Payments and to pay all other amounts owed on the Account is not excused“
There was no returned mail received back on the account. Therefore, Ms*** received the statements for the account but failed to make any payments on that balanceThee account will not be reinstated. Any credit reporting made on the account is correct and accurate according to the history of the account and will not be changed or modified. To do so would be a violation of the FCRA and Bank policy

Ms*** opened an account with Merrick in July and has used the account for the purchase of goods and services. The due date on the account was the 17th of each monthIn December Ms*** made a payment in the amount of $That payment was later returned unpaid and noted
as “invalid account number”. This was only the 2nd payment made on the account since it was opened. The account is now seriously delinquent and will be closed and charged off for non-payment. If Ms*** wants to avoid the account being charged off she can contact us and make payment arrangements or find out if any payment plans are available to assist her in paying off the account. She can contact us at 800-253-to discuss what options are available

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me
Sincerely,
Rebecca H***

Merrick conducted a review of Mr***’s application submission. When Mr*** submitted his application it triggered the automated question and answer authentication provided by TransUnionThe questions are not created by MerrickThe questions provided to Mr*** pertain to
his personal credit history as it appears at TransUnionThese are questions directly related to him, or in some instances they may not be. However, if any one of the questions have a response that did not apply to him, he could have selected “none” or “does not apply” as his answer. Merrick is required to specifically identify the person who is applying for an account, and TransUnion, who provides Merrick’s credit bureau reports for new accounts, conducts the identity verification process. Because Merrick could not verify Mr***’s identity using the questions and answers presented to him at the time of application, his application was declined. Merrick will not be able to open an account for Mr***

Mr*** opened an account with Merrick in July and has used the account for the purchase of goods and services Four payments made on the account since August have been returned by Nuesenda Federal Credit Union for non-sufficient fundsIt is the policy of the Bank to close
and charge-off accounts that have had returned payments in daysA letter was sent to Mr*** on December 15, regarding closing the account for excessive returned paymentsThe account has charged off for nonpayment and Merrick is reporting the account as such, and is the correct reporting under the circumstances

Merrick Bank does not intentionally solicit the elderly or the incapacitated. When Merrick sends out a pre-screened offer it only has limited credit bureau information. Merrick does do a removal of anyone whose information has a deceased notation associated with it. There
would have been no way for Merrick to know about any other status of the person being sent the solicitation. Merrick is prohibited by ECOA from discriminating on a prohibited bases such as age, income or any of the other prohibited bases under ECOA. Ms*** did not provide the name of her father therefore I am unable to ensure that his name is added to our do not solicit listing. If she provides that I can ensure Merrick does not send any further offers in his name

A review of MsC***’s account was conducted. The account history shows that MsC*** contacted Merrick most recently in March regarding the benefits under the SCRA. At that time she did not provide a copy of her orders with the beginning and ending date of her deployment
Under the SCRA section 572(b)1: Written notice to a creditorIn order for an obligation or liability of a servicemember to be subject to the interest rate limitation in subsection (a), the servicemember shall provide to the creditor written notice and a copy of the military orders calling the servicemember to military service and any orders further extending military service, not later than day after the date of the servicemember’s termination or release from military service
MsC*** did not and has not provided the necessary information to Merrick to allow it to approve the benefit as set forth in the SCRA. If MsC*** will provide the orders and any extension of those orders that have clearly defined beginning and ending dates associated with the orders Merrick will comply with her request for the benefit under SCRA. She is welcome to fax those to my attention to a fax that is monitored and used only by the Legal Department at MerrickThat number is ***. Once we have received that information we will make the necessary adjustments to the account for the entire time she has been on active duty

The fees associated with the card were disclosed up front prior to your submission of the application. When you received the card, the card carrier contained language in it that explained how you could still cancel the account prior to using it and not be liable for the fees. You used the account and therefore accepted the fees associated with the account. The payment were returned unpaid due to the input error at the time you attempted to make the payments. As previously stated Merrick is willing to re-open the account once you have brought the account current