"zxcvbob" <zxcvbob[at]charter.net> wrote
- quote -

What do the contracts (for all three services; Chase's, the
bank's, and the bill pay's) say about your responsibilities
for bill payment?

A letter to Chase may be appropriate, but if I were in your
shoes, I would want to know whether the contract(s) was
(were) on my side or not.

Elle wrote:

- quote -

Hi Elle,
I'm not sure if these were rhetorical Q's or not.

Chase kept putting up roadblocks to getting this resolved. That's why
ultimately there had to be a conference call with me listening in on the
line. Then they never backed down an inch even after admitting that
their prolonged server outage had caused the problem -- their argument
was that I should have known the bill was available online and I am
ultimately responsible for paying it whether they notify me or not.
(and I did pay it, it's only the service charge that I find so offensive)

I don't really know why the bank is going to reimburse me the $39. This
is not something we /negotiated/ on the call, it's something they
generously offered when it because apparent that Chase was not going to
do anything. Yes I did interject that I was not satisfied and the bank
lady told me it was a waste of time talking to Chase any further; we all
said "goodbye" and hung up at that point.

Bob

"zxcvbob" <zxcvbob[at]charter.net> wrote
- quote -

It seems to me that two mistakes were made. Servers went
down (an honest enough mistake) and Chase's initial response
to you seemed inappropriate. But these mistakes were
remedied insofar as the late fee and finance charge are
being refunded to you by the bank. (The bank being one of
four entities in the chain for paying the bill, the other
three being the bill payment service, Chase (the credit card
co.), and you.)

So I am not so sure it's fair to say you were treated
shabbily.

When you call Chase to cancel your two accounts with them
(as you wrote you would, after enjoying the $25 cash rebate
that comes with the Chase card), and they ask why, what are
you going to say? That being refunded the late fee and the
finance charge, per a conference call with all four
entities, is not enough? That it's outageous that the bank
offered to refund the late fee and finance charge while
Chase did not? Did you interject during the conference call
that, say, you would not be satisfied unless Chase paid?
What was your goal with the conference call? When it ended,
did you indicate you remained dissatisfied?

joetaxpayer wrote:

- quote -

People often say this, but that's never been the attitude I've run into
dealing with CC companies.

A cardholder that uses you regularly MIGHT generate interest or fees.
One that quits never will. There's the old adage about it costing X (5?
10?) times as much to attract a new customer as it does to keep an
existing one.




Brian

--
If televison's a babysitter, the Internet is a drunk librarian who
won't shut up.
-- Dorothy Gambrell (http://catandgirl.com)

joetaxpayer wrote:
- quote -


This is a BP (previously known as Amoco) card, and the issuing bank is
Chase. It pays 1% cash back on most purchases, 2% every once in a while
on "travel and entertainment" purchases, and 5% on BP gasoline. I
assumed the merchant fees were at least 3%.

I just happen to own stock in both BP and Chase (JPM). I intend to
write to Investor Relations of both companies about this. Not because I
expect to receive special treatment as a stockholder, but because
treating customers-in-general shabbily drives away business.

Bob

- quote -

The thought occurs to me, if you never carry a balance on the card, and
only collect the cash back, they may have no interest (pun intended) in
your business. I don't have solid data on merchant fees, but 1.5%-2.5%
seems the range, so how much can my card make the issuing bank when I am
getting a 2% cash rebate? This is why their term for customers like me
is 'deadbeat'. But I'll take it, and the 5% gas rebate until they change
my terms.

JOE

zxcvbob wrote:

- quote -

Might as well. You can probably get as good of a deal on cashback
elsewhere, maybe better depending on what specials are running.




Brian

--
If televison's a babysitter, the Internet is a drunk librarian who
won't shut up.
-- Dorothy Gambrell (http://catandgirl.com)

Default User wrote:
- quote -


When either this statement closes or the next, I earn a $25 cash back
rebate. As soon as I get the $25 check deposited in my bank account I
am going to call and cancel both of my Chase accounts. (The other one
is an Amazon card that I don't use much anyway)

Bob

Thumper wrote:


- quote -

I had a card where the shifted the payment date, although I wasn't
signed up for alerts and was just going on the previous month's due
date, so I missed it by one. They wouldn't would waive the late fee, so
I grumpily paid.

After the payment posted, I called back to cancel. They immediately got
in a dither and refunded the late fee.




Brian

--
If televison's a babysitter, the Internet is a drunk librarian who
won't shut up.
-- Dorothy Gambrell (http://catandgirl.com)

On Tue, 9 Oct 2007 10:46:57 -0500, zxcvbob <zxcvbob[at]charter.netwrote:

- quote -


I would cancel. Hell, you might even get a call from some other
Department at Chase offering you incentives to keep your account
there. Also I would tell them that you are reporting them to the
attorney general for fraudulent charges because of their equipment
failure.
Thumper

On 2007-10-09, zxcvbob <zxcvbob[at]charter.net> wrote:
- quote -

Canceling the account seems to be a no brainer at this point.

i

zxcvbob wrote:

- quote -


I just got off of a conference call with Chase, my bank, and the bill
payment service. The reason I did not receive an electronic bill until
the night before it was due was because one of Chase's servers has had
problems for several weeks AND THEY STILL WOULD NOT WAIVE THE LATE FEE
OR THE FINANCE CHARGES EVEN THOUGH IT WAS THEIR FAULT because they said
the statement was available on their web site.

The bank is gonna refund the $39 late fee and the finance charge. I'm
still considering canceling the Chase account; I will definitely cancel
the account if they use the late payment as an excuse to jack up the
interest rate. I may cancel the account even if they don't; I'm not
sure the generous rewards program is worth doing business with [use your
imagination]

Bob

Rich Carreiro wrote:
- quote -

Right, and of course I had to have the payment credited that day in
order to avoid late charges and interest. The pay-by-phone fee was $15
as opposed to the larger late charge (but they did waive the fee after I
complained).

-Will

"zxcvbob" <zxcvbob[at]charter.net> wrote in message
news:5mqcdrFeni5cU1[at]mid.individual.net...

- quote -

I'm doing essentially the same.

I just set up a low interest balance transfer from a credit card to
pay off a car loan. Including the balance transfer fee I'm saving
several hundred dollars over the life of the loan. I use Microsoft
Money to calculate the payoff schedule for that and another account
for which I did the same thing. Money adjusts the payment amount every
month, considering relative interest rates and minimum payments. I
can't schedule automatically because it's constantly changing.

I set up an automatic draft by the credit card bank from my checking
account for the minimum. My Money-calculated payment should occur
before that minimum payment. The issuer adjusts scheduled payments to
include other credits. The result is if I don't mess up, I pay it off
on schedule and don't get double-billed. If I mess up, the minimum
gets paid and I don't suffer missed payment fees or, worse, escalation
of the interest due to not making payments in a timely manner.
--
Chris Cowles
Gainesville, FL

"Elizabeth Richardson" <erichktn[at]worldnet.att.net> writes:

- quote -

When you use the same-day payment option (i.e. account is credited
for the payment on the day you make the call to make the payment),
there is a fee. When you don't use that option, there isn't.

--
Rich Carreiro rlc-news[at]rlcarr.com

"Will Trice" <wwtrice[at]paragondynamics.com> wrote in message
news:4708FCA7.2000800[at]paragondynamics.com...
- quote -

Gosh, Will, I always pay my BofA credit card by phone and there is never a
fee. In fact, the recorded information explicitly says there is no fee to
pay by phone. I must say I'm surprised.

Elizabeth Richardson

zxcvbob wrote:
- quote -

I just had a similar problem with a paper statement for my Bank of
America credit card. I also use electronic bill pay, so I generally
don't look too closely at my bill until about a week before it is due
(that's when I have a reminder set). However, on my last statement,
BofA backed up the due date by a week, meaning I ended up looking at the
bill on the day it was due. I paid by phone, incurring a fee, which I
later got them to waive.

When I called to get the fee waived, I asked them about the reason for
my due date changing so dramatically when it has remained on the same
date (within a couple of days for weekends and holidays) for the entire
time I've had the card. They said that they have a new policy that
allows them to change the date essentially at random (that's not really
a "why") and that the due date would continue to move around in the
future. However, they did allow me to request a fixed payment date that
would stop it from changing. Which I did.

Then I stopped using the card because I think this is a stupid thing to
have to request.

Moral of the story: keep an eye on your due dates...

-Will

"zxcvbob" <zxcvbob[at]charter.net> wrote in message
news:5mq8sfFemu33U1[at]mid.individual.net...
- quote -

I'm not sure I understand any of this post, nor the reason for it, but
reading some of the other replies, I must ask, Why don't you have the bills
sent directly to you? What is the date on the bill? Is that different than
the usual date? (Hint: my credit card closes on the same date every month.)

What is a bill payment service? How much does it cost? (For the OP, this
month it cost $35 more!) How much time does it save you? I think I'd prefer
to be in control of this, as I'm in control of all of my financial business.

Elizabeth Richardson

On Sun, 7 Oct 2007 09:35:59 -0500, joetaxpayer
<joetaxpayer[at]nospam.com> wrote:

- quote -


They want you to pay. They just love it when you pay late.
Thumper

Thumper wrote:
- quote -

At 18%, a running balance of $10K (the average amaerican's balance)
produces $150/mo in interest. This is what the card companies 'want'.
Late payments quickly put the account into a lower rating and while it
may drive the interest up in the short term, it leads to the defaults.
It may be obvious, but the first step to default is a late payment.
JOE
www.joetaxpayer.com