Non-grouch

This would be a grouch and on an entirely different blog, if it were not for the happy ending.

For reasons I still cannot explain to myself, I decided to check my credit card balance late last night, just before I went to sleep. It was a stupid idea in the first place. A $35 late fee for December caught my eye. Considering I'd made 4 payments in December, I was more than peeved. I didn't realise how peeved until I woke in the middle of the night thinking of how the phone conversation would go today. So positive affirmations as you're about to go to sleep don't always work. Check.

Each month, and always, I put at least 3-4 times more into my credit card than the required 'minimum monthly payment'. Since I didn't have that amount in December, I made weekly automatic payments so I'd at least be paying something. I was apparently $20 short of the minimum. For that $20, they charged me $35 and put my freakin' account on hold (I found that out while on the phone trying not to get irrate). Three times, I asked to speak to a supervisor. The woman refused. But I am smart and the bank has a complaints hotline. I told her not to worry about her lack of helpfulness, because I had another phone call to make and hung up.

The lovely Matt on the complaints line understood perfectly why I'd be pissed that I'd been charged a fee almost twice the amount I was supposedly short. I suggested that 'late payment fee' wasn't really an apt term when even if you make 4 payments in the month, you still get charged for not paying. He agreed, said he could see that all my payments till December had been consistently way above the minimum, so he made a couple of phone calls, got the fee and the hold removed. Nice boy.

So there, Yenni in customer service. You could be more helpful next time and I might write something nice about you, too!