Juniper Creit Card

[eyeball]

Anyone know anything abou them, I received an offer in the mail for a buiness card. Are hey BK friendly?

[Dre]

I have one through them, but it was from the Emigrant Direct website. All of my purchases have a rebate which is given out twice a year and placed into my savings account with Emigrant Direct.

However, I don't know if they are BK friendly, but you should be able to check the sticky above.

I haven't had any problems with the company, but it has been difficult for me to get a credit line increase.

Hope some of this information helps with your decision.

[Chester P. Dexter]

I have a BK, but it is from 2002/03. They offered me a card about a year or so ago and it is a great card, only 8.9%. No CLI from them, not offered to me, and not given when asked. But with a $2500 limit, I'm not complaining.

I've applied for their cards subsequently and been turned down, maybe because of already having one card with them.

[jq26]

Same as Chester more or less. BK late in 2004. Received Juniper Platinum early in 2006. Only given $1000 CL and could not get more when requested. I do like the card though: 9.9% fixed for life, monthly TU score, and easy to use online site. Probably had 680+ credit score when i applied.

[lovebug5]

BK in '07, approved for a B&N Mastercard through Juniper in January of 2008.

[hodag]

Just wanted to share my experience with Juniper, which has only recently gone sour. They were one of the only credit card companies that approved my husband for a card when he was rebuilding his credit, and started him off with a $1500 credit limit, 8.99% fixed. As time has gone on and his credit has improved, they have gradually increased his credit limit to where it is now, at $3200. We have felt a great deal of loyalty to this company, as they took a chance on my husband when other card companies wouldn't.

Now, my husband makes the money and I pay the bills. We have had a running balance with this card since April 2007, have always paid this bill on time, and always more than the minimum due. We switched checking accounts awhile ago, and when I input the information for the new account (I always pay online) I neglected to delete the information from the old checking account. Big mistake on my part. For the payment due in November, I accidentially chose the closed checking account to take the funds due from. I had no idea this error occurred because my notifications on the Juniper website indicated my payment had been received. About a week later I got a call from a customer rep saying the payment had been refused due to the checking account being closed. I apologized profusely and was very embarassed and worried that my mistake would hurt my husband's credit rating. I was assured they didn't report negatives to the credit agencies until a payment was more than 30 days late. The rep also waived the returned check fee, the late fee, and the payment by phone fee. She realized this was a mistake and not intentional.

Well, imagine my surprise when I got my latest bill and saw that the 8.99% APR had been jacked up to 20.49%. I called the company, hoping they would see this was a mistake, that the payment, which was made on time by the way, was intended to come from the valid checking account and that they would cut a good customer a break and return the rate to 8.99%. Well, after speaking to several representatives on the chain of command, I was basically told, too bad so sad, we can't lower the rate, it will take 6 months before we can even consider it, and you'll probably never get that 8.99% again. All of this because I was careless when I clicked the mouse one time.

I begged them to please review my husband's payment history with the card, as well as any and all of his payment history with other cards, loans, etc. Certainly they would see this was an aberration of an otherwise perfect payment history. No go. I was finally given the name of the CEO of the company and told to fax him my complaint. Now, why there is no one between customer service rep and CEO of the company that can look at this situation in a subjective manner is beyond me, but a letter is getting faxed to the CEO today. I have low hopes that the 8.99% APR will be returned.

In this day of massive defaults, I would think a company would want to keep it's good customers, but apparantly they don't really care.

Last night my husband applied for a Citi Diamond Card. He was approved with a $10,000 limit, 0% APR on purchases and balance transfers until October 2009, then the rate will go to 7.99% variable. I must admit the variable rate is disconcerting, but it's certainly better than the 20.49% we're currently getting socked with on the Juniper. If Juniper doesn't care to return the rate to 8.99%, and insists on penalizing me for an innocent (albeit stupid mistake) that happened ONE TIME, then we will close the account and transfer the balance to the new Citicard.

So overall, our experience with Juniper has been good. But apparently, even after you've established yourself as an excellent customer, don't make any mistakes with your payments, or else you will be penalized.

[Chester P. Dexter]

hodag: I have made that mistake too! Anyone could make that mistake. My husband has made that mistake.

That is really harsh that they would not lower your rate. But I know that one mistake with nearly any of these credit card companies (especially the shadier ones) and there's no going back. They will always tell you the too bad, so sad thing. I'm sorry that happened to you guys. I still have the 8.9% but something similar happened with one of my WaMus and I lost my 9.9% and went up to 17.9, probably permanently.

[hodag]

Just thought I'd post an update on the Juniper rate situation. They sent us a nice form letter today saying the APR on the account would remain at 20.49%. They did say we might be eligible for a special promotional offer in the future. They touted their "industry leading customer service" (yes they actually wrote that) and encouraged me to call their Service Center if I had any questions. Sorry, I'd rather get stuck with a hot poker than to spend one more minute of my life on the phone with someone who has no idea what to do when my issue strays from the script.

I do realize the ultimate fault in this situation lies with me. I should have deleted the old, closed checking account information when I was inputting the new information. Stupid me. But, given my account payment history, I guess I was under the naive impression that someone at Juniper would actually take the time to review the situation, see the one-time mistake as truly being an honest mistake, and return my rate to 8.99%. Getting socked with an 11.5% increase in APR because I hit the wrong the button with my mouse (again, yes, my fault) is a punishment, not customer service.

At any rate, the balance transfer request to my new Citicard was put through today and the Juniper Card will go in a drawer to be used in case of an emergency only. I'm sure they'll probably close the account on their own.

Mind you, I don't think I would be treated any differently if this had happened with any other credit card company. It's a good life lesson. If I want to retain excellent rates, there is no room for error. I will not make this same error again.

[Chester P. Dexter]

It's a bunch of impersonal crap, isn't it? One mistake and they have what they need to sock you, and either "can't" or won't reconsider.

One consolation is that when you're with a quality company like USAA, (and all of us here will hopefully move up the chain and do business with real businesses and not cheesy sub-prime credit card companies) they actually do understand mistakes and aren't poised to punish people at every misstep.

I mean, sometimes. They still do have their formulas and their rules, but in general, they have some wiggle room and also are not so much on the defensive that they strike out at you for every tiny transgression.