Unwillingness to reverse late fee and finance charge

I had a problem with Chase. I canceled the account in part because a
Rep made a racist remark toward me when I called regarding an issue
and secondly a supervisor continued to be less than human.

There are other cards. DUMP CHASE !

Taking advantage of! I understand, my fiance has had a serious
situation that happened to her. I noticed that some of the folks on
here could care less about the late fee. Some of them are very anal
about oh well, it's your fault! They haven't fell victim yet. My
fiance has been a loyal customer for 11 years, paying her credit card
bill on time (NEVER LATE!). She was a day late on her payment last
week and was not just given a late fee, her interest rate went from
3.9% to 19%! That is taking advantage of loyalty to customers!

It is a numbers game, the old CEO's are out and the new ones are in,
bringing in top MBA's to make sure that they can suck every bit of
blood out of their clients. Nowadays, no business is out to work with
you, it's out to screw you as hard as they can. Get as much as they
can while the gettin is good. That's the motto of big business!

Maybe all customers should take their business to their local banks
and businesses. But then again, the only thing that would do is force
the big businesses to gobble up the little ones. Once they screw the
consumer and economy, who will they exploit and screw over then?
Welcome to the age of SCREW LOYALTY, TAKE EVERY DIME THEY HAVE!

I know that their unwillingness to reverse the fees seems harsh, but
as others have stated, the agreement you signed states that you accept
the responibility. It's not like you didn't know the bill was coming
or what your minimum payment is. A simple check sent before you left
with the words "For (insert due date)Payment" on the memo line or call
the customer service number. They usually will take a check payment
over the phone for free (or a nominal fee).

Penalties on credit cards and their practices have gotten out of hand.

There is a good article in Reader's Digest with some nice examples of
what they do. One guy paid on the due date onlie, at 3:10pm, but the
cutoff was 3:00pm. His interest rate doubled. That is like giving
someone the death penalty for a speeding ticket. I am sure many
posters here would say, "You were speeding, that's the law, you
deserve it."

It's not like you only one of one hundred customers that they have and
can personally tailor to your exact needs. Jeez! They have rules and
penalties for not following the rules. You pay late, you get dinged.
Plain and simple. You pay on time, you don't get dinged. Happens
with your mortgage, gas bill, utility bill, all of them as a matter of
fact and how is this new news to you? Really! I'm literally amazed
at your attitude that you think they'll bend the "rules" just for you.
It doesn't work that way. And if you leave, big deal. They really
don't care. It's a commodity business. That's all credit cards are.
It's a numbers game. Nothing personalized. If you want that, then go
down the street to the brand new, locally owned savings and loan,
they'll be more than happy to kiss your ass there. Good luck!

for the payment due date. It is so easy to do. You press the radio
button for "Pay statement amount," and then a calendar is there for
you to pick the payment date, I just pick the due date. They
actually take it from the checking account a day or two after the date
chosen. Thus, if I screw up getting the funds into the checking
account, there is at least another day of grace.

DON'T switch companies based on this. I'll tell you why - the next
company would probably treat you the same way. These rules are
clearly stated in the disclosure. A week? That is a lot. Maybe a
day or two they would have forgiven. Just because they might overlook
a first error doesn't mean you should expect them to.

You were late, and were charged a late fee.
I'm confused as to what the complaint is?

I seriously you will get it reversed now that you have written this
letter. You should really research these issues first. writing a
simple "goodwill" letter probably would have gotten them to reverse
the charges and not report it to the credit bureaus. Now they will
most likely not do anything for you.

Everything a CSP does is automated. There is a very very good chance
that they literally cant reverse it. No matter how much you want them
to, or even if they agree with you, theyre working with a system
designed to control what they do to customer accounts.

Further there is no obligation for the to reverese the fee, and its
not common courtesy unless they owed you something and you let it
slide once before. It would certainly be nice, however, if they did.

If youre that persistent over this, call again and politely ask to
speak to the department above the CSPs. Not their supervisor or
manager, but the department above them. For example at CapOne it was
called ART, sometimes these "managaement departments" have accedss to
programs CSPs dont, but theres no garauntee.

I think a lot of getting customer service to reverse a late fee is in
how you ask. Perhaps you didn't use commom courtesy toward them?

They lied to you, because I was busy with finals in school and flat
forgot to pay my bill and they reversed the fee's for me because I had
never been late either, nor since. Call back until you get someone
who has compassion and wants to keep you as a customer in good
standings.
Hope you get them reversed!

While I agree some companies will waive a late fee out of customer
courtesy, they aren't obligated to do so, and it is ridiculous to
assume it is poor customer service because they won't.

In the future, should you run into this problem again (and you won't,
right?), it is best to call the credit card company first, instead of
just sending the payment and assuming the credit card company will be
nice and waive the fee. I have a feeling you would've have a better
result had you done this.

Look, you tried repeatedly to get them to remove the charges. THey
didn't do it. Just drop it and move on. Own up to the debt that YOU
incurred.

I pay my Chase bill online. I can check it at any time and set up
advance payments to pay a bill I haven't even received yet. There are
many ways you could have avoided this and didn't. While I think it is
nice of banks and credit card companies to offer "forgiveness" for
mistakes it isn't required, on the other hand you aren't required to
do business with them. It works both ways and you've made your
choice.

I disagree with the other posters. Cards usually do issue one time
late fee credits because everyone is not perfect.
Sometimes people go on vacation for 3 weeks and a bill comes in after
they leave. A customer that pays on time every time for years and has
one slip should be forgiven.
Another poster said that if the neighbor kid breaks your window, do
you for give him? -Uh, yes, unless you are an ass. If the neighbor
kids are good kids and broke the window by mistake (without a
pattern), they can be forgiven and you can eat the cost and pretend a
tree branch broke it. I would rather pay than be the guy that made a 9
year old try to come up with $100.
But my guess is the other poster would call the cops and have the kid
arrested for assault with a baseball, and then try to bilk the kid for
a new $1000 bay window to replace the $100 window he broke, and make
sure the kid ended up with a Police record and a stint in Juvy.
Credit cards charge $40 late fees and finance charges on top of it,
and then will bump your interest rate up to 30%. Yet people accept
that, but will bitch unmercifully when the price of a postage stamp
increases 3 cents.
-Just so you know, I had 2 Chase cards and received a one-time credit
for a late fee on both cards for the same reason.
I ended up paying off what I owed and cancelled all of my cards
because their practices are getting out of line (even Congress is
taking notice). I thought I could never live without credit cards, but
it has been surprisingly easy because you tend to spend less when you
have to take the cash out of the bank. You make better decisions.
Evidently I was such a terrible customer for having a late fee, that
Chase has sent me 2 "Pre-Approved" applications a month, every month,
for the past 2 years since the month after I cancelled my cards. Maybe
someone can explain why Chase would want to continually send me
unsolicited offers every month for 2 years if I was so bad for having
a late fee and requesting (and getting) a credit?

I guess I have a slightly different perspective on this than my fellow
posters, but only slightly. When husband and I went on our honeymoon,
we managed to forget a credit card payment too. I was frustrated to
see it had happened, since I could have sworn that I'd crossed
everything off the pre-vacation checklist, but apparently in the
crazed blur that the month before my wedding became I screwed up.

When we left, I told my mother to open the mail for us, so that if
anything bizarre came up she could warn us. Sure enough, the second
day she called with the "good news" that we had a late notice on the
Visa card. Crap! I immediately called them, apologized profusely,
and made a payment over the phone. The representative was very nice
and understanding, and did forgive our late fee and service charge
with the proviso that this was a one time thing and that future late
payments would be dealt with more strictly.

So I do understand that many companies will forgive late fees in
special circumstances, and I agree that when that happens it helps to
further a customer's loyalty.

Here's the thing, though. If our credit card company had just taken
the payment and never mentioned forgiving the fees, I can't imagine
requesting that the fee be removed. We messed up, and we called in
perfectly willing to pay the price. And even if I had asked if it
were possible to forgive the fees, being told no would certainly not
have prompted me to write a letter of complaint. Customers are
entitled to courteous, prompt service. They are entitled to the
benefits spelled out in the card's agreement. They are not entitled
to special treatment, even on a one time basis. So while I agree that
it would have been great if your company had forgiven the fee, I think
this letter is way off base.

You admit missing a payment. There are no do-overs.

Being hit by a car and not regaining consciousness until after the
payment is due warrants forgivement of fees and charges in my opinion.


Going on vacation does not.

And why on Earth would Chase want to retain you as a customer when you
have suddenly decided that "I had something better to do that week" is
a good reason not to pay your bills?

Why would you even think to ask? What you're saying is: this is all
my fault, but I want to be excused from responsibility.

Right?

If this was a one time thing, pay the $60 and get on with life.

I have to wonder: do you make it a policy of forgiving mistakes in
others? Kid breaks your window? I assume you won't ask his parents
to pay, especially if they've been your neighbors for years.

Banks shorts you a few dollars at the ATM. Heck, you'll just forgive
them since it was a one time thing.

Right?

You ask for courtesy. I wonder what happened to responsibility. You
seem not to think taking responsibility for own mistakes is something
you should do. Right?

If you've had this card for a while now, then you know about when your
payment is due. You also knew when you were going on vacation. A
simple glance at the calendar would have shown that you would be gone
when the payment was due. Next time, arrange for payment before
leaving on vacation.

You may think it is good business to refund the fee and finance charge
and that you, as a loyal customer, should be given a break, but
obviously Chase doesn't feel the same way.

When you are following through on your threat to move your credit card
business to another company you might want to confirm that you won't
be charged a late fee or finance charge if you pay your bill one week
late.

I doubt any credit card company would reverse the fees. Maybe after 6
months of on time payments they'll lower your interest rate.