Household MasterCard Late Payment Fee Complaint

Author: archive
Joined: 23 Jul 2004
Posts: 5007
Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2005 12:53 am
Post subject: GM Card Late Fees/Scam Operation

Sally Wiggins
Date: 7/21/2000 0:21 am CDT

I hope you can help us. We have a Mastercard G.M. card. Our bills are
normally due the 11th, 12th or 13th of the month. We live in Studio City,
CA and our payment is sent to Anaheim, CA- 30 miles away. We send our
payment on the 5th or 6th of the month and for the past three months have
been assessed a late fee. This month we sent our payment on the 5th and it
was not processed until the 15th. On our bill it says to send the payment 6
or 7 days in advance, but all other correspondance we send to Orange County
takes a day. Each time we have been assessed a late fee, we have called and
had it removed. We tell them it only takes a day for mail to get to them
from where we are, but an operator informed us that as they get so much
mail, they process it in smaller batches, which I took as euphemistically
saying that they hold mail so they can make money on late charges. This
stinks. Who can we report this to? What recourse do we have for such a
sneaky business practice?

View our latest credit card ratings!



Author: archive
Joined: 23 Jul 2004
Posts: 5007
Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2005 12:53 am

Board Monitor
Date: 7/21/2000 2:10 am CDT

Sally,

Thanks for you recent inquiry! Rest assured, you are not alone. The following web page contains similar complaints...

http://www.worth.com/articles/Z9802E02.html

It is worth noting that the GM Card is issued by Household Credit Services (household.com), not GM.

On a related note, everyone has heard about the FirstUSA fiasco (if you haven't, visit the following page on our site for more info... http://www.cardratings.com/scams2.html).

At any rate, a few suggestions...

Many consumer advocates suggest that you mail your payment the day you receive your bill. While this may sound like "overkill", it is a good idea if you are able to do so without straining yourself financially. Some consumers have gotten so upset over late charges that they even send
payments via certified mail, FedEx, etc!

File a complaint on the FTC's (Federal Trade Commission) web site at http://www.ftc.gov. The FTC will investigate such practices if they receive enough complaints.

Finally, you might just want to get a new card (I would suggest avoiding a card issued by Household).

Regards,
Curtis Arnold
Founder/PR Director
CardRatings.org

View our latest credit card ratings!



Author: archive
Joined: 23 Jul 2004
Posts: 5007
Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2005 12:54 am

dave
Date: 7/21/2000 4:07 pm CDT

if you do not wish to close your account, you might try sending the payment by certified mail or if you can pay online, you should do that.

View our latest credit card ratings!