Bank Courte$y
Yeah, I did get back out in the Papa Boat again on Sunday, but I want to discuss something else.
A couple weeks ago my wife used our credit card to buy something for the upcoming daughter's wedding but unwittingly went over our credit limit. I learned about this not when she came to me to say that her charge was denied (it wasn't). I got a letter from the card company, a major bank who shall go nameless (although if they want your money they will chase you for it). The letter informed me of the over limit situation and told me that I needed to bring the balance down, for a payment about three times what my normal payment would be.
So I called them on it, after I took the card away from the wife. I wanted to know why they allowed the over limit spending to happen when they could easily reject the transaction automatically. I was told that they did this as a "courtesy" so that the card wouldn't be refused at the point of purchase. How nice, but then to demand that the supposed credit transaction must be paid in full along with a similarly courteous over limit charge of $39, is definitely not my definition of a courtesy. Imagine going over your limit by $5 and getting a $39 courtesy charge for avoiding $1 worth of embarrassment.
I was told that we were arguing in circles, which we were not, but I could see that I was getting a circular answer: pay down to the limit and be happy about it.
I hate banks.
A couple weeks ago my wife used our credit card to buy something for the upcoming daughter's wedding but unwittingly went over our credit limit. I learned about this not when she came to me to say that her charge was denied (it wasn't). I got a letter from the card company, a major bank who shall go nameless (although if they want your money they will chase you for it). The letter informed me of the over limit situation and told me that I needed to bring the balance down, for a payment about three times what my normal payment would be.
So I called them on it, after I took the card away from the wife. I wanted to know why they allowed the over limit spending to happen when they could easily reject the transaction automatically. I was told that they did this as a "courtesy" so that the card wouldn't be refused at the point of purchase. How nice, but then to demand that the supposed credit transaction must be paid in full along with a similarly courteous over limit charge of $39, is definitely not my definition of a courtesy. Imagine going over your limit by $5 and getting a $39 courtesy charge for avoiding $1 worth of embarrassment.
I was told that we were arguing in circles, which we were not, but I could see that I was getting a circular answer: pay down to the limit and be happy about it.
I hate banks.
Labels: banks, courtesy, credit cards, credit limit, fee
posted by Grog @ 10:03 AM
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