What are my options??? Is there a strategy?

[Anonymous]

OK...Back in the good ole days, we had several accts with WF...Auto, LOC, 2 VISA. Fast forward to 2008 had a crisis and in exchange for fixed payment plan and reduced financing we closed all accts.  Auto was PIF and we have chipped away at the others. The total bal due for both VISA's is now just under $2K. The LOC bal was SHOWING just under $2K. We suddenly had $2K to pay off something, so since the LOC had a higher interest rate, we sent all to them yesterday. To my surprise, this am, I went online, to find out we still owe $400...about a years worth of late fees. These fees date back to late 2007 and most of 2008. I knew about them but thought they were included in  the balance.  I pay all bills online so I never study my statements.  On their home page, under OUTSTANDING BALANCE it said $1975.78. So this is what we paid. Customer service is saying nothing can be done about. We still owe. I told them had I known the balance was really almost $2500 I woulld have paid both Visas off instead. They were just like "oh well".  Do I have any options??? My credit scores are THISCLOSE to 700. So I dont want to do anything to ruin that.

[Creditaddict]

If these are in a payment arrangement, you need to get away from front line CSR and get into the department that handles these types of accounts.

Other option might be to go to your local branch and sit down with Personal banker and run it up to branch manager if you have to but the accounts that I have in payments plans I get transferred to a different department when I call into customer service.

[Walt_K]

I'm not sure there is anything you can do here.  If I understand you correctly, you knew you had late fees but mistakenly thought that your statement balance was reflecting the late fees.  The fees were separately listed on your statement but you didn't notice them because you weren't looking at the statement.  You're not saying that the fees should have been waived/forgiven because of your payment arrangement right? 

It's frustrating to owe more than you thought, but I'm not seeing anything that says this is an illegitimate debt.  And I'm not sure why your payment strategy would have been any different if you'd known about the late fees.  You're still better off paying the higher interest debt off first.

[Anonymous]

Yes...we had late fees added to the account but I thought they were included in the balance.  Also, we were not late every month. We missed ONE payment but we never could fully double up. So each payment was apllied to the previous month. It took almost a year before we could officially be current. Also, I am trying to eliminate payments. I could hve eliminated the payment on both VISAS instead and would be left with this one. Instead we have to swing all 3 still.

[Walt_K]

I understand your frustration.  I went through a similar thing with my mortgage lender because they list late fees separately on the statement and when I fell behind in 2008, I racked up quite a few fees.  I thought I had paid them all off once I brought everything current and discovered months later that they were still sitting there on my statement.  But I'm not sure if there is anything you can do about it.  At least in my case, the fees were legitimate.  My situation was different as well because I missed way more than one payment, but I also didn't completely understand that the late fees and late reporting didn't stop until you were completely caught up.

If you had negotiated a payment arrangement with them where there were not supposed to be any more late fees while you caught up, but they kept adding late fees anyway, then it seems like you could argue that those late fees shouldn't be on your account.  But I didn't read your post that way.  I read you to be saying that all of the late fees were ones that were legitimately applied before you entered into the payment arrangement.  And that they sat there without being collected until now. 

That doesn't mean you can't try to negotiate with them.  Do you know if they offer any kind of deferment.  Sometimes you can arrange to skip a payment with your lender and they just lump it into your principal without assessing a late fee.  But you have to ask them if they will do it.  If your lender does have those kinds of arrangements, but you weren't aware or failed to ask or whatever, perhaps you can explain the situation to them.  Explain that if you had been aware of that option you would have approached them about it and avoided all of these late fees.  Like you said, you basically just skipped one payment but couldn't dig yourself out by doubling up to bring it current.