First Equity
reviews and complaints

Contacted this company in November informed me i would get a listing in my area for 49.00 i submitted and paid and never received the listing never received emails on how to work there website. They charged my card three times before i realized the transaction you had to call and cancel. when i called to get a refund it took 2 weeks and i still haven't received. Larry is the gentleman i was working with please don't get scammed don't use them. Good Luck

First Equity Business card is the absolute worst! I got this card a few years back in the hopes of buying a couple items and not going crazy with it. I made a few purchases but have always made the monthly payments on time and regularly.

Suddenly my interest rate skyrockets out of the blue. I contacted them several times, and all times of the day, and still could not get a hold of anyone. Then I received a letter in the mail telling me that my account was closed. What? I go to their website and still have no success reaching anyone. I then try to call again and still get lost in a maze of computer voice activated people who don’t allow you to leave a message for anyone or speak with a human being.

I was extremely frustrated at this point. Then I receive a letter a few days later saying that I needed to pay off the entire amount or I would have even steeper penalties. What gives? After weeks of diligently calling I finally got someone on the phone. They insisted that I missed payments a year ago. I said that it was not true and i could show them on my bank records since I have it automatically taken out the same day every month. I asked them to send me the record of when i missed the payment. There was a long awkward silence and they said that their records didn’t go back that far to send. I said ” Do you realize you just completely contradicted yourself?” I supposedly didn’t make a payment a year ago according to your records. Yet you don’t have access to those records because they are a year old. There is “something rotten” in First Equity Business Card.

To all who are looking for a new place to RENT and don't know where to go! DO NOT... I REPEAT...DO NOT sign on with First step equity!
All they do is take your money! You can't find the people for the forclosed homes they give you! and they tell you to go in the white pages to find the home owners...you won't find them!
If you are looking for a home to rent, go to legitamate Real Estate firms, they will give you the current rentals on there sight, it's not only for buying homes, they also rent homes for people!
Good Luck, we had to learn the hard way!

Alex Knight - at First Step Equity listed my house as for sale / lease on Friday June 18th, 2010 on Craigslist. We just purchased the home two months ago and do to a title mix up the previous owner had some lending issues to clear up. How does a company like First Step Equity think it has the right to lease it out or any rights to the property at all. We had several come by very interested and disappointed to hear the truth. This company is a scam to anyone who is interested. Go get a real service listing for foreclosures or hire a Real Estate Agent to help you buy a home. This is one more scam artist trying to take your money.

I just received a letter that my business account was closed and sold to another company due to their inability to raise capital. I have been a customer for over six years with an outstanding payment history.

I called to inquire about the new credit card laws and their lack of compliance with the grace period and on the same day they closed my account.

I called their customer service department and was put on hold for 35 minutes before I was able to talk to their customer service representative which she was not able to provide any answers to quesstions why the account was closed without notice despite the fact that their letter gave a grace period of one week and they were going to cap the credit limit to the current credit limit or an amount that is $100 greater than the existing outstanding balance.

They simply closed the account and blocked all activity for no sound reason. Moreover, I asked where I can send my final payment because the due date is fast approching and her response was to wait until I got the notice from the new company. I asked what happens if that information arrives past the due date? She had no answer and provided the same response.

I am glad that I will no longer have to deal with them in the future. Their operation reminds me of the TV commercial showing an office run by group of out of control apes. They have no regard for their clients.

I found a house on craiglist wich was posted by firststepequity.comit was supposed to be a "lease to own" house and I decided to speak with the owners. The owners ofthe house told me that they had never heard of firststepequity.com and that they weren't even in foreclosure one of the owners was actually mad that I had a picture of there house from craigslist don't get tricked into paying for there service ITS A SCAM

So we go along for almost 2 years without a hiccup, then all of a sudden my card is denied. Now mind you that before I left for my $16 purchase there was over 3k available to me on my card. So I get back and call to inquire what the problem is, after verifying ALL of my information they tell me that corporate has placed a hold on my account and they could not tell me but they could submit a request for the information and that they would have an answer for me in 24-48 hours. I told them that wasn't good enough, what else did they have for options, what about me calling corporate? Nope not an option they only had a fax number and mailing address. Fine give me the information, I'll submit what I need to you submit what you need to. Now who can I expect to call me back with this information in 2 ridiculous days? Mind you I cannot use my card until Corp. verifies... Oh nobody will call you, but feel free to call us back and we can get you the information once it's sent to us! WONDERFUL! So what do I do? I fax them, I e-mail them and what do I get? nothing! oh wait an e-mail back the next day saying that they would get back with me in 2 business days! FUN!
So I call back in 2 days like a good consumer and what did they say the problem was? Well corp. placed the cards on hold because they had "old phone numbers". What are old phone numbers? My numbers have not changed since I got the card! Oh well that's all the computer told us and when you called in the other day and verified ALL of your information the hold was taken off. Well isn't that nice?!? the lady on the other end didn't know that! She didn't know why the hold was there! she said that the card would be on hold for 2 days! Oh and when I asked if she thought that was ridiculous, she replied, in your terms and agreements it clearly states that Corp can place a hold on your card at any time for any reason! I said I called in 6 months ago and verified all of my information. So you are telling me that in order to keep my card from being on hold randomly I need to call in once a month to verify my info? She said she didn't know and if I wanted to do that I could. So not the point! I don't need to waste my time! So I asked to speak to a manager and the only "other" information he could give me was the phone number to corporate [protected] x 105 Steve Tirendi. Ok so I left a message for him with what I thought about his company and told him that I expect a call back!~ Let's see how far this gets me! Oh and by the way I'm closing the account! GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR CARD.

Tried to use my card today only to find out my account had been closed because of so called credit report information. I have never been late on any payments to this card and have in fact most times paid off the balance before it was due.
Awhile back they lowered my limit and then had the gall to send me letters asking me to transfer balances from higher interest cards even though they had the highest rate of any of my cards.
No help from customer service even talking to supervisors.

Made a payment online in the amount of $8, 000 in Feb. 2009 to these creeps and received only ONE payment confirmation code and ONE confirmation email. Found out a couple of days later (you can imagine how) that they withdrew double payments from my checking account! Called to have the second payment reversed and was told I would have to wait 7-10 days to receive a check in the mail. Wait 7-10 days for $8, 000? Explained to them that this was putting my checking account in an overdraft situation and needed the funds returned immediately. Supervisor Blake told me their online payment system was not set up to accept more than one payment per day, per account, implying that I must have requested both payments online, like yeah, I would want to overpay them by $8, 000 because I just happen to not need that money in the daily course of running my business. They were trying to hold $8, 000 of my money when they knew that the double payment was processed in error and it was an error generated by their own online payment system! Filed a report with my bank that the double payment was in error and got the funds back in my account (and out of First Equity's) the same day. These creeps told me they were unable to process an ACH credit back to my checking account nor wire the funds to correct the error. They are a bank but they cannot return unauthorized funds collected in error the same way they received them?

FOLLOWUP: Next, they charged a Returned Item Fee of $39 to my account in response to me taking control and having my bank refuse the second debit from my checking account. I called and asked First Equity to reverse this fee considering their system should have never accepted two identical payments back to back on the same day in the first place. The did agree to reverse the fee, but then informed me they had placed a permanent HOLD on my account. When I asked why, since I had always made my payments timely and the account now had a $0 balance, they could provide no explanation and told me that I would need to specifically request that the hold be released. By that point I was pretty indifferent to ever using this account again, so I decided to let it ride for a few weeks while I considered what I wanted to do. About two months later I called back and asked them to release the hold. They said someone from the credit review department would be calling me. Didn't hear from them for several weeks, then received a letter in the mail June 2009 telling me they had closed my account "due to inactivity." Somebody please tell me how I was supposed to use the account when they had a permanent hold placed on it? The HOLD and subsequent account closure smells distinctly like retaliation for paying off the account balance, in full, and for getting my money back from them by going through my bank to extract it after First Equity refused to send the ill-gotten funds back to me in a timely manner.

I have never had a credit card company close an account due to inactivity for only two months. In Feb. there was the double $8000 payment activity, in March there was that pesky returned item fee, in April the undeserved returned item fee was reversed, in May I requested the hold be released, and by June my account was closed due to inactivity?! Puhlease. All I can say is good riddance.

Since my account with them was only open for about two years, I'm certain their action to close my account has negatively impacted my credit scores. I never missed a payment to them and was never late, paid my account in full, have excellent credit with my other creditors with FICO scores close to 800, and this is how they treat a solid customer? Judging from the other complaints posted all over the internet about this company, my experience is the tip of the iceberg. These guys smell all the way from Georgia to my home state of Colorado, even though the winds are usually blowing east. That is one pungent odor.

First Equity Card's business practices have a distinctly MAFIOSO aroma. They are usurious, retaliatory, punitive, fraudulent, and downright irrational. Somebody needs to shut them down and somebody else needs to sue them for lots and lots of money. This is a white collar crime organization masquerading as a credit card company and a bank.

If you don't have an account with this company, don't get one. Ever. If you do have an account with them, do whatever it takes to move the money out to another legitimate bank, or pay it off, and close your account (though once you pay them off, they'll probably take care of the account closure for you, as they did with me.) We are consumers and we decide which businesses succeed, and which ones fail. Make them fail folks. Tell all the small business people you know and don't let them use, deceive, extort, lie or otherwise profit from you or anyone you know. Stop begging them to do the right thing, because they won't, and it gives them the delusion that they have power over you that they don't really have. Take control and you'll feel better about yourself and your small business.

Okay, we've all been taken advantage of by this sleazy, predatory, loan shark business. For everyone of us complaining, there are probably 1000's who don't. We need
to take action. Start by contacting the Georgia Attorney General's office and filing a complaint. Then, the Georgia Better Business office - where by the way- First Equity has a
"D" rating...not sure if it goes any lower than that!
If ENOUGH complaints are lodged against these crooks, the Attorney General's office will get involved...and hopefully force them to cease & desist business. Now, get to work...stop whining...and put them out of business!

http://www.georgia.gov/00/channel_title/0, 2094, 5426814_[protected], 00.html

Beware Beware of this Firststepequity.com, this is a total scam.

All they do is post and post everyday to get you to pay $40.00 for forclosed homes. It is not
as easy as it sounds, if you want a list of forclosed homes for free, contact the banks in your
area, they list them for free.

This is a scam to sell you for $40.00 a month for foreclosure homes listings. Don't believe it.
It is a scam. BEWARE BEWARE BEWARE BEWARE

Apparently many others are in the same category our rate increased from 13.32% to 24.78% in October then to 30.93% in December - We have never been late and I can find no notice. Sounds like a class action if anyone is interested please contact me at peter.[protected]@eccma.org, I have started the ball by asking for an explanation by certified letter - will keep everyone posted

As the owner of Unaethetic Landscaping of Fort Worth, Texas I was offered a credit account by First Equity Card with a limit of $10, 000. I accepted and was approved. In April 2008 I attempted an online transaction of $8, 000. The transaction bounced, and I had to pay nsf and late fees. First Equity said they had no record of any transaction being attempted, and that my $10, 000 limit was good and ready to be used. I attempted again. This transaction also bounced, and I incurred more nsf and late fees.

It took days of phone calls to find out what happened, but a First Equity Rep finally explained that the $10, 000 limit did not take effect until two billing cycles had been completed. Until that time I had a limit of just $5, 000. None of this appeared on their website or mailouts. I waited until July, checked with First Equity and got the go ahead, and I attempted the transaction again. This one also bounced. More nsf and late fees.

Finally, I received an August 20, 2008 memo saying that my account had been cancelled due to "information received from credit bureaus." My personal credit rating was in the 695-700 range according to Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion, with no history of late payments, so I wasn't sure what they were talking about. The only late payments I have made were the result of the First Equity fiascos of the Spring and Summer. I wrote requesting clarification, but no information ever came.

I received no more correspondence from First Equity
until I arrived at my house the evening of Sunday, November 16 to find a memo dated October 24, 2008. It had arrived in the mail on either November 14 or 15. The memo told me that I had a past due amount of $3.00, which had to be paid at once to avoid reporting to credit agencies. I called them at once, at 9:05 CST, to find a recording saying they close at 10:00 EST, and to try back in the morning.

I called in the morning to find that a $3.00 charge incurred during an August business trip had actually gone through after they had begun the action to cancel my account. This was the first I had heard of the $3.00. I paid it on line at once.

I have never heard of any bank or credit organization that has done more with less effort on their part to wreck the credit rating of a small businessman. Does First Equity actually do any good for anyone?

To anyone out there who has dealt with First Equity Credit Card bank, I pity you. Their practices are deceptive almost to the point of criminal. I was accepted an offer for a card from First Equity at 12% apr. When I received the card the apr was 23%. I decided to keep the card for emergencies only, and whenever I have used it I paid off the balance in full. We'll today I got a letter stating my account agreement was now being changed, that my rate was now 26% and on top of that I was to pay a annual fee of $39. Next it goes up to $49! I asked why my agreement was being changed when I have never been late or never have gone over my limit. Their totally sarcastic customer service rep said they could do whatever they wanted as long as it stayed just below the legal apr rate and that I could cancel my account but would have to make all my payments at the higher rate. I have contacted the states attorney general and have hired a legal counsel to try to get a class action against this company. In the meantime I know there are thousands of blogs about how deceptive to the point of criminal this company is, and now there is more voice to be heard.