Okay. I need to buy a new car two months sooner than expected. I start pulling all my credit card statements to see how much I can pay to get all the UTILs down sooner. I pull Wal-Mart, and #$%^^&* if they haven't nailed me with all kinds of charges and a default APR of 29.99%! I just paid them!--True, it was the minimum, but I am paying down everyone in sight and this one had to take a minimum in the rotation. Limit is $700 and the balance (with fees, etc.) is now above $720!!!!
So I call the number and get Edward--in collections! Turns out the minimum was $29, NOT $20. Now I usually don't pay what I call the "fake minimum" (what a card claims the minimum is), but the "real minimum" (which is the minimum, the interest on the remaining balance, and a little bit on the rest of the balance). It just so happened that this month I wasn't able to do that, so decided to pay the fake minimum on this card and whack the other two. Maybe I wrote a 0 instead of a 9 on my list. At any rate, Edward said if I paid the $9 today, he would refund the finance charge ($13.63) on my next bill as a "one-time courtesy." I appreciated that, indeed, but under the circumstances, an honest error in this amount should not trigger a cascade of doom on an account that I have paid well and faithfully every month for two years.
GEMB did this to me once before. Over New Year's, while out of town and using my B of A Online Banking, I scheduled all my bill payments. For some reason, when I checked the next day, they hadn't go through. I re-sent everything (and I think I accidentally paid the mortgage twice as a result, but that's another story), including the PIF of over $1K for the remaining balance on my perfect Lowe's card. They said it was a day late, hence 30 days late, and my credit score went in the crapper. I've been fighting my way back ever since. NOW THIS. AND JUST NOW.
I am done with GEMB. Once again, I will cheerfully PIF this account the the end of the month, then put Wal-Mart in the sock drawer with Lowes. IKEA is about $120 away from the same fate. They can stick it. I am done with this. And if I have to drive a used car and pay cash for it, that suits me just fine. One less freaking shark out there trying to make a mountain out of a molehill. And then I'll pay some stupid law firm to get my score cleaned up with some expedience, because I am sick and damn tired of wasting what little free time I have on the phone with idiots, tracking down copies, and explaining myself to sanctimoniuos clerks as if I were a deadbeat.
GRRRRRR.
Starting Score: 550
@Cleanmachine wrote:Really sorry to read about your experiences with GEMB/Wal-Mart Penalty Rate over $9 Error.
However, and not to be sanctimonious, but, after reading your lengthily dissertation it all boils down to that fact that you failed to pay your minimum.
I trust that you may have learned a lesson to pay the minimum and pay when due.
Sock drawer all the cards you want, it will not change the fact it was your error and not the Credit Card Company.
+1 ---- I have to agree with Clean on this one. It may be beneficial to setup an automatic draft of the minimum payment to make sure something like this does not happen again. I actually think it is nice of GEMB to refund the finance charge if you brought your account current because it is not something that they have to do. You have to realize that many people that have paid faithfully may have a mistake, but also are the same ones that start paying less than the minimum and then stop paying at all, so the bank was trying to protect itself. I think if you made on time payments for the next couple of months, you can call them back, explain the error and ask that they lower the interest rate back down. I am sure they will work with you on it. Also, you should always try to pay more than the minimum. Even if its just a couple of dollars. It will make a huge difference.
The point here is not that "you failed to pay the minimum," but that it was an honest error, for which an otherwise well-maintained account *is* worthy of a one-time consideration. If this were about "failure," back-door numbers wouldn't exist.
There's a world of difference between willfully refusing to pay what one owes on time and a simple calculation error or misreading/skip of the eye.
Of course I owe the $9. That was never in dispute. Of course it was due on X day--again, not in dispute.
What I *am* disputing is the overkill approach to maintaining an otherwise perfectly good customer relationship. It makes no sense to lose a perfectly good, reliably-paying customer account over a single-dgit calculation error. I would of course kick a habitually late- or non-paid account to the curb. This ain't that.
@poet wrote:Okay. I need to buy a new car two months sooner than expected. I start pulling all my credit card statements to see how much I can pay to get all the UTILs down sooner. I pull Wal-Mart, and #$%^^&* if they haven't nailed me with all kinds of charges and a default APR of 29.99%! I just paid them!--True, it was the minimum, but I am paying down everyone in sight and this one had to take a minimum in the rotation. Limit is $700 and the balance (with fees, etc.) is now above $720!!!!
So I call the number and get Edward--in collections! Turns out the minimum was $29, NOT $20. Now I usually don't pay what I call the "fake minimum" (what a card claims the minimum is), but the "real minimum" (which is the minimum, the interest on the remaining balance, and a little bit on the rest of the balance). It just so happened that this month I wasn't able to do that, so decided to pay the fake minimum on this card and whack the other two. Maybe I wrote a 0 instead of a 9 on my list. At any rate, Edward said if I paid the $9 today, he would refund the finance charge ($13.63) on my next bill as a "one-time courtesy." I appreciated that, indeed, but under the circumstances, an honest error in this amount should not trigger a cascade of doom on an account that I have paid well and faithfully every month for two years.
GEMB did this to me once before. Over New Year's, while out of town and using my B of A Online Banking, I scheduled all my bill payments. For some reason, when I checked the next day, they hadn't go through. I re-sent everything (and I think I accidentally paid the mortgage twice as a result, but that's another story), including the PIF of over $1K for the remaining balance on my perfect Lowe's card. They said it was a day late, hence 30 days late, and my credit score went in the crapper. I've been fighting my way back ever since. NOW THIS. AND JUST NOW.
I am done with GEMB. Once again, I will cheerfully PIF this account the the end of the month, then put Wal-Mart in the sock drawer with Lowes. IKEA is about $120 away from the same fate. They can stick it. I am done with this. And if I have to drive a used car and pay cash for it, that suits me just fine. One less freaking shark out there trying to make a mountain out of a molehill. And then I'll pay some stupid law firm to get my score cleaned up with some expedience, because I am sick and damn tired of wasting what little free time I have on the phone with idiots, tracking down copies, and explaining myself to sanctimoniuos clerks as if I were a deadbeat.
GRRRRRR.
I am not trying to be unempathetic, but I do not see where GEMB has made errors here. First you say you've paid faithfully on time for 2 years, but then you say over the holiday, they did the same thing to you b/c of an issue with your bill pay. The only error that I would see is that you say you made a payment 1 day after your payment due date and they reported it as a 30 day late on your credit. They cannot do that. A 30day late on your credit is just that. You have to be 30 days late in order for it to be reported to the credit bureau as such. If you were truly only 1 day late, then you should contact the credit bureau to dispute that and it should help increase your scores. Having a higher interest rate does not influence your FICO score, it only makes it take longer to pay the debt off. My suggestion would be to call and ask them if they can decrease the interest rate. But by your statements, it seems maybe they already decrease it back down one time before as you say your payment was late at the new years holiday. Though I don't agree with all big bank tactics and them padding their own pockets, just from what you've told me, I think GEMB has been very considerate of you being a 2year customer by waiving charges.
At this point, I'd just be happy if they'd remove the *incorrect* hard pull for a Dillard's card (which I've never, ever owned) from my reports (as I've asked them to do repeatedly).
That card remains in the sock drawer. I am drawing down all the GEMB cards. Don't need 29.9% store cards and nasty, abusive, time-wasting phone-trons. If my score takes a hit for not using them, ***so what?*** I am done dealing with GEMB on principle and I will be oh, so happy to take my business elsewhere.
Once again, the letter of the law is tempered by the spirit of the law. As this is a business arrangement and nothing personal, it seems to me to be good practice to want to keep a good customer. If this is their definition of a bad customer, I'll be delighted to pay their merchants with cash or with my lower-rate VISA and MC. You know, the ones with the 100% perfect pay records on them.
I hate to point this out, but 2 years is not a very long established relationship, and being your second late in two years is not "perfect payment"
Thrasher, the $9 accidental short was the first "late" on Wal-Mart account.
Really, everybody, point made. Off with my freaking head, then. I feel as if I'm being piled on after the ref blew the whistle. 