I am the Bitch Queen! (in the "complaining" sense of Bitch)

[eyesroll]

So, I went to pay my credit-card online, and apparently they've shifted processors. Transactions used to post the next business day, with a 24-hour grace period (so if you paid on a Saturday, and your bill was due Sunday, it would post Monday and you'd get that grace period, so no extra interest or penalties). Now, however, their processor takes two to three business days, no exceptions (except that my bill was still due on a non-business day).


Well, I called the 24-hour customer service line, and the regular CS guy couldn't help me, so he transferred me to the payment center. For the record, my husband works in electronic-funds transfer, and these transactions could post in seconds if they wanted it to, even at 3 a.m. on a Sunday. The payment lady told me it's not that simple; I told her that it is that simple from a technological standpoint, but that actual people (who are not her, and I know it's not her fault, I always say when I'm about to unload on a CS person) made the decision to make it not that simple.
The payment person lectured me and told me that if I'd just read the instructions and not waited to the last minute, I wouldn't be having this problem. :eyes:

I told her I don't appreciate being condescended to, and there are plenty of credit-card companies and I'm sure some of them have more customer-friendly pay-by-Internet policies and I asked to speak with the supervisor. Boy, I was on hold for a long time. I wonder what they talked about? :think:

Well, the supervisor got on the line and told me that I'd been such a valuable customer that they were going to take a check by phone, which will post today, and waive the $15 fee.

You know -- if the stupid online payment center said I could pay by phone for $15, I probably would have done it to avoid much larger late fees and interest. But it didn't -- it just told me it was going to post Tuesday at the earliest, too bad. Why does the left arm of a company never know what the right arm is doing?

And why do they program the machines to wait three days? They don't care that it's Saturday (and I verified with my husband -- everything, including authorization and debiting the money, can be done immediately, in seconds, and even if human intervention is needed, money networks are staffed 24/7).

[King Of Paperboys]

Sad, but true

A HUGE portion of their revenues comes from late fees, overlimit fees, and other "penalties." One of my credit card companies (the one that will NOT let me pay online) sends me the bill with BARELY enough time to send them a check in time to avoid late charges. I have to watch the mail like a hawk. One month, they never sent me a bill at all. If I didn't need that credit line right now, I'd cancel that card and tell them WHY I am doing so.

[wtmusic]

1. The old "let us borrow your money" for a few days shtick

In CA 20 years ago or so it used to take banks two weeks to clear out-of-state checks, even though funds were transferred in a matter of days. After a massive lawsuit and settlement against Crocker Bank, the phony "clearing period" holds were eliminated (not, of course, until the banks had made literally millions in interest for the free use of customer's money).

[eaprez]

2. So they can collect late fees AND.....

....so they can jack up your interest rate. You can get your rates lowered if you call and speak to the right people....sometimes by as much as half.

[flamingyouth]

3. What especially pissed me off

Is when I went to my bank to pay my credit card once, the money immediately came out of my account, yet it took them five freaking working days to apply it to my card, and then they charged me a late fee and interest!

That was until I completely blew my top at them (I have a long fuse, but look out, world...). So now I pay over the phone, and I've been assured that the payments will be processed within seven hours.

:grr: