"I Screwed Up!" FAQ - if you need help with bank/credit mistakes (finance charges, forgot payment,unclear terms etc

(work in progress)....

With scattered "I screwed up!" posts appearing in this forum, the purpose of this thread is to have a CENTRALIZED place to discuss screwups involving bank/credit mistakes. This will avoid forum clutter and others can read and learn from similar situations if all located within one thread. The problems (and their resolution) are often the same, or very similar, and readers will be able to use this thread as a centralized resource if they encounter a problem.instead of creating an "I need help/I screwed up" thread, post it here

I will be listing many steps people can take to reduce/minimize problems in this thread.

I also want to list helpful hints for what to do WHEN you make a mistake, so you can limit/eliminate any financial damage. Perhaps the first and simplest rule here, if its the first mistake youve made with your account, is to CALL YOUR BANK and ask for a "courtesy adjustment" based on your excellent history. Many banks and creditors extend "one time" courtesy waivers to keep you a happy customer.

In the interest of keeping the discussions organized and fitting within existing threads, this thread is intended for RESPONSIBLE customers who occassionally make a mistake, such as a missed payment, failed to understand terms, were assessed finance charges, etc.

if you did NOT make a mistake , but your bank took adverse action against you due to your unusual usage patterns, that is a different topic. Discuss it in the existing thread here

This thread is NOT INTENDED TO BE A CREDIT REPAIR THREAD. if you have bad credit you need much more assistance than what is contemplated for this thread, and there are forums on the internet dedicated to credit repair, such as creditboards.com , debtorboards.com , creditnet.com etc. If your problem is simply a debt collector calling/writing you, dont ignore it and take quick action, and be sure to read the Debt Collection FAQ

SUCKISSTAPLES said: ....

I will be listing many steps people can take to reduce/minimize problems in this thread.

One obvious thing to prevent missed payment is to set up automatic monthly minimum payments from your checking account for CC and other loans. And I learned the hard way that it is best to set this up as a pull from the original creditor, rather than a push from your checking account. If for some reason the payment doesn't post correctly, the creditor is likely to be unsympathetic if mistake originates with your bank.

Ryan431101111 said: revheck said: SUCKISSTAPLES said: ....

I will be listing many steps people can take to reduce/minimize problems in this thread.



One obvious thing to prevent missed payment is to set up automatic monthly minimum payments from your checking account for CC and other loans. And I learned the hard way that it is best to set this up as a pull from the original creditor, rather than a push from your checking account. If for some reason the payment doesn't post correctly, the creditor is likely to be unsympathetic if mistake originates with your bank.

It has been explained before that this may not be the best way as CC companies will change their terms and conditions, so if you always pay it the same time of the month, you may miss a payment if they move your due date up. Chase did it to me and luckily i got them to adjust it.

Most CC companies I deal with allow you to set automatic pull on the due date, whenever that is.

SUCKISSTAPLES said: I also want to list helpful hints for what to do WHEN you make a mistake...I see people admitting their mistake and then spinning their wheels trying to get a credit, get accounts re-opened, get charges reversed, etc. At some point, just take your lumps and move on. A closed account, an extra inquiry, a finance charge, etc., is not the end of the world. Sure, try to get that courtesy waiver, but at some point, just move on. There are plenty of other deals out there.

SUCKISSTAPLES said: ..if you are determined to do them. Monitor them carefully. Try not to set them for the last day/last minute, so you can double check and make sure they went through in SUFFICIENT TIME to make a last minute payment.

I personally would go insane with worry if I only depended on manual payments. When given the option, I make minimum auto payments on
the first day the ebill is sent.

SIS, won't this really be a YMMV? i mean, i see those kinda posts, but really, it comes down to your phone skills. i almost always win over the phone, if not, i succeed by emailing through my account online. so you gotta have written skills too.

maddybeagle said: I still think a lot of the "HELP.....what should I do" threads are folks just pushing the limits and getting some backlash from their favorite financial institution.....

I agree with you 100%. Lately I see lots of posts for example: I pulled on the due date using the credit card web page from my savings account and the payment was rejected by my bank, I paid on the due date using the credit card web page to a closed account, I pulled using the credit card companies web page from the wrong account which had no money in it etc.

First off if you insist on paying your bill on the due date then make sure you paying from valid accounts that have money in them. Personally I dont think it worth the risk vs the reward of an extra 1-3 days interest. I dont care how big your credit card bills are even if they are $100k a month average and you are pulling from a 6% savings account we are talking about $16.43 per day and for smaller amounts many of you report having problems with it is really not even worth it as I seen people defend there reasons for doing this so they can collect the extra interest on there $500 monthly payment on a credit with a $50k balance at 0% on it. So to try to squeze 8 cents a day X 3 days for a total of 24 cents they are risking late fee's, bounce check fee's, loss of there promo rate plus there own time calling everyone involded 2-3X and spending more than likley a couple of hours on the phone to fix the problem. Congradulations you make less than a begger an hour as even a begger can make more than 8 cents a hour.

Personally I think it is much better to just pay your bills using a bank bill pay system. First they grantee the payments. 2nd you can't make a mistake paying using the wrong account. 3rd your bank wont reject the bill payment. 4th almost all the banks grantee your payment will arrive. If there is a problem you call your bank who takes care of everything for you.

Lets assume in an average month you pay $5000 in credit card bills by paying on the credit card web page on the due you managed to get 3 days extra interest. Your are talking about $2.40 a month or $28.80 a year. First time you make a mistake the fees involded will be much more. Maybe you get lucky and you get your credit card to forgive you for the mistake but they wont do it more than 1X every 2-3 years.

Always be persistent. I have fought many late fees. Back then with MBNA, I had up to 3 courtesy credit given. The 3rd courtesy took me through 5 CSRs and 3 managers before one of them cracked. While its best not to yell and scream obscenity over the phone, but don't worry about using a slightly raised tone to indicate that you might explode if you can't get a credit for your mistake. Most CSRs hate to deal with an angry customer, aka IRATE customer, and will rather end the call quickly than getting into that situation. However don't let the CSR end the call so easily. A CSR CANNOT hangup on a caller (unless you're really abusive or they want to be fired or disciplined), so keep going in circles to draw information or break them. Listen also to what they have to say and use it against it them. If they tell you've been a valuable customer, there's probably a good chance why they said that in the first place. Use that and tell the next CSR. Once you feel that its out of the CSR's power to give you the credit, insist that a mgr get on the line. Many occasion I get the BS all the mgrs are busy with other callers. INSIST that you will wait with the CSR until a manager is available. Always try and get a Manager's name and direct extension. Sometimes on a new call, ask right away for a manager and offer no details. Again insist you will wait. Many times a CSR wants to keep her phone stats good, they don't want to burn minutes waiting with you and might cave in. Always call with some kind of game plan. Don't expect to beg and get it. Blame it on something. Blame you never got your statement. Blame it to this new "e-statement" thing. Blame the USPS. Blame it on the ACH/debit e-payment system. Focus on positive things about your credit history also. If you made thousands of dollars in purchase, let them know it and repeat it. Don't worry that it was completely your fault. I have had multiple fees removed and credit ding being removed from my report for being persistent. I have never gone the route of threatening to cancel to get fees waived because most likely they wouldn't really want me as a customer also so I stay away from going down that path. My effort to keep the CC companies from making money off my carelessness and enjoying the AOR game has paid off very well. Thanks SIS!

SUCKISSTAPLES said: I dont recommend autopayments at all. I recommend everyone be vigilant and manually check all their payments. The big negative to autopayments is that it LULLS the consumer into being less vigilant.

The problem with autopayments (whether the CC issuer pulls them, or your bank account is setup to push them) is that there are still MANY instances of failed payments and many things that can go wrong. As noted, if setup on your banks end, the CC issuer could change statement dates, so the payment may be applied in the wrong month or after a due date. You might be more likely to have fees waived, promos reinstated if you have the autopay setup on the CC issuers own site IF the problem wasnt with the bank account is was trying to pull money from. The cc issuer may say "we tried to process the autopayment and your bank declined it". Then youll be asking for the "courtesy adjustment"/goodwill credit.

The moral: dont "set and forget" autopayments if you are determined to do them. Monitor them carefully. Try not to set them for the last day/last minute, so you can double check and make sure they went through in SUFFICIENT TIME to make a last minute payment.

This might not be the best method for those who are obsessed with the extra few days of interest but here's how I pay my bills on time. I took a look at the due dates of all my credit cards and fixed a date that is common to the grace period of all my cards... in my case this is the 16th of every month. In other words, on 16th of every month, all my credit cards have issued their statements and the due dates for none of them have passed. That is when I sit down for 20 minutes and pay all my credit card bills. If this doesn't work for some of you, you can always call some of your CC companies and ask them to adjust their statement dates so that all of them come around the same time.

Like SIS said, I hate auto-paying anything at all... if nothing else, sometimes companies (CC, cable, DSL whatever) bill erroneously... and I'd rather not pay a wrong bill in the first place than spend 'n' hours on the phone trying to get it reversed.

EDITED TO ADD: of course the reminder for paying bills on 16th is set on my Outlook calendar. Additionally, I have reminder alerts set in all CC websites.

revheck said: Ryan431101111 said: revheck said: SUCKISSTAPLES said: ....

I will be listing many steps people can take to reduce/minimize problems in this thread.



One obvious thing to prevent missed payment is to set up automatic monthly minimum payments from your checking account for CC and other loans. And I learned the hard way that it is best to set this up as a pull from the original creditor, rather than a push from your checking account. If for some reason the payment doesn't post correctly, the creditor is likely to be unsympathetic if mistake originates with your bank.

It has been explained before that this may not be the best way as CC companies will change their terms and conditions, so if you always pay it the same time of the month, you may miss a payment if they move your due date up. Chase did it to me and luckily i got them to adjust it.

Most CC companies I deal with allow you to set automatic pull on the due date, whenever that is.

I setup an auto payment from my Bank of America to a credit card account. For 3 years, this went without a hitch. Recently, my bofa payment didnt post to my CC account and on further investigation, bofa said the zip code changed for the cc account. I told him it's a load of cr@^.
Now the credit card company charged me 25 dollars as late payment fees and assessed finance charges on the outstanding balance for the entire month. Surprisingly, the check mailed out by bank of america reached the credit card company 5 days late and bofa refused to reimburse the cc penalties.
Retribution: I opened a Charles Schwab checking account that pays 4.25% and provides free ATM across all ATMs in the US and many ATMs worldwide. No ATM fees! They also have bill pay. So, I transferred all my money from bofa to schwab and started bill pay from schwab and couldn't be happier. Bye Bye to bofa.

By far the best solution is to set up procedures so 1. you don't "screw up" and 2. if you do they won't have large consequences.

So I have all the bills possible set up for autopay by pull from the original creditor. For the rest of the bills I immediately pay when I receive them (setting them aside can result in you forgetting about them).

For my primary checking account I have email alerts set up so that I receive notices when my account balance is below amount X (so I can add more money if needed) or above Y (so I can transfer excess to interest paying accounts).

I think it is essential to have financial redundancy: so if your wallet is stolen you have a backup card which wasn't in the wallet. Or if a bank account or credit card is frozen you have alternative payment mechanisms.

fatcool said: One more thread to burry all the importatnt discussion.

When this thread blocks the next dozen, "help me!!! I screwed up and don't want to pay1" it will pay for itself.

People said the same thing about the "flame free zone" and how many hundred or thousands of threads did that prevent from being started?

SS7Man said: Always be persistent. I have fought many late fees. Blame it on something. Blame you never got your statement. Blame it to this new "e-statement" thing. Blame the USPS. Blame it on the ACH/debit e-payment system.

You're saying people should lie to get what they want. That's low-class, man. You're the reason CSRs don't treat customers like they should, and no one should consider following your advice.

I don't know if this is the right thread but here it goes:

How often do you find a promo BT rate that hits you with a default interest rate from the beginning of the date of the first BT? I have always known that the rate will generally start from the beginning of the new statement but never from the date of the BT. Just curious.

Alright, I think this is the best place to throw this question, so here goes (warning, long post):

Late in 2005, I received a notice from a collection agency regarding some amount of money owed to a property mananagement company I was renting an apartment from in my college days. I validated the claim and immediately paid it off. They received my money order and faxed something to my former roommate (who was also on the account) and said they would take care of the credit report. Case closed... I thought.

Fast forward to June of this year: I'm married, and me and the wife are trying to get a place to live. While in that process, we find out that the account is still active. I contact the old property manager, and in their communication with the collection agency tell me that the collection agency sees that we've paid for the account and will try again to pull the account off my report. Case closed... I thought.

Fast forward again to Now: I applied for a credit card and was rejected... I used the opportunity to pull up a free credit report and saw that this account is still on my report and active... after contacting the collection agency, they're saying they have no record of me ever paying the amount and that unless I can prove I paid this off in 2005, they're going to keep that account active. Since 2005 and that first letter, no action has been taken by the collection agency to get in contact with me to collect...

Unfortunately for me, I can't get the fax from my roommate regarding the payment of the account, and I feel like I'm stuck having to pay the amount Again if I want this clear from my credit report.... I'm just wondering if anyone's had this sort of experiance before and how they took care of it, or if any gurus out there have any advice

TIA, sorry for the long post.
Wyvern

EricGo07 said:
For those people who pay bills manually -- how do you convince yourself a bill is not lost or missing ? What have you set up in case you are not around ?

Paying most of my bills (utility not CC) automatically. I still follow that the payment appear on my accounts when they should but it's true that without good bookeeping (Quicken) it'd be easy to consider things on autopilot and not keep track of them. Never had a problem pulling from my checking though.

But there are a few things where autopayment cannot be done. For that, I use bill payment from my bank. If their check doesn't make it on time, it's their fault and they have in the agreement something about paying extra costs that would result from their mistake. I set the bill payment check to arrive a couple of days before the due date anyway so that if the bank messes up, it usually won't be by too long, if post office is slowed down, it won't be by much either and if I don't see the check appearing when it should, I can still do something about it in the next couple of days.

Same with CC companies. For the cards I have activity on, I have alerts in Outlook calendar 5 days in advance and then the day before if somehow I still didn't take care of it. It's impractical for me with income stream (weekly pay) to have all my payments lined up the same day so calendar helps me keep track of them.

In one case, I was out of the country for 3 weeks. I had setup all the bills I remembered about ahead of time but had forgotten my yearly life insurance policy. Ended up not paying on time by a couple of days. I just called them and explained the situation. Since I had made payments on time for the last 5 years, they didn't blink and said it'd be no problem since it had not been reported yet and policy had not been cancelled yet.

Same for my pay-as-you-go cell phone minutes. I tried to add to my account a day before they expired but somehow it didn't register the payment. So two days after they had expired, I noticed my balance wasn't right. Called them and they reinstated most of them. They didn't have to and it's not like they're making a lot off me considering my usage but a phone call explaining the situation and mentioning that I had not switched provider in 3 years helped getting me back on track.

So just calling, apologizing, explaining your circumstances, staying civil but insistant and pleading a blonde moment usually works to fix things. Reminding them that you've been a decent customer - well if you have been - and could look elsewhere for your business also adds extra incentive. Meeting them halfway also works wonder when you've clearly messed up.

SUCKISSTAPLES said: Many banks and creditors extend "one time" courtesy waivers to keep you a happy customer.

I had to use this recently. I typically transfer a bit into an online saving account each month. I ended up adding an extra zero to the amount and put nearly our entire Wells Fargo checking account into savings with HSBC. I missed this somehow even though I obviously confirmed the amount to go.

The next day after all the purchases I made went through I saw had negative in the checking account after 10 transactions. I was in shock and immediately covered it with the small amount we have in a WF savings. I thought all might be ok, but at the end of the day all the late charges came in and I was back down to nothing in the account after $34x10 in fees. Thing is they structured the charges so it the most expensive one came first then all the cheap ones, even though that was not the order I made the purchases, the SNEAKY BASTAGES. Otherwise I would have had only 2 overdrafts.

So I called WF and they said they would waive 3 fees - or do an investigation. I said it was my screw up and I guess I'd take the 3, but the lady said she would do the investigation anyway. Next thing I know they reversed the xfer to HSBC saying it was 'unauthorized' and erased all the fees. Yes!

I was pretty happy - until I got locked out from my HSBC account - they were not happy. So after trying to call and get it fixed I finally found I had to speak to a specific account security person in the US after dealing with the difficult overseas customer service, which wasn't fun. After spending hours on the phone every few days and a few weeks of their 'investigating', two months later I was finally able to use my HSBC account and move my money to another online savings account.

With my 0% BTs I have missed one payment so far. Called the CC (BOA) & they gave me the one-time "we'll let you keep your 0% rate" courtesy. It was easy, took maybe 5 minutes. It was emphasized they wouldn't let me do it again. I still had to pay the late fee, but as SIS says, it was probably for the best, I wanted to stay on their good side.

One thing not mentioned, for all your non-0% CCs where you plan on paying it all off, but would like to wait until the last minute to pay, here is what I do. Make a minimum payment online right away, then pay the remainder right before its due. In case something happens where I miss the remaining payment, at least I won't get a "late payment" mark on my credit report. This is also the way to make your last payment for a 0% BT.

Best thing I ever did was to open a high yield checking account that pays more than any savings account, and to set up my chase cards to automatically pull the minimum payment therefrom. All of my cash is there so the balance is always good. My minimum payments are ALWAYS made on time. It does not matter if Chase changes a due date because chase is the one that makes the payment. I have it set to "minimum" payment for my 0% offers, and "pay in full" on my purchase card. And, that way, if I forget to pay the bill with my Bank of America card, it is automatically taken care of between Chase and my Checking account.

I never ever have to worry about transferring money to my checking account.
I never ever have to worry about missing a payment to Chase.

And speaking of chase, always send an E-mail a few months before an offer expires if you don't have one already printed out, asking, "Please tell me the date by which I must pay my bill in full so that I do not have to pay any interest. I need an actual date, and not a formula that tells me how to "calculate" the date. Thank you."

PhrugalPhan said: With my 0% BTs I have missed one payment so far. Called the CC (BOA) & they gave me the one-time "we'll let you keep your 0% rate" courtesy. It was easy, took maybe 5 minutes. It was emphasized they wouldn't let me do it again. I still had to pay the late fee, but as SIS says, it was probably for the best, I wanted to stay on their good side.

One thing not mentioned, for all your non-0% CCs where you plan on paying it all off, but would like to wait until the last minute to pay, here is what I do. Make a minimum payment online right away, then pay the remainder right before its due. In case something happens where I miss the remaining payment, at least I won't get a "late payment" mark on my credit report. This is also the way to make your last payment for a 0% BT.

you have to be more then 30 days late before it will show up on your credit report

kenblakely said: glxpass said: The other consideration is that most creditors won't report a payment to a Credit Bureau until it's at least 30 days late, so I wouldn't think Citi would even know about a payment with Chase that was only a few days late.
That's my experience as well.

BTW - data point: I'm in the middle of a relocation, and I missed a payment on a Chase card by 2 days. Yeah, I know - I'm a disappointment to the FW community. Flog me.

Anyway, Chase used to have a policy that they would forgive a fee not more often than every 6 months. I called and asked for the standard "1 time courtesy", but they refused - supervisor refused as well. So either there's something in my record that tells them to not gimme any lovin', or the rules have changed. Data point.
Same here. Did an electronic billpay to Chase (direct transfer) on 8/15 for a CC bill due on the 16th. Chase has always credited these the next day, but not this time - wasn't credited until the 18th. They would only waive half of the late fee even though I was never late before. Only got that after escalating to a supe.
They charged the fee one day after the due date, so the moral of the story is 'There is No Grace with Chase'.
But I'm getting it back in spades with the 5% Cash Rewards card and the $125 bonus on the checking account I just opened with them because of this.