PatH
Second Unit
- Joined
- Apr 4, 2004
- Messages
- 323
File this one under "If it seems too good to be true . . ."
Last Thursday I got a call on my mom's line (a rare occurrence) from a lass representing something called Accelerated Finance. I had been recommended to them (she didn't say by whom
) because of my good credit rating and my record of prompt payment. Her outfit supposedly negotiates with all creditors and converts interest to lower fixed rates and renegotiates this every three months. She promised me this was not debt counseling, would not result in any hits against my credit rating, and would require no out-of-pocket from me. For my part I continue to make my monthly payments to my creditors and watch the interest rates go down and my savings therefrom go up. My creditors want to participate to encourage people not to default or declare bankruptcy. With nothing better to do at the time, I listened to this and asked her how her organization made money on this deal. The answer is "interest absorption", a concept about which she personally was vague, though she assured me that one of their program specialists would explain it to me. She gave me an 800 number with extension that I could call anytime with questions. When I asked again about this "interest absorption", she transfered me to one of her floor managers, a gent named Kenny.
Throughout all this, she repeatedly wanted to know the extent of my credit card indebtedness, a figure which I was not going to provide at that time and place (Suffice it to say that I'm 57 and have had 30+ years to make a good run at making a fool of myself). Kenny continued with this so I finally chose one of the figures he offered as being close to what I owe. He immediately claimed he could save me half that amount. I agreed with that and he said all I had to do was provide him with a credit card on which I had a good balance and no black marks. I said Citibank and he rattled off an 800 number which he said was their customer service department and was the number they called during their negotiations (I didn't check this, but it's certainly publicly available info). He assured me that it would be safe to give him my credit card number because his organization did not want any data that might be used to charge anything, i. e., the 3-digit verification number on the reverse of the card. It was at this point that I thanked him and hung up the phone because, as I told him, once I gave him a 16-digit number, it would be but the work of moments for a computer program to work through the 999 combinations necessary to find a match from a 3-digit pool. As I hung up the phone, I heard him protesting that this was not so. The phone immediately rang again but I did not answer.
I Googled Accelerated Finance but only found an ad in a sidebar that may have been them and appeared to be a mortgage company. If so, the joke's on Kenny, because I don't own the home where I live.
Now there may be some of you out there who have experience with these folks and will tell me that I passed up a golden opportunity. So be it. But at least someone explain what the hell "interest absortion" is.
PatH
Last Thursday I got a call on my mom's line (a rare occurrence) from a lass representing something called Accelerated Finance. I had been recommended to them (she didn't say by whom
) because of my good credit rating and my record of prompt payment. Her outfit supposedly negotiates with all creditors and converts interest to lower fixed rates and renegotiates this every three months. She promised me this was not debt counseling, would not result in any hits against my credit rating, and would require no out-of-pocket from me. For my part I continue to make my monthly payments to my creditors and watch the interest rates go down and my savings therefrom go up. My creditors want to participate to encourage people not to default or declare bankruptcy. With nothing better to do at the time, I listened to this and asked her how her organization made money on this deal. The answer is "interest absorption", a concept about which she personally was vague, though she assured me that one of their program specialists would explain it to me. She gave me an 800 number with extension that I could call anytime with questions. When I asked again about this "interest absorption", she transfered me to one of her floor managers, a gent named Kenny.Throughout all this, she repeatedly wanted to know the extent of my credit card indebtedness, a figure which I was not going to provide at that time and place (Suffice it to say that I'm 57 and have had 30+ years to make a good run at making a fool of myself). Kenny continued with this so I finally chose one of the figures he offered as being close to what I owe. He immediately claimed he could save me half that amount. I agreed with that and he said all I had to do was provide him with a credit card on which I had a good balance and no black marks. I said Citibank and he rattled off an 800 number which he said was their customer service department and was the number they called during their negotiations (I didn't check this, but it's certainly publicly available info). He assured me that it would be safe to give him my credit card number because his organization did not want any data that might be used to charge anything, i. e., the 3-digit verification number on the reverse of the card. It was at this point that I thanked him and hung up the phone because, as I told him, once I gave him a 16-digit number, it would be but the work of moments for a computer program to work through the 999 combinations necessary to find a match from a 3-digit pool. As I hung up the phone, I heard him protesting that this was not so. The phone immediately rang again but I did not answer.
I Googled Accelerated Finance but only found an ad in a sidebar that may have been them and appeared to be a mortgage company. If so, the joke's on Kenny, because I don't own the home where I live.
Now there may be some of you out there who have experience with these folks and will tell me that I passed up a golden opportunity. So be it. But at least someone explain what the hell "interest absortion" is.
PatH
