I want a bill prohibiting credit card companies from using all their

[Thickasabrick]

smarmy tricks to stick it to the little people. If we are bailing them out then there needs to be some fucking payback for the havoc these assholes have caused with struggling consumers.

Example, your statement comes on November 14 but your payment keeps getting moved up...like November 7 and even if you pay the payment before the statement date, you get a fucking $40.00 late fee.

I fucking hate these assholes!!

:mad:

[davidinalameda]

1. don't carry a balance

simple enough

[Thickasabrick]

4. That isn't helpful and it it is not that simple nt

[peace13]

5. Late fees and balance are not related issues.

Only way to avoid a late fee with that short of a deadline is to not use the card. Go figure.

[Warpy]

9. Not always that simple

The last balance I paid off came back with a late fee even though I'd sent the payment the day I got it, a balance of less than a hundred dollars that month. A phone call only told me that the fees were levied if they posted a day late, even if they received payment on time.

I then cut the card into little pieces and sent it with the late fee payment and a note I'm sure curled the hair in their noses to cancel the card.

Silly me, I thought being able to charge 18% interest if a payment arrived a day late due to a USPS screwup should have been enough for them. Being charged the equivalent of 200% APR in junk fees showed me the beginning of a scam.

Those bastards will get you any way they can. My advice is to do without those cards. I've done so very nicely since 1991.

[Thickasabrick]

12. Thanks - good advice and it is my goal to pay them all off in the

next couple of years. I consider myself relatively lucky in that I have a good job and this really isn't going to break me. When I think about people who make considerably less than me it just pisses me off when I think about how in the world people are getting by. I know credit cards are bad but when emergencies come up and if you have a card as the only alternative for medicine, car repairs, etc. I can see where it would be very hard to not use it.

It just infuriates me as to what they are able to get away with. Where are the consumer protection advocates?

[NNN0LHI]

14. I don't trust things important as credit card payments to snail mail

Do them online the same day the bill is due and save myself a half a rock in postage in the process.

I highly recommend this method.

Don

[Warpy]

17. Paying online wasn't even a dream in 1991

The better idea was to cut the bloodsuckers loose.

[Wapsie B]

2. Usury laws need to be back on the books. Now.

They used to lock up Mafia hoods for loan sharking. Now it needs to be bankers.

[tama]

7. Usury

meaning taking interest. It used to be sin in all major religions - Jeesus chasing out the money-changers etc., but then Pope and some protestants... ehm... made deal with Satan (Mammon, as some call him).

[AlCzervik]

3. Which credit card company is this that charged you a late fee when you paid your bill on time?

[Thickasabrick]

6. But see...according to them even if it is before the next statement

date...it is late. So on top of the interest (23%) and I get a $39.00 late fee (I rounded it to 40.00 in my initial rant but it was actually $39.00).

It is a USAirways Mastercard.

[AlCzervik]

8. did you call them? When i do have a balance on my cc the payment would be due on the 19th

and i always pay it before the date and i never have a late charge but if did i would raise hell.

[Thickasabrick]

10. Oh yea, they said it doesn't matter if it's before the statement date -

it has to be by the due date which changes every month. This is something new, I'm relatively old but when I checked with a few of my other cards they said the same thing. I really hate these people and we are bailing them out!!

[Dr. Strange]

16. If they do that, cancel the card.

And tell them why. If they really want you as a customer, they'll waive those fees. If they don't, then you don't want their card.

[Fresh_Start]

11. most companies have online statements

and you can set up autopay so you never have to have a late fee.
It works, my last late fee was 6 years ago.

[wryter2000]

15. I go online and pay my credit cards every two weeks or so

I wouldn't rely on paper statements. I noticed some time back that they give you just about 0 time to pay after the paper bill went out. In the olden days, I'd set it aside for a week or two waiting for other bills.

The other little trick they pull is called something like double-cycling. They calculate the interest twice a month, rather than once. So, if they find a balance, they'll tack on some interest even though it isn't time to send the bill yet. I was paying off my Providian card every month, but occasionally, some interest would show up on the bill. I cancelled that card immediately when I found out they were doing that.

Someone really needs to get these bastards to cut the crap.

[Thickasabrick]

19. We need consumer protection on just those tactics you described...

that's a new one. I wonder how much crap they are doing to people and we aren't even aware?

[CabalPowered]

13. Here's my $24 insurance policy against late fees

I carry a card only for business purchases and don't carry a balance. But I've been hit with the roving due date, late-mailed scheme many times. What I ended up doing a few years ago is setting up an automatic payment to the cc from my credit union for $1 at the beginning of each month and in then again in the middle of the month. As long as you make a payment prior to the due date, of any size, you can't be charged a late fee. I then make a manual payment for the outstanding balance minus a dollar when I receive the statement.

[Thickasabrick]

18. That's a neat trick! I'm going to try it next month! Thanks - I still

think we need some type of bill protecting consumers - especially from these sneaky tactics. This is new or I would have noticed it before and I haven't changed my bill paying habits lately so I know it's a new tactic with this particular card.