Buffalo Boy's Blog
Giving You More Than Just My Two Cents
finance: March 2010 Archives
Damn Credit Cards
Yesterday I was paying off bills and as I was paying one of my remaining credit cards I noticed the statement from another card online that should have been not just at a zero balance but closed.
It was a Chase Bank credit card and without me knowing or getting any prior knowledge they had closed the account on me last July. It was a card I was planning on keeping because of the cards I have left it had the lowest interest rate.
Well, since it was closed I wanted it paid off. I paid the remaining $400+ balance on the thing in December, zero balance right?
Wrong.
While looking at my statement noticed in February a mystery $7.46 balance showed up. Apparently this was interest from the average daily balance for the month of December that they conveniently forgot to charge me in January.
In addition there was a "minimum" interest fee of $1.00 added to it for February so the balance was $8.46. I know Im screaming about pennies but the point was this card was paid in full, they came up with some bullshit interest charge and kept the account in payment status.
If I hadn't noticed they probably would have nailed me for a late payment fee and the card would have ballooned out of control without any purchases.
So I called and originally they told me that there was nothing they could do which really got me pissed. So I asked for a manager and stated the facts, I paid off the balance in Decemenber, there was a zero balance, how do you get interest from nothing?
Only a credit card company could figure that one out. The manager eventually after about 15 minutes of going back and forth and me refusing to pay a cent of the charges agreed that it was wrong and they dismissed it.
I have essentially two cards and a store card remaining to pay off. Once those are gone Im credit free. If we don't have the cash I ain't buying.
