First USA Gets Toasted (9/1/99)
FULL STORY:
It was a blistering expose` of First USA's credit card practices, most notably
its late fee policies and fixed rate marketing. ABC Television's Niteline
program aired a 6.5 minute segment Tuesday night exposing real life
examples of First USA cardholders who fell victim to First USA's pricing policies. The
segment was followed by a heated debate between a First USA executive and a
representative of the Public Interest Research Group, a consumer advocacy
concern. The segment, produced by ABC's Dallas affiliate WFAA, followed a four
month investigation, and revealed that the federal government's Office of the
Comptroller and Currency agency has received more than 2,800 complaints
regarding Bank One/First USA's credit card practices since the first of this
year. This compares to a total of 2,500 complaints received for the other nine
largest issuers, combined. Throughout the program First USA struggled to
defend itself. During the WFAA piece an embarrassed First USA executive could not
define a fixed rate. Later a First USA representative tried to dominate the
opening of the debate segment with a prepared statement which blamed its
Phoenix payments processor for the problems. The FUSA representative also
attempted to minimize the cardholder problems, citing the size of the issuer's
cardholder base compared to the number of OCC complaints filed. Niteline
closed the program by encouraging viewers to post complaints about First USA
through a message board on Niteline's website. For more information visit
www.abcnews.go.com/onair/.