I have had the most harrowing experience at the hands of Target's credit card department. In 2004 I moved to Minneapolis and shopped for ~$75/- at a Target store in Eden Praire, MN where the store check out clerk offered my a Target Credit card application. I filled this out and got the 75$ bill on to the account with assurance from the store clerk that I would get the physical possession of the card soon. I never got the card and hence never had an account number or card number to pay off the bill. A few months later I got a call from a collections agency stating that I had a balance due (nicely enhanced over the 75$ tab with fines and what not) on a Target credit card (which I never ever received). So I paid the agency in full and asked them to close the account with Target.
A year later in 2005 I got another call for another collections agency stating that I had $300/- balance pending on the Target card. I was shocked but had to pay and this time made it clear that I'd fight if the account was not closed.
So finally in 2005 after paying several times over the shopped account for $75 I had shopped I got rid of Target and thier credit card which I never recieved. Or so I thought...
I applied for a loan a couple of days back and was shocked to learn that it was denied on the basis of my credit report. I called them up and they confirmed that I had a pretty clean record except for the (you guessed it) the Target Credit Card... They said that they knew the account was closed and I owed zero balance but I had to get it off the credit score to qualify.
So I call up Target and after being pushed around 4-5 customer support agents and 2 supervisors I was finally pushed to someone higher up.. I assume she was higher up in position cause she really knew how to talk down on customers so much for the customer service aspect of a retail business. Anyways I go about telling her the whole story (I've told it 4 times before to their reps) and she starts fighting that its my fault and not Target's that I opened the card and didn't pay off the 75 dollars. She says Target tried to find me for 7 months to send the bill and the card but couldn't and even though I never had an account number or physical card it is my fault for not getting the card. I wonder how Target's collection agencies (based in California) could find me but not Target (based in Minneapolis). By law the company can stop reporting on my credit report if it acknowledges that it is the company's fault. But she flatly said that there is no way Target will stop reporting on my credit score because I am at fault for a card I never possessed. So now I have to suffer negative monthly reporting on my credit report for the next 5 years (the account was closed in 2005 and Target will report negatively for 7-10 years after an account closes) and pay higher interest rates on loans for a 75$ purchase on a card I never got from a company that couldnt find me or send me a bill.
I am seriously contemplating legal action, I shall get back I shall post this on every website and forum blog possible and Target shall never see a penny from my earnings again... I'll make sure Target loses at least 10 times as much in value by convincing friends and family and who ever cares to listen about this, this I promise...
Siddharth Sinha

About time the Government stepped in on these credit card company thieves. I paid off a Target credit card (89.00) and closed the account last year. A month after the payoff they sent me a $39.00 late fee saying the payment came one day late. The due date was on a Sunday and they cashed it on Monday. They continue adding 39 dollar monthly late fees and interest. That payment was mailed in plenty of time for them to recieve it by Friday. We think they deliberatly held it until monday because we closed our account.
Although the account has been charged off and my credit blemished, they and thier credit collector agencies continue to call. I have over 600 logged calls and 50 mailings attempting to collect this bill. Its no wonder the banks are in trouble. How much time and effort do you spend trying to collect 39.00 bogus debt. As far as we are concerned they will get the money and see us in thier store “When Hell freezes over”