has anyone else gotten strange calls from credit card companies? especially washington mutual?

Question

Ok, I have a washington mutual card and my payment was due on May 8. I paid it on May 4. Then this morning, I get a phone call at 8:30. I work really late so I was sleeping. I jump out of bed, grab at the phone but still miss the call. It was from washington mutual and this is the message that they left.
"You're credit card payment is past due. We recieved your payment of $200.00 on May 4. You're account is now current."
WTF? My husband called them back to ask what was going on and the guy we got barely spoke english and told him that they had called us to tell us they recieved our payment. Why? Since when do they do that? I've never had a problem with this account and I used to be able to talk to an american when I called customer service.
And now, not 10 minutes ago they call me again and ask to speak to a person I have never heard of. When I told them woman she had the wrong number, she didn't understand me because her english isn't very good.

I'm just wondering if anyone else has had this problem. Perhaps I've just been lucky in the past but if they're doing business this was now, I'm going somewhere else.

Answer 1

I have their credit card as well (fka providian) and I've never had a problem like that (then again I haven't had a land-line in over 4 years). I also pay my account onlline It used to be www.providian.com. The link still works, but it directs you to washington mutual site. You can see all of your payments right there. The reason that you were directed to a foreign person is that washington mutual outsources their customer service offshore. A lot of credit card companies are doing that to save on customer service costs. It makes no sense to me because if they're trying to provide "good" customer service, the agent should speak outstanding English, be knowledgable, friendly and helpful. How can you get that from a person who doesn't live in this country and doesn't undestand our culture or our language? Unfortunately there isn't much we can do to fight globalization (and crappy customer service)

Answer 2

Ive been a member of wamu forever now, and I have never had a problem with them. However, I have never used one of their credit-only lines. Like Answer #1 said, give them a call, or look online for the terms of that specific card type. You can always cancel it! Just keep in mind, every time you apply to any card using your social, your credit gets pinged a point or two (differs). Too many pings in a short time will scare off almost everyone. Except those desperate credit holders, like Orchard Bank. They'll approve anyone, but the APRs are rediculous. Try to stay sub-10% on your APR. I get 14% but that is for a 10K limit.

Answer 3

I wouldn't know, I rarely answer my home phone and the credit card company doesn't have my cell number.

Answer 4

Nope!