I am on both the national and Colorado no-call list but this means nothing to the telemarketers for Cardholder Services. Every day I get a call from these A-holes. The conversation begins with “Hello. This is Rachel from cardholder services. There are no problems currently with your credit card account but it’s important that you act fast in order to reduce your interest rates.”The call then goes on to say, “Please consider this your final notice, press 1 to talk to a representative about lowering your interest rates or press 2 to receive no further calls.”
The first half a dozen calls I pressed “2” but I think that just confirmed to them that they had an active phone number to keep calling. I then pressed “1” and spoke to a live person with whom I demanded they take my number off of the list. The very next day I received two calls from these nosebleeds. I finally decided to fight back so I now press “1” and when a live person comes on, I unload on them in a very nasty way. This doesn’t stop the calls but it sure makes me feel better.
You may ask why I even answer these calls and the reason I do is that I work from home and receive customer calls all the time from numbers I do not recognize. Cardholder Services seems to rarely call from the same number and the caller ID shows a bogus name.
The question you have to ask yourself is, “is this a phishing scam to get your credit card number”? Would any reputable company use different phone numbers and caller ID names when calling? Would an honest business not allow you to opt out of these calls? Why would anyone call you out of the blue to lower your interest rates for no reason? What about using a generic name such as Cardholder Services with no web site to go to, no corporate office listing or phone number to call? (The phone numbers that are left on my caller ID never get answered when I try to call them back and originate from Florida, Oregon, Arizona and other states.)
The only thing I can now do to hopefully stop these idiots from harassing people such as myself is to report them to the FTC and this is done on-line after you register your phone number on the National Do-Not-Call List. To register your phone number, just go on-line to https://telemarketing.donotcall.gov/ and enter your phone number and email address and you are registered. After 30 days you then can file a complaint with the FTC on any telemarketer who calls your number. Calls from or on behalf of political organizations, charities, and telephone surveyors are still permitted, as are calls from companies with which you have an existing business relationship, or those to whom you’ve provided express agreement in writing to receive their calls. However, if you ask a company with which you have an existing business relationship to place your number on its own do-not-call list, it must honor your request. You should keep a record of the date you make the request.
I am hopeful that the FTC will put a stop to the phone calls from Cardholder Services but so far they have not. If you Google “Cardholder Services” you will see pages of complaints from people like me who are fed up with these unrelenting calls and who have filed complaints with the FTC. The only thing I can do is keep being nasty to them when they do call and keep filing complaints until the Government puts a stop to it. Hopefully our elected officials are investigating these thugs and if they do find that they are not legitimate, they throw the book at them.
Have been on DNC for years. They called me again just today on my cell. They call at least once a week, though sometimes they call several days in a row and have been for years. Today I was called unintelligent during a rant by the rep I briefly spoke with, for pointing out the call was unsolicited and a violation of the DNC. No legit company would behave in such a manner. Today I filed complaints with both the FTC and FCC.
For awhile, I blocked their calls, but lately it’s a different number every time they call, so that no longer works. So, I’ve been answering and stringing them along, wasting as much of their time as possible before they hang up on me. I figure maybe I’m sparing someone else from getting an unsolicited call, but who knows. Quite often even when I press 1 to get a rep, the call ends up being disconnected before anyone even picks up.
I’m thinking next time they call, I’ll do the ol’ switch-a-roo and try to get them to sign up for my much lower rate of 4%.