warning about medical "CARE" cards - they are real credit cards!!

[Chicabee19]

Totally freaking out over here.

18 months or so ago our daughter asked me to sign a paper so she could get a free, no-interest card that would pay only for medical expenses. The limit was $200, she was working, not sick, and doing OK financially.

I did not really grasp that this card is a real CREDIT card like any other.

Nobody told me when they raised the limit to $1000!

Nobody told me when she missed a payment and they instituted 29% interest!

Nobody told me when they began to apply $25 per month in late fees!

The card is now up to $1061.20.

I only found out about all this when one of our other cards suddenly lowered our limit and I checked our credit report to find out why.

So for the last 2 weeks they have been calling MY house, literally, 15 times a day at all hours. I have been too ill to deal with any of this until today.

I finally sat down to talk to them and was very frank about our daughter's condition and financial straits -- she's just been cleared to work after 15 months.

I really can't believe how nice they were about the whole thing. We will pay $11 per month for the next 9 months, no more interest & no more late fees will be applied. By then hopefully our daughter will be working and can take over payments.

The card is turned off now -- one good thing about being a co-signer I guess.

We decided to go ahead and start making these payments; one, because they are so low, and two, because even tho' this is our daughter's mess, it is affecting OUR credit, which has always been A+.

I've heard of someone's home being sold out from under them without their knowledge when a $160 dental bill went to collections, and I did not want that to happen to us!!

Anyway, I pray nobody else falls into this trap w/o realizing what is really going on.

 

[snowydiamonds]

One of the hardest things in life is for us to learn NOT to help our "children" when they begin the "adulthood" journey...

Just this morning I woke to a clogged sink drain and all the dishes in the house dirty. Some wonderful young adult child of mine decided grease should go down the drain and while trying to get the coffee going so I could wash all the dishes, then go out and insulate my coops all day, guess what? I've been an incompetent plumber all morning! I'm not strong enough to tighten all that plastic so its leaking and I've a good mind to rip those kids out of bed and tell them to get on it asap!

Being a mother of five and now w/a son-in-law, whom I love all dearly, I'll sit here in my pj's all plumberfied and drink my coffee, go out and enjoy the birds while insulating and leave a pot under the sink w/the cupboard doors open...I tried, they can help when they notice it and then a sign will be posted that states something to the effect: Everyone, Wash your own dishes!

They help me, I help them, and we all are still learning...
Thankfully you have reached a real (young, no doubt) person to talk w/and able to get that great deal on paying for the time being...some credit card companies never allow a person to get to that point. I'm very happy it is workable for you and hope for a speedy or at least long lasting recovery for your daughter, too. Thanks for the warning!

 

[Chicabee19]

thanks snowy for the support!

sorry to hear of your plumbing problems. we are having those too lately.

My daughter's first SO was such a slob! She would come home from work to every plate in the kitchen dirty. I told her to pack them up in a box and make him buy paper plates if he wanted to eat. It worked pretty good - he started washing some dishes.

 

[SpottedCrow]

I've never heard of a medical care card, but thanks for the warning.

 

[Chicabee19]

You can only use it for medical care, and it's no interest, and will remain so if you make the required small monthly payments. Of course... miss one payment, and watch out!