Now it's Michelle from Cardholder Services

I just got a call, with no caller ID, from an automated recording featuring "Michelle" from "Cardholder Services," offering me my "final notice" of my eligibility — "expiring soon" — to lower the interest rate on my (unspecified) credit card, provided I meet their (unspecified) eligibility requirements. At the end of the illegal recorded message, I was offered the choice to press 9 to speak to a live operator about lowering my interest rate, or press 8 to discontinue further notices. I pressed 8, but was told that was an "invalid option"; the entire spiel then repeated. Again I pressed 8, and again was told it was an invalid option, so the third time I interrupted "Michelle" and pressed 9. After being on hold for probably not quite a minute, an apparently live, apparently human being came on the line, asking me if I was holding to lower my interest rates. I said, "I need to know who I'm dealing with," to which the woman replied, "Uh huh," and then hung up on me.

I wrote previously about my encounter with "Rachel" from "Cardholder Services," including the specific federal laws (plural) that were violated when "Cardholder Services" (whoever that may be in real life) initiated that call. It turns out that "Cardholder Services" has bothered a lot of people, including using intentionally fake caller ID (as opposed to just "out of area," meaning that no caller ID data was sent at all). The best guess — and I emphasize the word guess — is that "Cardholder Services" is really American Debt Negotiators, located in Palm Bay and/or Coral Springs, Florida, telephone 1-866-969-4236.

Update 2008-03-13: there is a new blog devoted just to our good friends with "Cardholder Services," "Account Services," or whatever they're calling themselves this week. It's called "Stopping Heather with Account Services"

Technorati tags: Cardholder Services, Rachel, Michelle, Telemarketing, Do Not Call List, 47USC227