Interesting - Chasing Our Tale
We paid a credit card bill one day late at the end of September. A day late. They had our entire balance paid off a day late. Hold that thought.
When the next statement came, due the end of October, there was a finance charge and a late fee. A call to the credit card company yielded something that translated into “Tough luck, buddy. Late is late is late.” Okay, we can live with that. We paid that bill with its finance and late charges a few days early. At that time, we also asked for our due date to be changed to the middle of the month instead of the end of the month. We were told that was no problem. We would then get a bill that was due in the middle of November (basically 15 days after this current bill was due). All okay with us.
The next bill arrived with a due date in the middle of November as promised. It also had a finance charge listed even though the entire amount, including finance and late charges, had already been paid at the end of October before it was due. We called to get a clarification. We were told something like: “Well, there is always a second finance charge; it’s divided into two parts.” Didn’t make sense to us, but we could get no further explanation nor relief. And that bill, including the finance charge was paid a few days before it was due.
This week we received the statement due in the middle of December which accurately reflected the payments we had made the end of October and the middle of November. But there was a finance charge added to the bill again, the third bill in a row with a finance charge. Mind you, this was all caused by paying a day late back at the end of September and all subsequent bills had been paid in full before due and had included the finance charges.
We called. We ended up getting a Ms. Dias in India. Nice person. When asked about all the finance charges, she kept telling us the mantra about daily interest accumulating. After about the third time she said this, I told her that I have a PhD in accounting and understood the concept of daily interest. What I didn’t understand was how they could keep charging us interest when, except for one bill back at the end of September, we had been paying our balance in full including finance charges from that fateful one-day-late payment back then.
Somehow, it seems, when you change the due date on your account and there is an outstanding balance, this sets the stupid fee machine into motion and you keep getting charged. Discussion about what occurred and why it defies logic was fruitless. Ms. Dias had her script. And as nice as she was, she had no leeway to let reason and common sense enter the equation.
I explained two things at this point. First, we have two credit cards with their company and have significant charges each month which we pay off on time (with that one exception). Therefore, their bank makes nice fees from our accounts, which we can close and take elsewhere. Second, no one ever told us that we would incur yet more finance charges with the simple act of changing the due date on our statement. What’s even more odd about this is we ended up shortening the time when the next bill would be due by half a month, not extending it. Thus, they got their money earlier that month.
“We certainly don’t want to lose your business. Please wait a moment while I talk to a manager.” After a couple of minutes, she came back on the line and told us the finance charge on the current bill would be waived “since you were never told that changing your due date would result in an additional finance charge.” Glad they could find an pretext to do what good customer service would do without an excuse.
We don’t have any credit card debt. We pay our bills on time (well, 99.9% of the time). We got hit with a total of about $80 in late and finance charges over these three bills. I can only imagine the grief of those folks who keep an outstanding credit card balance and are paying on top of paying on top of paying.
In case you’re wondering who the credit card company is, it’s J. P. Morgan-Chase through a BP VISA card. Hope you have better luck with this idiocy than we did overall.
When the next statement came, due the end of October, there was a finance charge and a late fee. A call to the credit card company yielded something that translated into “Tough luck, buddy. Late is late is late.” Okay, we can live with that. We paid that bill with its finance and late charges a few days early. At that time, we also asked for our due date to be changed to the middle of the month instead of the end of the month. We were told that was no problem. We would then get a bill that was due in the middle of November (basically 15 days after this current bill was due). All okay with us.
The next bill arrived with a due date in the middle of November as promised. It also had a finance charge listed even though the entire amount, including finance and late charges, had already been paid at the end of October before it was due. We called to get a clarification. We were told something like: “Well, there is always a second finance charge; it’s divided into two parts.” Didn’t make sense to us, but we could get no further explanation nor relief. And that bill, including the finance charge was paid a few days before it was due.
This week we received the statement due in the middle of December which accurately reflected the payments we had made the end of October and the middle of November. But there was a finance charge added to the bill again, the third bill in a row with a finance charge. Mind you, this was all caused by paying a day late back at the end of September and all subsequent bills had been paid in full before due and had included the finance charges.
We called. We ended up getting a Ms. Dias in India. Nice person. When asked about all the finance charges, she kept telling us the mantra about daily interest accumulating. After about the third time she said this, I told her that I have a PhD in accounting and understood the concept of daily interest. What I didn’t understand was how they could keep charging us interest when, except for one bill back at the end of September, we had been paying our balance in full including finance charges from that fateful one-day-late payment back then.
Somehow, it seems, when you change the due date on your account and there is an outstanding balance, this sets the stupid fee machine into motion and you keep getting charged. Discussion about what occurred and why it defies logic was fruitless. Ms. Dias had her script. And as nice as she was, she had no leeway to let reason and common sense enter the equation.
I explained two things at this point. First, we have two credit cards with their company and have significant charges each month which we pay off on time (with that one exception). Therefore, their bank makes nice fees from our accounts, which we can close and take elsewhere. Second, no one ever told us that we would incur yet more finance charges with the simple act of changing the due date on our statement. What’s even more odd about this is we ended up shortening the time when the next bill would be due by half a month, not extending it. Thus, they got their money earlier that month.
“We certainly don’t want to lose your business. Please wait a moment while I talk to a manager.” After a couple of minutes, she came back on the line and told us the finance charge on the current bill would be waived “since you were never told that changing your due date would result in an additional finance charge.” Glad they could find an pretext to do what good customer service would do without an excuse.
We don’t have any credit card debt. We pay our bills on time (well, 99.9% of the time). We got hit with a total of about $80 in late and finance charges over these three bills. I can only imagine the grief of those folks who keep an outstanding credit card balance and are paying on top of paying on top of paying.
In case you’re wondering who the credit card company is, it’s J. P. Morgan-Chase through a BP VISA card. Hope you have better luck with this idiocy than we did overall.
posted by Bud Hirsch at 3:36 PM
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