DOUBLE-DAMN THEM!

Ok... Yesterday's post did NOT have to do with any "problem" I, personally was having with banks or Credit Card Companies. THIS one DOES.

BG: I very seldom use checks anymore. With the advent of online banking and bill payments, I do as much as possible online. I use a debit card most of the time, and a credit card for prescription payments, and maybe a few other things (literally... just a few). I've been a member of this bank for over 10 years, and had not needed the credit card until fairly recently, when another CC I had (the only one I was using at THAT time) got screwed up (ONCE!), and interest rates on it went to 33%!

Here's what happened.

Today, I got the bill for my credit card (yes... the ONE credit card that I use). Again, it's through my bank and I got it because the interest was low, and I needed to close out that other card. (This was a few months ago.)

Since that time, I have made MORE than the minimum payment, in some cases HUNDREDS of dollars more. The interst rate on old purchases went up to 18%, I called them and got that down to a promotional rate. The interest on new purchases started at 13% and has been creeping up, slowly, but was still well below 15% UNTIL THIS BILL.

I make my payments online. When I display my accounts, both my checking account and my credit card account show on the same page. Clicking on them shows the transactions. On the credit card account, there's a "Pay Now" link, which I use, transferring the money from my checking account to pay the credit card bill. To keep track of this (and because my parents did this in all their business and personal accounts), I write on the bill when I make the payment. I write the amount, the date, how it was paid, the check # (back in the day), and when, according to the payment manager, the check will get to the one owed. In this case, last month, I wrote that I'd made the "larger than owed" payment and date the transfer was to have been made (immediately) on the bill.

They never got it. My checking account does not show any payment and my credit card account does not show any payment. Now, I owed TWO MONTHS, a $29 LATE FEE, my interest rate for new purchases jumped from under 15% to almost 25%! This all made my minimum payment jump from $22-25 to over $100. So, I called the number on the bill to find out what happened.

Again, they don't show that I made any transaction, and it seems they don't give a damn! A bank I have been with for 10 years and more! Oh, the guy I talked to first says he "took care" of the late fee, and I made a $100 payment (did it online while he was on the phone) to cover the rest and "bring your account current", but he could do nothing else. He passed me off to customer service to see what could be done about the percentage rate.

Jason (who answered "Collections", but then, when I called him on that later, he said he was sorry, that he was with the bank's customer service), there, said there was nothing he or anyone else could do to authorize the lowering of the interest rate back down to last month's level. I asked what I could do and he said I needed to "keep current" for 6 months(!) and THEN they might consider lowering the rate back down. I said "Let me get this straight, the bank screws up my payment, and I get screwed, huh?" Let's just say he was VERY unsympathetic.

After I hung up, I pulled out all my credit card bills for this year, and looked them over, realizing that I'd made above-the-minimum payments since I got it (in fact, the first two bills' minimum payments were ZERO dollars, and I paid almost $500 on them!). So I called the number again, and found out that the ones I call are only authorized to handle billing disputes, and payments (late and otherwise). THIS girl didn't even OFFER to patch me through to customer service, not that SHE wasn't sympathetic, but still...

SO, a customer for over 10 years misses one payment (apparently through no fault of their own) and they are STUCK with a 25% interest rate for six (6) months on their credit card. Make sense to you?

BTW: I DID point out to the first guy and Jason that 25% was in the realm of LOAN SHARK percentages, and stated that I HOPED this was being recorded ("Your call may be recorded for ... " whatever reason), so that maybe someone else would understand the frustration.

Oh... And the first guy I talked to said he'd seen this happen a number of times, where people think they made the payment and closed the screen, when they DID NOT hit that last SUBMIT button.

So, if you use online banking and transfer money from one account to another, MAKE SURE that you hit all buttons correctly (which I'm POSITIVE I did), and, if you can, print off the screen showing that you DID make the payment. It may be the only proof you have.

Just one more indication that industry and financial institutions could give a SHIT about you.
-BS