Last night, Tuesday the 14th, I went online to pay my bill. It wasn’t due until Friday the 17th, and their web site says it takes up to two business days to process a payment. Should be fine, right? But at the top of their payment page, there was a notice about payments on or after the 14th being assessed an “expedited processing fee” of $14.95—essentially a late fee, even though my payment was not going to be late. I called, got the usual call center in Pakistan or wherever (the company administering the cards is Chase), told them about this, and asked them to reverse the charge. They refused. So, I said I wanted to cancel my card. And the guy asks me what my reason for cancelling is (!), and offers me a lower interest rate. I told him that all I wanted was the $14.95, and he refused again. So, I’m done with Circuit City Rewards, and maybe even Chase itself (I have another Chase card, and am going to call and see if they’re going to put this insane policy on it too.)
There are plenty of credit card companies out there (Discover and Citibank are two examples) that give you credit for your online payment right when you make it; as long as it’s in by a certain time on the due date, you’re in good shape. These companies that act like they can’t manage to credit your account for several days are just trying to improve their bottom line with late fees, and that has been a long-standing pet peeve of mine. But this “expedited processing fee” on a payment that according to their own “payment processing” statement would be on time — unbelievable.
