Credit card insiders tell of deceptive practices
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Two former employees of credit card issuer MBNA, now owned by Bank of America, said on Wednesday they were forced to use aggressive and deceptive practices with customers in order to boost revenues.
Cate Colombo, from Maine, said she signed up for a customer service job but was instead instructed to make insistent sales pitches aimed at getting MBNA customers deeper into debt.
[...]Consumer indebtedness is a major problem in the United States, one that is becoming worse amid a financial crisis that threatens the economy with a recession. Americans had $969.9 million in outstanding credit card debt as of July, according to Federal Reserve data.
[...]Colombo said in one instance she was disciplined for not being aggressive enough in “pushing product” to a 90-year-old man who could barely hear over the phone.
Jerry Young, another MBNA rep, said he was asked to intensely target customers in such a way as to leave them little choice but to stretch their finances, to the company’s profit.
Travis Plunkett, legislative director for the Consumer Federation of America, said the behavior continues at Bank of America but current employees are too frightened to speak out on the record.
[...]Colombo said another tactic employed by MBNA was to hide the existence of the Soldiers and Sailors Act, which gives spouses of troops on active military duty the right to a lower interest rate.
“We were not allowed to offer that information to them,” the former service representative said.
