Credit card 'late fees' and lost mail

[EVDebs]

My credit card company about a month ago issued new cards, with phone authorization. I merrily went along using the card since I don't run a monthly balance, paying it off at the next billing. It had been awhile since I'd used the card and at a store yesterday I was told my card couldn't be authorized for a purchase, luckily I had cash.

When I got home I called customer service and was told I'd missed two billing cycles and was being charged two sets of late fees and penalties ! That was the reason for the store not allowing the purchase. I made arrangements for 'check by phone' payment and the customer service person said my account could be creditted for the late fees and penalties.

I checked with my post office and they said nothing had been mishandled, so I don't believe the post office is responsible for me not receiving my bills. I think the credit card company is DELIBERATELY not mailing out the bills on a timely basis, and is thus generating more money on those who go ahead and pay the late fees and penalties.

Has this happened to you and if so, what do we do ?

[CornField]

1. My solution

Make payments online (you can schedule them for a certain date) or use automatic bill pay services from your bank.

[seabeyond]

2. years using my company, two payments ago

the oddest thing. was two weeks late coming to me, and they didnt change the date due. gonna be watching them close this time, or for a while. they have been so incredibly consistant. i wonder

[Democrat 4 Ever]

22. I'm betting it was deliberate. Years and years ago I worked

in a bank that did business with thousands and thousands of military personnel from all over the world.

We also had one department that did nothing but handle military allotments for our customers. Back then the government would send an individual check for each depositor for that month's allotment. We would received huge stacks of these green government checks several weeks in advance of the date of the checks. Employees would then sit and write up a deposit slip for each check and hold it to be run through the system for posting on the last day of each month.

Now is was not unusual for military families to plan their purchases (just like the rest of us!) of groceries, payment of car payments, rents, etc around their pay period and the bank I worked for knew this. The soldiers and their families would begin writing checks on the last day of the month (and sometimes a few days early knowing that the deposit would beat the check to the bank). Back then an overdraft check or a NSF check cost the depositor $5.00 for each item. The bank would hold the depositing of those thousands of checks until the 3rd or 4th of each month (even though they were dated for the last day of the previous month and ready for posting. This caused thousands of accounts to overdraft or NSF and the bank raked in HUGE amounts of fees each and every month. Some of those families were hit with $50.00 (or more) in bank fees back in a time when house or rent payments were $100.00 (My first house payment was $129.80 for a four-bedroom, full basement house - now you know how dern old I am. And sometimes we wondered how on earth would we ever make that payment!). Whenever there was a complaint the bank would just blame it on the government and said the feds were late getting the check to the bank. (Later the individual checks were replaced by one check and a computer listing of how much each individual was to receive. This didn't stop the scam.)

This same bank did a huge amount of business with Fort Knox, state and federal accounts, etc. and yet they couldn't resist gouging and taking significant fees from military families that could least afford it. This was the height of the Viet Nam war, pay was extremely low for most of these soldiers and the economy was terrible. (The bank also had a "special" financing department for soldiers on each of the car lots in the area. Their fees and interest rates made GMAC and the other auto finance companies look like charitable organizations. Car dealership employees received bonus and rewards of sometimes $700.00 - $800.00 per contract for steering the young soldiers to finance through the bank.)

This was 30 years ago and I still feel bad that I didn't report this to someone, somewhere (young, dumb, really needed the job). I believe those military families had cause for a class action against that bank. The bank owners? Big, big repugs and loved Nixon. I didn't work there too long.

[radwriter0555]

3. Cancel that credit card, join a credit union and only use the CU's

credit cards.

[MrMonk]

4. I haven't had that experience with a credit card company,

but I notice that the due date is now about two weeks after the end of the billing cycle.

My auto insurance carrier, on the other hand, has often mailed the quarterly invoices a few days before payment is due.

[aWaKeNoW]

5. I too have had

"late fees" tacked onto TWO of my credit card bills because I had never gotten the monthly statement/bill in the mail! I had to start managing my monthy budget more CLOSELY to make sure that just in case my monthly statement somehow MAGICALLY didn't appear in my mailbox I would still pay my bill on time. It also made me mad enough that now I am on a steady pace to pay off ALL of my credit cards and start paying CASH ONLY for all of my purchases! I am tired of making these big credit card companies RICH.:grr:

[woodsprite]

20. I made the mistake of signing up for a Kohl's card before xmas

because they were giving another 20% off of you first purchase. I did my entire shopping at Kohls, so I saved a bundle. By January, I still hadn't received a real card or a bill. Beginning of February, I get a nasty call from them saying that they wanted me to pay them over the phone with another credit card or come into the store with a check for the total amount, plus a $25 late fee.

I refused until I had something that actually said what I owed. I also refused to pay the late fee and cut up the new card they had just presented me with at their customer service desk.

Last night, I got a call from them offering me a $20 gift certificate if I came back as a customer. I told the lady "No Way!".

Slimy CC people -- ALL OF THEM!!!

[Triana]

6. They've done this to me too...

...when I called them, they removed the charges but I do not depend on getting my bills on time, or at all.

If they have online access use that to pay or use your bank online billpay to do it on some automatic basis.

This is a nasty trick they use to charge people late fees.

[Quakerfriend]

7. Yup, we've had this problem too.

My husband and I figure that the problem is that they don't like you too much if you always pay your monthly charge off and NEVER acrue any interest.

[WI_DEM]

8. yes

I've had the same situation. It seems like I never get my Bank One credit card bill and end up looking it up on line and paying it that way.

[Welsh_Princess]

9. I've had problems

with overdue credit card fees, but in my case it was because the post office screwed up. I'm currently at college, and therefore I use a po box. The person whose po box is next to mine set up a forwarding address for it, and the people delivering the mail repetedly forwarded mine back to my parent's house, where it would stack up until I got home. I've had to ask my mom to pay a couple of bills for me, because I wasn't getting them.

ps, this is my first post everyone, hi :)

[donco6]

11. Welcome to DU

:hi:
:toast:

[Welsh_Princess]

15. Thank you

I'm looking forward to being here :hi:

[pk_du]

12. Welcome "aboard" wp :O) n/

[Welsh_Princess]

16. Thanks

for welcoming me. :)

[annabanana]

17. Welcome!

Always doublecheck the rate you're being charged. They can jack those up and they use overdue payments as the excuse. (Also check on any other card you may have, because a late payment on one can trigger higher rates on all)

Don't you just love it when banks write the laws?

[Welsh_Princess]

26. Thank you for the welcome

Dealing with credit card rates and that stuff is so frustrating. I hate how they use the itty bitty print at the bottom or on the back of the page saying how what they are claiming is actually only true for a month and such. I can't think of anybody except the banks who are actually happy with credit card rates and laws. It is rediculous

[madrchsod]

21. hello princess!

glad to see another college student onboard..

[Welsh_Princess]

27. Thank you :)

Nice to see another college student who actually pays attention to politics :)

[newyawker99]

31. Hi Welsh_Princess!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[donco6]

10. YES!

I've had this problem. What I've been doing is paying online even before I get the statement, but I don't like doing that in the event there's a fraudulent charge. Once you pay, you're going to have a hard time getting your money back.

[flyingfysh]

13. Here's one way to avoid the problem

I use Quicken and my bank's electronic bill payment service (I'm sure Microsoft Money would work just fine also). I have them set up to pay the credit card companies every month, whether a bill arrives or not.

I sometimes notice bills not arriving, in situations where it felt like an excuse to jack up rates if I didn't get that payment in "on time". But I fool them - I make a payment anyway. If you monitor your payments by using Quicken or something similar, the banks can't catch you that way.

I could leave town for a month, and all my bills would continue to get paid without me.

[amazona]

14. yes in the early 80s this was a common trick

As far as I know it's illegal. But to expect proper enforcement of the law when a bank or credit card company is at fault is unrealistic with Reagan/Bush at the reigns.

The post office almost never loses mail, so I don't blame them.

Set up a bill-paying plan that automatically sends a minimum payment to each credit card company each month. You can pay more than the minimum when you get the bill but at least this way you are never again charged a late fee.

Credit cards and banks now make most of their money from FEES, not from service, so let the customer beware. They have no motive to keep good records and every motive not to.

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72

[Zorra]

18. Deliberate. CC companies are the biggest thieves. Here you go:

Capital One -- Several recent class action lawsuits have been filed against Capital One and are still pending. This credit card company once had a good reputation. It led the way in offering the first low interest rate card on purchases, balance transfers and cash advances. It forced other issuers to lower their rates, too. But then Capital One customers started complaining that their payments, mailed in a full two weeks before they were due, were being marked as having been received late. And Capital One was charging them late fees and jacking up their interest rate as a result, which is why the lawsuits have been filed. One case that received wide media exposure involved a man who had emergency open heart surgery. Due to his illness, he mailed in his Capital One payment late one month. Actually, Capital One received it just one day late. When he called to explain what had happened, they coldly told him "too bad" and jacked up his interest rate from about 7% to 21%. (Of course, Capital One isn't alone in using this tactic -- Citibank, MBNA, Providian, First USA do this as well.)
snip----
Class Action Lawsuits Filed Against Major Credit Card Companies
First USA --

A class action lawsuit was filed against First USA when it changed the due date so that some customers, accustomed to paying by a certain date each month, would be caught off guard. Many of them would send in their payments late, not realizing that their due date was a few days earlier than they thought. First USA charged customers $29 every time a payment was late. When two payments were received late, they increased the interest rate 10 full points. (First USA has been accused of this practice more than once.)
snip---
Chase -- If you have a card issued by Chase, perhaps you noticed a ten cent rebate on on of your monthly statements several years ago. That generous refund was the result of a class action lawsuit filed against Chase for dubious billing practices (not posting your payment on the date received as required by federal law). You only got ten cents because the lawyers who filed the class action suit took a big chunk of the $22 million settlement as their fee. There was so little left that everyone got just ten cents. (Most class action lawsuits against credit card companies result in a windfall for the attorneys with very little left over for consumers.)

Providian -- The king of unscrupulous billing practices and immoral behavior, Providian is considered to be the baddest of the bad credit card companies. It got caught overbilling its customers and had to pay the largest judgment ever awarded against a credit card company, $300 million. They improperly assessed late fees and charged customers for products never ordered (e.g., credit insurance). Many visitors to this website reported that they received checks from the California Attorney General for as much as $200.00 as a refund for Providian's billing overcharges. Providian was also signing up its customers for credit insurance without their permission.

http://www.bcsalliance.com/x_creditcardtricks2.html

Using credit cards is un-patriotic and a threat to democracy. Please, in the interest of preserving America and democracy, do not use them.

CC companies rip millions of people off, collect interest on the money that they ripped off, and then get fined for what turns out to be a fraction of the interest they collected on the money they stole.

And they enslave millions of Americans under crushing debt.

[drthais]

19. Bank One is the Evil-Doer in this respect

we had a second-mortgage with BankOne
THEIR tactic went like this:
You mail in your payment in plenty of time
they don't post it until AFTER the due date
therefore charging you a late fee
they don't notify you of the late fees piling up
until some six months later
you thought you were paying (and you WERE) ontime
but now, the amount of your late fees
equals 'you are behind one month in your payments'
we were so incensed, that I started going to the BankOne branch
and insisting they post the payment right then and there
well, guess what?
the MotherSite of Bank One (wherever that is)
STILL does not post the payment
until - yes-after the due date

we got so sick, we just payed them off
I will NEVER deal with BankOne again
they are evil>!

[MadHound]

23. Simple, easy solution, cut up your cards, cancel your accounts

And go to a cash/check/debit card lifestyle. Why continue to feed the beast anyway? You don't run a monthly balance, so it isn't like you need the loan. Debit cards are just as convienent as credit cards. You won't have to worry about this kind of shit, and you won't be feeding the corporate beast.

I've lived my whole life without a credit card, and I have had no problems. My exposure to ID theft is a lot less, I don't have that credit card headache, I don't give money over to a company I don't agree with philosophically, my credit report is great, and I don't have to periodically stress out over a piece of plastic.

I just don't understand why people want a credit card. Emergency use is about the best reason I've heard given, but hell, I've gone through many an emergency without a credit card. I don't know, it just doesn't make sense to me:shrug:

[izzybeans]

24. This has happened to me three times. Twice somehow my mailing address

had been changed, unknown to me. Third time, who knows?

As a fraud victim, whose "account" as been sold and resold by five banks now (only to reappear on my credit report each time) I trust credit card companies and their banks about as much as I woud trust George Bush to watch my son for an hour.

[Gormy Cuss]

25. Just say no

Call them on this tactic. Say you find them responsible for failing to notify you in a timely manner and you want to cancel the card NOW.

If you have a good record with them and they're an honest company, they will revoke some or all of the "fees." If they don't revoke the fees, cancel the card anyway. You're well rid of them.

If you are not in a position to do so today, put up with them while you search for an alternative. Don't charge anything new to this account.

We have only two ways to stop these abusive practices. First, get the lawmakers to act --unlikely to work in the current Washington climate since they're busy making sure even states can't enact laws to rein in this industry. Second, consumers can win by refusing to do business with
bad companies.

Consumers need to stop putting up with this crap. Try to keep your debt level as low as possible. The less you owe, the more you own. We all know that debt is sometimes unavoidable, but the rest of the time think twice before buying ANYTHING on credit.

[Sparkle]

28. Let me tell you what happened to me once with my cc company,

I paid my cc bill on time every month, always more than the minimum. A deposit that I charged months ago was credited to my cc a few days before my due date, which was way more than the minimum due. I saw this credit to my account and figured I didn't have to make my payment, so I didn't. I get my statement the next month and they charged me a late fee because I didn't pay the minimum due although the $400 credit was added.

I know I didn't pay the minimum due but I really didn't think I had to because of the $400 credit. I thought that was really f'd up. Imo, they could have let this one go. Greedy bastards.

[spuddonna]

29. Happened to us as well! Also, watch for possible mail/identity theft!

Hubby and I have a Capital One Card, and several times have not received a statement until a day or two before the statement due date! We've also had situations where I've paid the bill via snail mail TWO WEEKS before the due date, only to have late charges appear because 'they didn't receive the check in time'.

The best solution that I've found, at least for now, is to pay online. Usually payments are credited the day of the transaction if done from the company site, and if done from your bank, at least you have the bank to verify that you've made the payment. If you don't have online access, see if your bank offers telephone banking.

Another thing to check (if you aren't receiving bills) is to make sure you aren't a victim of mail tampering. You can contact your local post office and let them know that you haven't received mail you know you should have. Ask your neighbors if they've noticed any mail 'missing' or other mail related 'weirdness'.

The reason I mention this is that our neighborhood was targeted by 'mail thieves/identity thieves' and several neighbor's stolen mail was recovered by the local police/P.O. (We started talking amongst ourselves, and found that almost all of us had some weird mail problem in the past few months. One of us didn't receive an insurance statement, one didn't get new ATM cards, one didn't receive a CC statement...etc.) All of the neighbors mail that was stolen revolved around bills (over several months time), so it looks as though the thieves were after CC info and SSN's, probably for identity theft purposes.

We've been advised to only place outgoing mail in USPS Blue Boxes, not our mail box, because the Post Office can't guarantee its safety. The Post Office also recommend locked mailboxes as a deterrent to theft. And of course, now we all looking into our credit histories to check for identity theft and unauthorized charges! What fun!! (grrrr) :(

Hope this rant helps! :)

[EVDebs]

30. I've contacted my state PIRG with this information

You've all given great tips. I'm looking into the Credit Union/their card idea. Until then, www.pirg.org has state by state groups and I notice the national PIRG testified recently on the credit card industry shenanigans.

Also heard about a book called Credit Card Nation that's supposed to be very informative.

"Upon these corns too long you've tread you fine-haired sons-of-bitches"-- Black Bart

[EVDebs]

32. Just got my FIRST billing in the mail today---about a month and 1/2 late

The essence of the billing, repeated all over, was to visit the website and pay online. I guess using the 'incentive' of late fees and penalties, I'm being forced to pay online. This despite the recent and obvious dangers of hacking (both foreign and domestic).

Please check out what Sen Diane Feinstein has been trying to do, and the quote about foreign hacking and ID thefts with corporate silence

California leads way on ID theft legislation
www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/hacking/story/0,10801,76721,00.html

"...Alan Paller, director of research at the Bethesda, Md.-based SANS Institute, said the California law is probably necessary because of the kinds of crime that are occurring. A group in Russia and Ukraine has been acquiring customer data, extorting money to prevent its release and then selling it anyway. Paller believes some companies are paying off the extortionists in an attempt to contain the damage."

The banks and credit card companies say 'trust us' but hide the fact that they are being ripped off by crooks both foreign and domestic...and making the customer pay higher fees and penalties to cover for THEIR screw-ups. Globalization is B.S., tell Thomas Friedman I said so.

[EVDebs]

33. Weblink shows credit card lawsuits

http://www.pirg.org/consumer/bankrupt/bankrupt2.htm

"A court also recently approved a settlement in Mangone v. First USA Bank (206 F.R.D. 222) requiring First USA to pay the amount of $39.9 million for faulty finance charges and late fee payments made to consumer credit card accounts. First USA is currently facing an additional class action suit, Prata v. Bank One (111 Cal.Rptr.2d 296) alleging that the credit card financing plan marketed by Bank One used false and misleading advertising. The "Same-As-Cash" policy was deliberately marketed without advising consumers that the program required minimum monthly payments."

Verrrrrrrrrry interesting.