Sneaky credit card tactic, or am I just imagining it?

[Orrex]

For the past two months I think I've noticed what appears to be a new trick by two credit card companies regarding online payments, but I'm not sure. It's possible that it was always this way and I just failed to notice.

So I have a payment due on the 30th. A few months back I could enter my payment on the 30th up until 4:00 central and still have the payment date credited as the 30th.

But today (the 29th) I logged in to make my payment, and I saw that the 30th is the earliest date I could have it credited to my account, effectively a full day's delay. This isn't a problem because the payment will still post just fine, but if I'd logged in tomorrow, the payment wouldn't post until the 2nd, and I'd get hit with a fee and an immediate huge increase in my interest rate.

So what's the deal? Is it simply that I'm just noticing it for the first time? Or has this changed recently?

[PassingFair]

1. I like the part where they CHARGE YOU for a next day payment...

but it is free to pay on-line if they wait
another day.

*uckers!

[Orrex]

9. Yes!

I also love how pay-by-phone some online payments incur a "convenience fee," even though these involve no direct human participation. But it's free for them to receive a check in the mail, open it, manually apply it to the account, and manually deposit the check. :wtf:

[Zywiec]

2. When will the credit card company get their money?

If it's a direct debit from your account, then it should be today.

If they don't get the money until the 30th, then it seems reasonable that they credit your account tomorrow.

[Orrex]

6. Yes, but there's no reason that a payment posted before 4:00 shouldn't be credited for the same day

Outside of holidays and weekends, of course.

[Zywiec]

10. How can you credit something if the bank doesn't have the funds?

Here's an idea: pay it on the 28th before or after 4:00 pm and you'll have no issues.

[Orrex]

12. Same-day money market trades happen billions of times daily

If I post the payment before 4:00, there's no reason at all that it can't be credited same-day.


But the issue isn't even whether or not I posted the payment on time, because I did.

The issue is that this is an apparently new--and deliberate--tactic to generate late fees and/or "special processing" fees.

If it had always been the case that the posting of payments was delayed by 24 hours or more, then there wouldn't be a question about it. But the sudden and quiet shift to this new payment structure struck me as a bit curious.

[ixion]

3. you're not imagining it

they are out to get you, and will try and cause a late payment fee any way they can.

[Orrex]

11. Strangely, that's reassuring

I mean, I knew that they were out to bilk me, but if I were also going insane on top of that, it would have been a bit much to take.

I was aware of their sneaky tactic of quietly changing the due date, advancing it a day or two to catch you in a late fee. But this trick of delaying the posting of the payment was a new one for me!

[HipChick]

4. Which credit card company?

[Orrex]

5. Today it was HSBC, but I think that Chase did it to me, too

I also noticed a similar posting delay with a utility company, but it was less of a factor there because the day's delay wouldn't incur a fee or a huge rate increase.

[RKP5637]

18. Chase has become a Sh** company. I've had them for decades and now

they are one Sh** company.

[rucky]

7. Not only are they trying to get a late fee...

but gain fractional interest (times a million) by holding payments.

[Orrex]

13. Yeah, they're happy to skewer you from both ends

[AllentownJake]

8. They are going broke

and they are doing anything they can to take what is available from their existing customers.

[Orrex]

14. Sounds about right

Citi can "restate" $8 billion in losses for a quarter, and that's just dandy, and the CEO still gets his bonus. But if I'm 30 seconds late in posting my $15 payment, then they act like I'm single-handedly bankrupting the company.

[AllentownJake]

17. I'm unemployed

They aren't getting shit from me right now...oh well.

[napi21]

15. I don't know about the others but my account at Chase

has this note right underneath the "Payment Date".

Note: The payment date will default to today, unless it is later than 4:00 PM Eastern time. In this case, the payment date will default to tomorrow.

This account has been this way for the several years I've been paying online.

[Orrex]

22. I'll have ot double-check my Chase account

I paid it this month well in advance of the due date, so any posting delay wasn't a factor.

[RKP5637]

16. Never remotely think they will do anything to your benefit. It's about them and

how they can screw you to the wall for more money. It's all stacked against us for the most part.:mad:

[NashVegas]

19. These Pig Suckers Will Do Anything They Can

Anyone here have Barclay?

Mail a check on October 8th and they'll take until the 16th for it to be credited to an account. AmEx and Chase take two days.

[lunatica]

20. I realized they were gaming me when they made my due date the 30th

I can't pay anything on the 30th and neither can millions upon millions of people. So they tack on a $35 late fee exactly on the 30th of the month. They are making billions of dollars just doing that one thing.

Soon they'll make the payment due date the 28th or the 27th. They're out to get all they can get. It has become their prime directive. That's why they're using every trick in the book and inventing more tricks.

They're ruining everyone's credit rating with their actions. Every time they cut the credit line on good customers they ruin the customers' credit. Every time they charge a 'handling fee' on people who pay off their balances in full they are ruining their credit.

But people still think they'll be considered deadbeat if they stop playing the corporate game in which only the corporations win. There's more of a chance of winning big in Las Vegas than there is of winning against corporations.

[RKP5637]

21. USA, Inc. n/t

[woodsprite]

23. We've also been noticing our bank making our automated

payments earlier than we set up.