UH OH!!
As I mentioned in my first post, I use Mint.com & Quicken Online to track my daily expenses and budget. Mint.com sends me weekly emails showing me my monthly budget to date. But this past Friday, I received a jaw dropping email that one of my Citi cards’ interest rate went from 16.99% to 25.99%.
16.99% is already crazy high which is why I only use this card for balance transfers. The rates on the BT range from 0% to 6.99% so it was quite shocking to see the payment required for those balances when the interest rate is 25.99%. Instead of $25 in interest, I was being charged $225!!!
Because I chose to use the snowball effect for my debt repayment plan I have only been making the minimum payments.
Now what…..
I quickly reviewed my statements and realized my 2nd payment was often posted very close to the due date and for May it turned out to be 1 day before. I am paid on the 1st and 15th so I have that money paid to the credit cards immediately.
I called Citi cards to see (and hope) they would be understanding. I politely explained what happened (it arrived on the 19th instead of 18th) to the customer service rep who was very helpful. I made sure to keep calm, explain my long history with Citi, show how my payments are always on the same date and asked if we could move the due date out a few days to ensure this does not repeat.
Whew!
After 15 minutes on the phone, the rep said yes she would wave the $39 late fee and reverse the interest rate increases back to the original rates. So instead of owing $375 for June, I only owe the regular $165!! And much more importantly my rates were not jacked sky high.
What have you done??
Has anyone else had luck negotiating with credit card companies to reverse fees/reduce interest rates? What other tactics do you use?
If you haven’t done anything, how do you keep on track with your debt reduction plan? This would have thrown a serious curve ball in my plan.
If you have not tried, I strongly suggest you do. I am an avid reader of Ramit’s blog & book, I will teach you to be rich, and both the website and book give examples of who to call, what to say, and how to say it in order to get fees waived & rates dropped.
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I had a similar experience with my mortgage company. I paid electronically on the due date as I was refinancing that week and wasn’t sure yet of the closing date–nor was my new bank.
I paid the bill on the due date via internet, and two weeks later recieved a letter that I’d missed a payment and what the penalties would be. (#%*)#%)*?
I called them up and explained that i’d paid, and gave them my confirmation number (thank goodness I’d written it down, usually I don’t) and then they told me that there was a typo in the routing number so the check never cleared (and for this error I can pay $300.).
It took several phone calls, but they eventually reversed the late fees, and I was able to close my refinance without incident.
Just a word of warning–sometimes if they dont’ actually post a payment–they wont’ call you to tell you there’s a problem!
It’s great that Mint can alert you to this! I haven’t had any rates go up yet, so I didn’t realize they have this functionality!