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It was a blistering expose` of First USA's credit card practices, most notably its late fee policies and fixed rate marketing. ABC Television's Niteline program aired a 6.5 minute segment Tuesday night exposing real life examples of First USA cardholders who fell victim to First USA's pricing policies. The segment was followed by a heated debate between a First USA executive and a representative of the Public Interest Research Group, a consumer advocacy concern. The segment, produced by ABC's Dallas affiliate WFAA, followed a four month investigation, and revealed that the federal government's Office of the Comptroller and Currency agency has received more than 2,800 complaints regarding Bank One/First USA's credit card practices since the first of this year. This compares to a total of 2,500 complaints received for the other nine largest issuers, combined. Throughout the program First USA struggled to defend itself. During the WFAA piece an embarrassed First USA executive could not define a fixed rate. Later a First USA representative tried to dominate the opening of the debate segment with a prepared statement which blamed its Phoenix payments processor for the problems. The FUSA representative also attempted to minimize the cardholder problems, citing the size of the issuer's cardholder base compared to the number of OCC complaints filed. Niteline closed the program by encouraging viewers to post complaints about First USA through a message board on Niteline's website. For more information visit www.abcnews.go.com/onair/.
