How do you feel about late fees?

[Hermann]

I had a late in the mail (9 days) but postmarked in time, had no luck getting it reversed. Interest charge was $17.xx. That same week I had a order for 2 laptops that I put on another credit card. So another CC company received the $50 or so dollars they would have received from processing my purchase. Folks these are college grads making stupid decisions. This was in the early 90's

 

[John105]

The call should have been escalated to a supervisor with more authority. Obviously this was a fairly new employee who told you it would be credited. Many of the lesser paying call centers have work that is hard and tedious and turnover is very high. Customers can be very rude and feel they can say anything they want to and the employee has to take the abuse or hang up.

True. I do not know where the call center was located, I don't think in the USA.

Guess what, now I just received the paper copy of my invoice. "You have triggered the Penalty Annual Percentage Rate (APR) on your account. The Penalty APR is being imposed. The Penalty APR is based on the Prime Rate plus 26.74%." Well, not only did I pay the entire balance 1 day after the due date, I did pay the entire current balance as well. Let's see what the penalty is. I totally get there are those who have never paid late, nor made a mistake before. And we make our own beds and must sleep in them. But I'm just illustrating what happens when you pay $512 one day after your due date, with AMEX. 11/17/22, instead of 11/16/22. Now I will date myself. I have never paid late in over 400 months. To me, this is one step away from having my knee caps taken out.

Now, can you imagine, if the same thing had happened with Discover (what happens on the TV commercials, happens in real life too, yes, I did find out on that one and put in autopay, which is why I had thought I did the same with AMEX, and did not, until 11/17/22.

I did a calculation. Even if I were paying 30% APR, it would seem my interest would be 28 cents per day, and I probably took 4 days to pay off my new balance. I will eat that, really, I'm not going to call in and try to get $1 to $1.50 credited, really, I'm not like that. All I set out to do was to ask if they could waive the $29, then suddenly $9 in interest appeared. They did that. Again, sometimes imho a small mistake, blossoms into something large. Another that comes to mind? In PA, if you blow a school bus' reds, and are convicted, your license is suspended, and that's mandatory. I highly doubt those people who do so have calculated risk v reward. I know that until now? I never did such with AMEX and payments to them.

Another funny thing, a pop-up appeared when I logged-in online, that I qualify for a credit limit increase, so I took it. If I were them, at 29.99 APY, they should increase it to a gazillion, I might be able to make up for their loss of Costco (I heard it was around 23% of their entire interest bearing portfolio).

 

[John105]

I had a late in the mail (9 days) but postmarked in time, had no luck getting it reversed. Interest charge was $17.xx. That same week I had a order for 2 laptops that I put on another credit card. So another CC company received the $50 or so dollars they would have received from processing my purchase. Folks these are college grads making stupid decisions. This was in the early 90's

When you mention bad decisions, I hear you. I have noticed that in the office, sometimes a well-degreed young person doesn't seem to make the right decisions when it comes to what I think would be rather obvious. There are countless examples, but for example treating the CEO no differently than a payroll clerk. Or using next day Air within the same local area (a package can go from Phila to about Suffolk VA, and get delivered the next day using ground). I will say this--Lenovo which used to be IBM will ship a part to me, next day Air, when the distribution center is only 45 miles away--always found that odd.

 

[Slow Car Sport Mode]

If it was completely your fault, why did you expect them to reverse the charge?

What an amazing response.

 

[hrv]

No problem with late fees to me.... If your late your late...simple...

 

[ZZman]

They are a rip off and why finance makes so much $$

 

[AZjeff]

They are a rip off and why finance makes so much $$

That you agreed to. If there wasn't a penalty for late payment guess what would happen? Less motivated people would be late all the time and it would be a week or month, who cares?

Penalty APR sounds like a permanent interest rate on the account.

 

[Finklejag]

My county library removed late fees so people can keep a book for as long as they want without penalty. How does this teach people responsibility?

 

[2strokeNorthstar]

I hate them. In my life, I've likely had a late fee < 10 times, because I tend to pay early or have autopay as my suspenders to my belt.

I missed an AMEX payment and got a $29 late fee plus $9 in interest, on < $500 lol

It was not easy to get them to reverse both, which imho is sad. Reps should be empowered to do that, esp for clients who've never paid late before.

Yes, it was completely my fault, but it was really amazing how difficult it was to get the fees and interest reversed. On the one hand, I beat myself up about it. On the other hand, I wanted to close my account based on the service.

How do you feel about late fees?

I get them once in a while. Most companies will reverse 1 a year if you pay at that time. I've never had it be too difficult, if they are able you just need to ask. I just blame it on my computer incompetence. "The website said it was paid I thought"...

 

[dishdude]

I pay my credit card bills as they come in, statements received through email. However, water/trash, electric and gas come through snail mail. Apparently the water/trash bill that goes to the city was delivered to a neighbor and I didn't notice until it showed up in my front door, so I paid it not even noticing the date. A couple days later another water/trash bill showed up in the mail with a $2 late fee on it! I'm not bothering to call for $2 so I paid it and moved on.

However, my recycling can was supposed to be picked up Wednesday and is still full sitting at the curb. My question is, how do I go about assessing a late fee to the city?

 

[Rand]

That you agreed to. If there wasn't a penalty for late payment guess what would happen? Less motivated people would be late all the time and it would be a week or month, who cares?

Penalty APR sounds like a permanent interest rate on the account.

IIRC penalty apr increases for 9 or 12 months.. then it goes back to reg apr.. sometimes other penalties such as no grace period and interest starting at purchase.

 

[JHZR2]

Like them? I don’t. They’re obnoxious. Waive them? Sure, if it’s plausible thst it’s their or another’s fault. I got one waived once because I had a new account, never got a paper bill, and didn’t pay on time. I called about when I thought it was due and was too late.

I can see the necessity too, especially with unsecured debt. Think of the dead beats and over spenders who never intend to pay. Increasing the bill means more likely chance of a negotiated payment inline with the original amount due.

 

[Donald]

I hate them. In my life, I've likely had a late fee < 10 times, because I tend to pay early or have autopay as my suspenders to my belt.

I missed an AMEX payment and got a $29 late fee plus $9 in interest, on < $500 lol

It was not easy to get them to reverse both, which imho is sad. Reps should be empowered to do that, esp for clients who've never paid late before.

Yes, it was completely my fault, but it was really amazing how difficult it was to get the fees and interest reversed. On the one hand, I beat myself up about it. On the other hand, I wanted to close my account based on the service.

How do you feel about late fees?

I call everytime something gets screwed up and I am hit with a late charge. But every account is on autopay for the minimum in case I forget.

 

[SC Maintenance]

Of course the wife pays the bills, so if we have a late charge then its her fault.

Its always my fault at my house?

You must be just married?

 

[aquariuscsm]

Cards are on auto payment now.

^^This times a million!! All of my bills, etc, have always been on auto draft. Life gets busy and it's not hard to forget sometimes.

 

[supton]

You must be just married?

Only 20 years, still figuring out how it works.

 

[John105]

I call everytime something gets screwed up and I am hit with a late charge. But every account is on autopay for the minimum in case I forget.

I don't think there are any left that are not, for me, but this one again, was a mistake, thought it was. The only possible reason a person wouldn't have autopay is maybe they could not have funds at the time they're needed, I suppose. What I do is to tie them to ALLY. That has free overdraft, and they have my life's savings. So they can draw from savings up to 6X in a period without any penalty. So, I did make a mistake in not having autopay established. But am, and am not, surprised with AMEX.

 

[John105]

Only 20 years, still figuring out how it works.

15 here, and I have a buddy at every stage of it. Newly married, engaged for the first time, married 3X, never married, happily divorced, unhappily divorced, or married 10+ years (the median scenario). There was never anything to figure out imho, everyone told us about it prior.

We cracked up big time at work a few months ago when a coworker's son was getting married. Another coworker said in his absence, I just don't get why people are not more practical. Rather than spend all that money on a wedding (cringe), and a honeymoon, why don't they just save that money instead, for when they go their separate ways a few years from now?

 

[AutoMechanic]

I hate them too but it happens. Fortunately I haven’t had to deal with one yet cause I hardly pay any bills and I’m always early when I do. My parents have had a few but nothing major. They used to always get one on a vehicle we own when they would forget to renew the registration on time lol. Now I’m in charge of that vehicle so I do it on time haha even though it doesn’t run. My sister I hear gets late fees a lot but they get them all paid on time after about the first one cause if sucks. Then they will forget again lol. But it happens. And I have a friend who got cited the other day for not having his vehicle registered in Virginia already because he has lived here for 5 months and now on top of his ticket that’s an extra $50 or at least $40 on top of his ticket because every 30 days after the first 30 days is $10 late fee each time. He said he wasn’t aware of anything saying you had to register within 30 days but now he knows lol. He said it’s not the first time he has had late fees in his life lol. He tried to argue but the police gave him a paper stating where it says that so he has no way to do anything now haha. And the DMV will not drop the late fees they want their money of course. I tried to warn him and save him a whole lot now he is thanking me. I have several other friends who that has happened too to when they buy a vehicle and delay registering it but don’t need to share cause we would be here all day lol.

 

[CanAmAndMore]

If I get a late fee ( very rare ) I just pay it.
Nobody's fault but mine, so I wouldn't even think about asking for it to be waived.
Yes, I also charge late fees on overdue accounts, and death is the only acceptable excuse.
Had a customers daughter contact me about her dad's overdue account.
He had passed away.
I told her to forget about the bill entirely, and sorry for her loss.
I'm not going to make some woman pay her deceased father's account.