Macy's reward card makes wonders

A couple of months back, I applied for a credit reward card with Macy's. However, the first credit limit given to me was only about dollars. Somehow, the Macy's card did help in some ways to add fire to my desire to buy products that I needed. However, it didn't take long enough for me to notice that there's something wrong with what I did. Then I asked myself: What I could I buy with such a limited amount of credit given to me? Well, the answer was understandable knowing that I was a first timer in the club of the company's card rewards system. When I asked the teller why I was only given a limited credit limit, she told me that's normal policy for newcomers who wished to build up their credit rating in the long run. However, I was told that should I repay my credit in due time, my credit limit would be increased to almost double the original amount.

Until I make the first move, I wouldn't be able to build up the credit that I would have wished for. So there I went wandering inside the Macy's store and trying to find whatever stuffs I need for as long as it wouldn't overshoot the credit limit given to me. However, I had enjoyed myself my shopping spree. My hands were full of the items I was supposed to have. This went on for a number of times. Until one day, I didn't know that I already run out of credits. When I made it to the teller, after lining up for a couple of minutes, I was informed that that I overshot the credit limit given to me. I was so ashamed since I didn't have enough cash to pay for the items I had taken from the shelves and sections where the items were displayed. Did I have a choice? Nothing but to return some of the items to the teller who accommodated my mistakes with a smile.

It took a little while before I did get the first bill. I wasn't so upbeat about it since it only cost me a little more than what I expected. Payment went smoothly for quite a while. Until one day, I failed to pay my bill on time. It wasn't deliberate on my part to skip payment. But I simply forgot all about it because I accidentally misplaced the bill and I couldn't find it anywhere in the house. So the next time around, I got a big surprise of my life when the dismal monthly payment I was supposed to pay the company did jump four-folds, which led me to believe that I was being duped of my money. How could a company overcharged me so much? And I didn't understand until now how this big shopping company can just overcharge its customers by leaps and bounds.

The last bill I got I was supposed to pay less than 10 dollars but then when I failed to pay it on time, the amount went up to something like $40. For any normal person to understand simple mathematics, missing a payment once should only double the amount, which was supposed to be more than 20 dollars, including the interests and surcharges. But this was different. I couldn't imagine being short-changed for a couple of dollars more because I'm just an ordinary customer who happens to hold a Macy's reward card.

What is ironical about it is that you cannot use the card to buy stuffs with other stores. Meaning it is exclusive to Macy's. As if everything you need in this world can be found at this shopping store. At this stage, what I'm trying to do is just finish my credit payments and hadn't made any purchase anymore due to frustrations. Sometimes, I'm thinking of finishing the payment off in one shot deal so that I wouldn't be pestered off into getting caught in a mess, paying for something that is not even credited to the actual credit I owed the company.

For me, it's not how little the credit a person owes but the system in which the credit is processed. Just hoping that the Macy's computer system is not taking advantage of those card holders whose knowledge on mathematical computation is weak, if not poor. And I don't understand, up to this day, why when someone missed a single payment, the amount just go haywire once the next bill comes. Hopefully, all this mess should be ironed out comes 2010 when Congress is set to craft and pass a bill that would make it hard for credit card companies to cheat on credit card holders.