Get this! I made a payment in November that was one day late, over the phone. The person who took my payment assured me I would not be charged a late fee since the payment was due on a Sunday and I was paying on a Monday. Contrary to electronic wisdom, mail payments are still received and I am sure that if a payment is due Sunday (when the postal service does not deliver) and received on Monday it is not counted late (as was the custom in the good old days).
Since I am moving toward total electronic living, I get my statement online (saving trees, I hope). I didn't look at my November or December statements and made the standard payment through my bank's electronic system. However, the company did charge me a late fee in November thus making my December payment $3.00 short. Yes. Three dollars. What did FIA Card Services do? Did I get a friendly email advising me my payment was short? Did I get a nice phone call from a friendly employee? No. They charged me a $39.00 late fee and raised my interest rate to 27.99%. UN-BLOODY-BUH-LEEVABLE!!!
I am now in the process of closing the account by paying off the total amount. So, good bye FIA Card! My new loan will be at 5.47% and my card will be paid off in three years.
For those of you interested, I have been with this same card, administered by FIA Card, for over six years. I make regular payments. Although I have been late only twice (really!), I have also made extra and large payments. The amount I owe is less than half of my credit limit. Yet for three friggin' dollars they sell me up the creek.
By the way, I've always wondered about the wisdom that says, "Since you can't pay us we're going to ask you to pay us more by raising your interest rate."
4 comments:
What assholes. I have an FIA card as well, and have been for...maybe six years? I use it all the time, for everything...trying to rack up points, 'natch...but I pay it off online about three days a week. As a backup, I have $50 transferred from my savings account once a month should something unforseen happen and I forget to make a payment manually.
It's a shame you have to go through these hoops, but these motherfuckers are vile slime whose only reason for existing is to screw you over and pretty much steal your money. Living in Richmond as I do, I have a lot of friends who've worked at the corporate HQ for Capital One at one time or another, and you would not believe some of the stories I've heard.
Good luck with it!
Thanks for the sympathy. This card I actually got through SunTrust. I think FIA Card is a non-discriminatory gouger.
2 Ture stories from C Card land
(and I think these were the same company FIA)
When I was planning a trip to India I called up my c card company to make arrangements to pay an amount in advance to avoid being late with any payments while I was gone.
I was advised by the first two people that such a payment could not be processed-- that there was no way to do so other than having electronic debit in place which took longer to enact (a cycle or two) than I had left before flying out.
Only after going through many conversations with others there, I finally got to a supervisor who said she would arrange this--but acted like it was some special deal because of my positive history there --when why should it not have been available readily to anyone conscientous enough to make plans in advance?
(So I have autodeduction in place now and it did take several cycles to effect even after mailing back the enrollment pamphlet they had to first send me so clearly it could not have been done prior to the trip.)
And worse, on another vacation trip a plane connection was routed through Texas where I used my credit card to make a phone call home to my son. Upon returning to Richmond I was embarassed to find that my credit card was refused when I was only trying to buy some sunflower seeds in Ukrops, hardly a purchase amount that should require strong security tactics.
This was both embarassing and even worse alarming b/c I knew I had a perfect history both with Ukrops and also that that card was paid in full each month with no payments even due--
So I drove home without my seeds and worried and called them.
After all the annoying message prompts they ultimately and
very UNappologetically explained that it was for "my protection" since a phone call in Texas was so suspicious, so they froze my card usage without even leaving me a message, though I had been home for a few days (and if I were not myself traveling could have been home when the phone call came in, yet they never checked with me but just assumed it was fraudulent and froze it with no notice to me.
appreciative that they were "protecting me".
Who would have known I had to tell my c card company in advance that I was traveling in order not to get automatically frozen for uncharacteristic use (for one phone call from a Texas airport)
Had I been a criminal they would not have even "caught me" by these measures since I was not detained or anything. I told them I had just been publicly embarassed by having my card refused for a minor purchase and that it was at a store where I was planning to apply for a job (which I then didn't apply to because I was afraid they would remember my face as one with what looked like bad credit.)
Hello, Anonymous and thanks for your comment. Your stories highlight the ineffective strategies of FIA card and other credit card companies whose measures have become increasingly stringent. I've been lucky in the past to have been called by my FIA card lender to find out why I was suddenly making more purchases than usual. I was also fortunate in that my home number is a cell number and they could contact me immediately. So, by chance, I avoided having my card "frozen." Good luck to you. Find a new card company that actually cares. And when you do, let us know who that is.
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