Money Tips: Made my Credit Card Payment Late!

Posted On: February 22, 2007

Guest: Ira
SENIOR MEMBER (Member for 2 yrs.+)
Post subject: Made my Credit Card Payment Late!
Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 3:55 pm

I screwed up, badly, on one of my cards.

I was a month into a one year zero interest zero fee balance transfer for $10,000.00. I make all of my payments online through my Citibank checking account. Usually such payments are made electronically. I failed to notice that there was no electronic payment on this one account and I didn’t allow enough time for the check to be mailed, processed, credited, etc. I received my new statement showing that the payment arrived several days after the grace period, and POW, I got slugged with the triple whammy: $39.00 late fee, finance charge @ 17.24% ($142.40), and loss of 0% status.

After I climbed back off the floor and took several deep breaths I called customer service (this was roughly 10:00 PM) and fell on my sword. I explained that it was my mistake, not theirs and not CitiBank’s, I should have caught this, etc, etc, and what could they do for me. The CSR looked at my record, said he understood and immediately credited back the late charge. He said he couldn’t do anything more, but if I would call back during normal business hours I would probably be able to get the finance charge removed & the 0% reinstated.

I called back this morning and repeated the story. The CSR said she couldn’t do anything (Oh dear, that’s AWFUL!), but could she transfer me to someone else who might be able to help. Well of course! said I. I repeated my story for the third time to the next guy (probably customer retention) and he said it could happen to anybody, he understood perfectly, he had done it once himself, and as a one time courtesy he would remove the finance charge and reinstate 0%.

HUGH sign of relief!

He then proceeded to tell me to keep my eyes open for some additional promo offers that would be coming down the pike. I thanked him sincerely.

What’s my point? I have been reading a number of stories here about this lousy bank and that awful policy and who do they think they are, etc. Folks, I’ve just demonstrated that it’s not us vs the banks - it’s just people dealing with people. If you act sincere, lose the arrogance, and treat the CSRs as your best friend, you’ll be amazed at how far you’ll get.

Think of what a lousy job these folks have. People yelling, screaming, and them all day long threatening this, promising to do battle, cancel their accounts, etc. Now along comes somebody who says look, here’s the situtation, you’re the expert here, what can you do for me? You do that and you make it easy for them to want to help you.

Try it, you’ll like it.
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Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.

Ira

Guest: hate2work
Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 7:05 pm

I totally agree, Ira.

My grandma always said, “You’ll catch more flies with honey than you will with vinegar”.

Of course, I’m still trying to figure out why she wanted flies in the first place.
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I before E, except after C. That’s weird.

Guest: tonygoldston
Credit Expert (100+ Posts)
Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 9:38 pm

Shoo Fly Pie!!

Guest: angelo21
Credit Expert (100+ Posts)
Posted: Fri Feb 23, 2007 4:05 pm

Way to go Ira! You’re absolutely right.