Jan 7, 2011
Just got a call from (763) 370-9716, and I had to press 1 to get a human. Said their company name was “Account Services”, which made me suspicious, and they work with all CC companies to get rates down. Said the service is only offered if CC debt was over $4K and at least one account is in good standing and not maxed out to the credit limit. They wanted a CC # and the CC co. Customer Service number to call the CC co. to verify my good standing. I said I would never give that out on a cold call. He said they only needed the number, not the security code used when making purchases and charges. I said no way. He said my account was fully protected under some law or act, and that I needed to extend them a certain amount of trust so they could lower my rate. I said sorry, no way, and he said he was only a trainee and diverted me to a supervisor. She gave me the same line, and wanted to know account balances. (In retrospect, I am wondering if they may be looking for open, dormant accounts where additional charges might not be noticed....) I said if they had my name, they could determine that themselves, but that all my accounts are on autopay, so all are in good standing, so I am not authorizing any account access, even for an inquiry. She said I needed to extend them a certain amount of trust for them to help me get my CC rates down. I said that did not extend to giving out identity theft information over the phone on a cold call. She said “then we won’t be able to help you get your rate down”. I said okay, thanks, goodbye and ended the call.