Complaint Review: Sears Credit Card Processing - AtlantaGeorgia, ColumbusOhio Ohio

I'm wondering why you're so shocked to discover the percentage of accts that carry balances at a "hefty" 21% rate. Were you under the assumption that Credit card companies are charitable institutions? Besides 21% is NOT that "hefty", believe it or not there are cc's out there that have 29% rates! I know, b/c I do consolidation loans. There is a very simple way to avoid these APR's, don't use cc's! Oh, and Sears is far from going the route of Wards, 2 out of every 4 households owns an appliance from Sears. You probably own a couple yourself.

I'm wondering why you're so shocked to discover the percentage of accts that carry balances at a "hefty" 21% rate. Were you under the assumption that Credit card companies are charitable institutions? Besides 21% is NOT that "hefty", believe it or not there are cc's out there that have 29% rates! I know, b/c I do consolidation loans. There is a very simple way to avoid these APR's, don't use cc's! Oh, and Sears is far from going the route of Wards, 2 out of every 4 households owns an appliance from Sears. You probably own a couple yourself.

I'm wondering why you're so shocked to discover the percentage of accts that carry balances at a "hefty" 21% rate. Were you under the assumption that Credit card companies are charitable institutions? Besides 21% is NOT that "hefty", believe it or not there are cc's out there that have 29% rates! I know, b/c I do consolidation loans. There is a very simple way to avoid these APR's, don't use cc's! Oh, and Sears is far from going the route of Wards, 2 out of every 4 households owns an appliance from Sears. You probably own a couple yourself.

Did a little search on google. 1996-Business Week:by Susan Chandler,... something Martinez(Sears' CEO) doesn't want investors to know, profits come from credit card interest, not retailing. Sears No 1 business is lending. Those Kenmore washers and Canyon River Blues jeans are just a lure to get customers to come into the stores and rack up bigger and bigger balances....80% of sears' active accounts carry balances despite a hefty 21% interest rate. July 15, 2003 SNL Financial Statement: Citigroup Inc. buying Credit Card operation from sears 10/21/04 Bloomberg: Sears post 3rd Quarter Loss of $61 Million as Sales Plummet:...compared with a net gain of $147 million last year.(Last year's profit's) Profits came from a credit card unit and a tire and battery business. ...(since sold off) sales DECREASES 13 out of the last 15 quarters...lost market shares to Kohl's and J.C. Penney's... Lacy is spending $575.9 million to buy 50 K Mart Holdinds... For the ex-sears shrill, I had a sears card for 25 years. Over the years, I bought tens of thousands of dollars worth of merchandise from sears. I worked there, my mother worked there for 17 years. Because of their terrible practices, I cut up my card, canceled my account, and except for rare occasions, won't set foot in sears. It happened to Montgomery Wards, it could happen to sears.

I made the mistake of signing up for a Sears credit card a few years ago too. I don't care who ownes them now, or who owned them when I was signed up with them, but I do know the scale of rude incompitent behavior that these call-center reps exemplify. If they call you, tell them before they even begin to speak that they are not allowed to contact you by phone, and that you are sending them a cease and desist order to bar them from further phone contact. Make sure you send them this via certified mail. Whatever payment/non-payment steps you take from there will at least be harassment free. And ignore that Sear's employee; she is talkiong about product sales, whoch are a different company from Sear's Card customer service.

I made the mistake of signing up for a Sears credit card a few years ago too. I don't care who ownes them now, or who owned them when I was signed up with them, but I do know the scale of rude incompitent behavior that these call-center reps exemplify. If they call you, tell them before they even begin to speak that they are not allowed to contact you by phone, and that you are sending them a cease and desist order to bar them from further phone contact. Make sure you send them this via certified mail. Whatever payment/non-payment steps you take from there will at least be harassment free. And ignore that Sear's employee; she is talkiong about product sales, whoch are a different company from Sear's Card customer service.

I made the mistake of signing up for a Sears credit card a few years ago too. I don't care who ownes them now, or who owned them when I was signed up with them, but I do know the scale of rude incompitent behavior that these call-center reps exemplify. If they call you, tell them before they even begin to speak that they are not allowed to contact you by phone, and that you are sending them a cease and desist order to bar them from further phone contact. Make sure you send them this via certified mail. Whatever payment/non-payment steps you take from there will at least be harassment free. And ignore that Sear's employee; she is talkiong about product sales, whoch are a different company from Sear's Card customer service.

I made the mistake of signing up for a Sears credit card a few years ago too. I don't care who ownes them now, or who owned them when I was signed up with them, but I do know the scale of rude incompitent behavior that these call-center reps exemplify. If they call you, tell them before they even begin to speak that they are not allowed to contact you by phone, and that you are sending them a cease and desist order to bar them from further phone contact. Make sure you send them this via certified mail. Whatever payment/non-payment steps you take from there will at least be harassment free. And ignore that Sear's employee; she is talkiong about product sales, whoch are a different company from Sear's Card customer service.

I am an ex-employee of Sears-Citi Cards Call Center. I left due to a move, and was very sad to leave such a wonderful company. I cannot believe some of the things I read on this site. I'll try to make my rebuttal as short as possible. First of all Sears is NOT losing customers,still, in the US, 1 out of every 3 homes has a Sears appliance!! That is A LOT!! Secondly, Sears is still one of the biggest credit card issuers in the country. The Sears MasterCard was rolled out to allow current customers to use the same card they had been using for decades,anywhere MasterCard is accepted. The MasterCard actually allows customers w/better credit to have LOWER rates than the stand-alone Sears Card. As for a payment not posting, I know for a fact that all Sears requires is a copy of the check front and back to credit the account. Sears is NOT in the business of stealing people's payments, do you really think they would still be in business???? And the misplaced payment is in NO WAY due to different payment centers...in case you don't know it there are NETWORKS that allow computers in different parts of the country (or the WORLD for that matter) communicate w/ each other!!!!! Sears has so many accounts, at the time I left they had 4 payment centers in different parts of the country, and were working on others!! As for rude employees, calls are monitored, but rude people exist EVERYWHERE, you are proof of that... As for people that send their credit card pieces back to SEARS...people DON'T process the payments, its all automated, and sending in pieces of plastic is a waste of your time. SEARS will continue to grow, and its still the best place for appliances, and hardware.

God Help Citi Bank and Sears. If I find in the near future that I've been screwed I will come back to this site and hunt for members of the Rip off report to start a bench mark class action against Sears for selling their accounts to the wolves, Citi bank. Citi bank plays around with credit reports after an account member defaults. Their trick is to place an account in suspection for 3 years or more before sending it to a third party collection agency. All the time while you've been paying all the late fees, over limit fees, interest on a closed account. which means they can hound you over seven years and get away with it. Our accounts were closed or put into permenent suspention in l994. Law suits are now in the final stage. 10 years later? Come on. Want this to be you. Get out while you can.

All my problems with sears were with sears. They sold off their credit card division way long after I had cut up my 25 year old account. sears got greedy and deceided to issue a sears visa card. It could be used anyplace in addition to the stores. They thought they would earn gobs of interest. People were so angry at the blantant ripoff that they cut up their new sears visa cards by the millions. I think it was like 2 or 3 million out of 60 million. Something like that. The experiment turned out to be a hugh failure. What goes around comes around. I've bought over $5000 worth of stuff from other stores that I would have bought a sears if they hadn't gotten greedy and stupid. As for who's names on what. sears was still responsible with their name on their card.

I am famililar with this case and with the person submitting the claim. The problem is with SEARS. Sears requests on their bills that payments be made payable to SEARS; however, on the back of the checks, they endorse-stamp the instruments CITIBANK. When this particular money order went back to the bank for payment, the bank refused to pay it because the endorsement did not match the 'pay to' on the front. If SEARS is going to endorse the payments with CITIBANK instead of Sears, then SEARS should be requesting that payments be made payable to CITIBANK. In this instance, the bank somewhat faulted as well by stating that the money order had 'cleared' long ago. When in fact, SEARS and the bank were tossing around the improperly endorsed instrument for several weeks. On the other hand, the bank wanted to make sure the funds were paid appropriately. In essence, this comes down to Sears' poor payment handling. The original payment was mailed to a SEARS address in Atlanta, for the SEARS address was listed on the bill -- not a CITIBANK address. Also, the bill requested that payments be made payable to 'SEARS.'

I am famililar with this case and with the person submitting the claim. The problem is with SEARS. Sears requests on their bills that payments be made payable to SEARS; however, on the back of the checks, they endorse-stamp the instruments CITIBANK. When this particular money order went back to the bank for payment, the bank refused to pay it because the endorsement did not match the 'pay to' on the front. If SEARS is going to endorse the payments with CITIBANK instead of Sears, then SEARS should be requesting that payments be made payable to CITIBANK. In this instance, the bank somewhat faulted as well by stating that the money order had 'cleared' long ago. When in fact, SEARS and the bank were tossing around the improperly endorsed instrument for several weeks. On the other hand, the bank wanted to make sure the funds were paid appropriately. In essence, this comes down to Sears' poor payment handling. The original payment was mailed to a SEARS address in Atlanta, for the SEARS address was listed on the bill -- not a CITIBANK address. Also, the bill requested that payments be made payable to 'SEARS.'

I am famililar with this case and with the person submitting the claim. The problem is with SEARS. Sears requests on their bills that payments be made payable to SEARS; however, on the back of the checks, they endorse-stamp the instruments CITIBANK. When this particular money order went back to the bank for payment, the bank refused to pay it because the endorsement did not match the 'pay to' on the front. If SEARS is going to endorse the payments with CITIBANK instead of Sears, then SEARS should be requesting that payments be made payable to CITIBANK. In this instance, the bank somewhat faulted as well by stating that the money order had 'cleared' long ago. When in fact, SEARS and the bank were tossing around the improperly endorsed instrument for several weeks. On the other hand, the bank wanted to make sure the funds were paid appropriately. In essence, this comes down to Sears' poor payment handling. The original payment was mailed to a SEARS address in Atlanta, for the SEARS address was listed on the bill -- not a CITIBANK address. Also, the bill requested that payments be made payable to 'SEARS.'

I am famililar with this case and with the person submitting the claim. The problem is with SEARS. Sears requests on their bills that payments be made payable to SEARS; however, on the back of the checks, they endorse-stamp the instruments CITIBANK. When this particular money order went back to the bank for payment, the bank refused to pay it because the endorsement did not match the 'pay to' on the front. If SEARS is going to endorse the payments with CITIBANK instead of Sears, then SEARS should be requesting that payments be made payable to CITIBANK. In this instance, the bank somewhat faulted as well by stating that the money order had 'cleared' long ago. When in fact, SEARS and the bank were tossing around the improperly endorsed instrument for several weeks. On the other hand, the bank wanted to make sure the funds were paid appropriately. In essence, this comes down to Sears' poor payment handling. The original payment was mailed to a SEARS address in Atlanta, for the SEARS address was listed on the bill -- not a CITIBANK address. Also, the bill requested that payments be made payable to 'SEARS.'

Your problem is with Citi Bank not Sears. Sears no longer owns it's credit business they sold it to Citi bank. Like most other retail stores today third party companies controll credit and financing. Also, the comment on the intrest rate, most retail store cards have very high intrest rates. Only use the cards for special promotions and financing specials offering lower rates and pay them off in the time period alotted. Do not carry ballances under the normal finance charge for any store card.

We acquired a copy of the front and back of the cleared cashier's check from our bank and sent it to Sears. Sears still insists that they have not been paid. Customer service personnel at Sears continue to harass, insult, and degrade us regarding this issue. We're at a loss at what to do now to satisfy Sears. We're certainly not paying them again, for the account has been paid in full and the bank copies of the check verify that the funds were placed into Sears' account. "SCAM" is the only word that can describe Sears.

I believe I used the wrong name in my previous response. The Sears "damage control" person from the Sears store in Charleston, SC is Josh, not Rob. He surfs all the Sears ripoff reports, at the direction of management, and attempts to do damage control. He seems to know every situation and seems to think that Sears is NEVER at fault. Sorry Josh, open your eyes.

A few years ago I purchased a refrigerator and electric range. I set up a credit account and paid monthly payments to Sears. Then one day in the mail, I received a letter fron Sears credit dept telling me that the interest rate I pay was going to be raised by a substantial amount. I called Sears to inquire about this, also stating that if this was going to happen, they would be receiving my cut up credit card within the next few days. I was put on hold and a few minutes later, the rep. came back on the line to tell me that I had an excellent payment record, excellent credit, and that actually, I qualified for a card with a LOWER rate than I was presently paying. My question to her was, "Then why didn't you offer this lower rate to me in the first place?" She had no answer other than to ask me if I wanted her to send me the new card with the lower rate. I told her "No thank you." I cut up my present card in 4 peices, taped it to my credit card payment with my check 'in full' and told them they would never hear from me again. If enough people would do the same, you would think Sears would eventually get the point. Instead, they have Rob from Charleston, SC surf this websiteand try to do damage control for them. Right, Rob???

After having an original Sears card since 1978, when they switched to the "new" Sears card in 2002 I've never experienced such problems and low down scams and assorted dirty tricks. After not posting payment, late postings and other problems I cut up my card, canceled my account and told Sears to go screw themselves. It's little wonder something like 2-3+ million customers have closed their accounts. To this day I still get all kinds of crap mailed to my house from Sears. I've probably puchased $5000 since then from Home Depot . I believe the interest on a new Sears card can go as high as 24.9%. People beware when signing up for a Sears card.