Late fee and interest removed !!!

[Time2]

I had a home insurance payment ($3,866) due 1/25/25 as usual, I use online banking to pay it
and I scheduled payment about a week early. I received a reminder letter a couple days
before due date and then a late letter about 7 days after the due date. I called the Insurance company
and verified they had not received the check, it also had not shown on any online bank statements.
I went to my bank to see if indeed they had sent the check, they said they did.
So, I called the insurance company back and paid it by Credit Card. And of course they then received
the check a day or two later. So they had a double payment as of 2-5, it is now 3-14, I have not received a refund for the over payment.
They insurance company does say the check has been sent, about 10 days ago now! :-(
Now the interesting part, I misplaced, the Credit Card statement, actually it was under some handwritten notes on getting my
computer working again after a self induced hard drive problem. (i.e. it was a frustrating few days!)
When I saw it, it was due on the 2nd, it was already the 7th. Paying online, the money would not be sent until the 10th, unless I paid a rush fee, which I didn't due.
This all means my Credit Card payment was late. Over 40 years of marriage we have not had more than 3 late payments, nor have we paid any interest.
I called the Credit Card Company hoping to get the extra charges ($30 late fee and $71.36 int) removed, or, at least reduced. I started working my way thru
the menu using speech, finally I said, "help with late fee and interest charge", I got an immediate, "Good news, we have credited your account,
$30 for the late fee and $71.36 for the interest charge." I didn't even get to tell them my long history with them or my good payment history.
Anyway, I was shocked at how easy it was.

 

[Texas Proud]

What bank?

I had a big bill with Capital One with a late fee and over $150 in interest (expensive vacation)... they waived the late fee and IIRC about $50 of the interest...

They got the payment 3 days late.. when I looked at their online bill that was the date I saw.. when I looked again it was not there... I talked to a manager and said that if the full amount on interest was not returned I was never going to use the card again... and how expensive is it to get a customer that charges as much as I do....

Well, I have not used that card in 1 1/2 to 2 years... lucky that Fidelity got rid of their foreign transaction fees...

 

[Time2]

Citi.

 

[rk911]

If you misplace your paper CC statement you can always download it from the CC website. And to avoid late payments you can have the card company automaticallly pull the payment from your bank account on a date of your choosing.

 

[jazz4cash]

Glad I stayed around for the ending!

 

[Texas Proud]

If you misplace your paper CC statement you can always download it from the CC website. And to avoid late payments you can have the card company automaticallly pull the payment from your bank account on a date of your choosing.

Yea.... never going to happen... I never let anybody pull money from my account (well, except for Chase from my Chase bank account).. there is no way to stop it if they want to continue to do it without a lot of calling etc... I always push or use bill pay... much more control of what happens..

 

[VanWinkle]

Life is so much easier to set bills up as autopay direct from our spending account. We watch it like a hawk, but have never had a problem.

 

[Time2]

If you misplace your paper CC statement you can always download it from the CC website. And to avoid late payments you can have the card company automaticallly pull the payment from your bank account on a date of your choosing.

Since the bill was not in the bill place, I had no memory that it was due.
As I said in my OP, over 43 years of our marriage we have been late 3 times, this is a rare occurrence. Also, I know auto debit for bills is now a common thing, but, I don't like having money just taken from my bank account. We never have paid a late fee or interest, even when late. My wife called and pleaded to have the charges removed and they always have. I was just surprised when I talked to a computer and it knew what I wanted and it removed the charges. If that is AI at work, I like it.

 

[Time2]

Glad I stayed around for the ending!

Smirk. ;-)

 

[Kings over Queens]

What bank?

I had a similar experience as the OP, just blew the payment, my fault.

Called the bank, same thing, automated system first credited the late fee and then reversed the interest, on its own.

I was shocked.

Citibank (Costco Card).

 

[freedomatlast]

I don't like having money just taken from my bank account.

That's pretty much what a check does. Online payment is the same thing as a check without the paper check and without involvement and risk with USPS.

 

[TheWizard]

That's pretty much what a check does. Online payment is the same thing as a check without the paper check and without involvement and risk with USPS.

Correct.
With my two credit cards, what I do is pay off my BALANCE twice a month manually, rather than let them withdraw payment automatically each month. It takes me just a minute or two using their app on my smartphone, from my linked checking account...

 

[rk911]

Life is so much easier to set bills up as autopay direct from our spending account. We watch it like a hawk, but have never had a problem.

We've been doing that for a long time....20-25 years at least. We were away from home for weeks atca time in our motor home. In the early days my BIL would check the mail, call us and let us know who to write the check to and for how much.
When ACH payments became a thing we eagerly signed up and we've never looked back. In all those years just one issue and that was our electric company that did not pull the monthly payment.

These days, in preparing for the day when I won't be around, all of our routine monthly and semi-annual bills are on auto-pay. My wife is not computer literate and this will make it easier for her when I'm gone. When I waa hospitalized for 12-days back in 2023 one of the things I did not worry about was bill payments.

 

[Dash man]

I go on the credit card app daily to see and verify any charges, then pay the bill. It only takes a minute. I do have autopay set up in case something happens to me and to make it easier for DW.

 

[Time2]

That's pretty much what a check does. Online payment is the same thing as a check without the paper check and without involvement and risk with USPS.

I don't consider it quite the same because I do have to write the check so I know the amount and the date. I just looked at my check register, the last check I wrote was a year ago January and I see 10 checks sense the end of 2021. I do almost everything with online banking. There are a couple problems, my city utilities, water/sewer/garbage, is not setup for electronic transfer. So, I get the utility bill about 10 days before it is due, I have to tell my online banking o pay it within a day or two because they write a physical check and put it in the mail, that often take 7 full days. I started asking and being told the city is working on getting setup for direct transfer. The first time was 2018! A few years later I was told we have a specific person working on that. The also don't have direct transfer with my home insurance, and it took a little over 2 weeks for the check to arrive, the did go by the date the bank sent it though.

 

[mystang52]

"Since the bill was not in the bill place, I had no memory that it was due."

Although I pay all of my bills electronically, here's something I do that you can do as well: Change all of your credit cards billing periods to close on the 26th (give or take) of the month. Then, you will know that all of your bills get paid on or about the 1st of the month. No more concerns about remembering individual card due dates.

 

[Time2]

Several people want to find a way to correct something that I don't consider a problem. As I said 3 times in 43 years. Let me do the math, 12 x 43 = 516, So, if I have had 4 late CC bills, that is 0.775% of the time, and I'm not convinced that the bill was misplaced every time, there could have been another reason. I don't try to remember bill due dates, I have a about 8 monthly bills to pay and 4 more that are only due once or twice a year. I don't have any problem paying my bills on time! but then any good dead beat would say that, right?