Sweat the Small Stuff
If I didn’t sweat the small stuff, we’d be much worse off financially. Every month there’s an issue with some account, whether it be an unauthorized charge or an errant late fee or interest charge. Unfortunately, only American Express has been totally forthright and honest, while the rest of the banks (including Citibank, Discover, Capitol One, GMAC, and Chase) have all pulled underhanded, sneaky tricks in an attempt to fortify their bottom lines.
Citibank frequently charges interest on amounts that are fully paid off each month — in defiance of its own written policies! Wells Fargo has often rejected its own internal money transfers in order to garner a late fee and increased interest. Capital One signed us up without our authorization for payment protection (which, according to their “records”, we authorized on the phone. I don’t think so!) and proceeded to charge a varying monthly amount. When I canceled the “protection” and refused to pay for it, they assessed $2.03 interest on the initial $2.20 charge that was credited back. Not only is that fraud, but that’s usury — an annual interest rate of 1107.3%, light years in excess of the 30% maximum dictated by California usury laws! Chase acknowledged fault in their system for posting our payments to our account late, and as a reward for our on-time payments, increased our interest rate due to failure to make payments on time. GMAC failed to apply payments properly on an interest-free account and assessed 12 months of interest in arrears.
Every one of those incidents ended up in our favor, and sometimes, thanks to additional mistakes on the banks’ parts, we often end up ahead of the game — thanks to double reversals, incorrect and over calculation of interest rebates, etc.
You have to stay on top of the crooks. It’s nickels and dimes they’re stealing (well, OK, the unauthorized fees, charges, and “penalties” and usually range between $0.50 and $30.00) but it adds up. I call each of their bluffs every month, from all the companies, and recoup hundreds of dollars each year. The scary thing is that most people simply accept the charges because they don’t question them or even realize that they make not be legitimate, and the banks pocket millions of dollars of illicit earnings.
I’m like a chihuahua with a dirty sock; once I get my teeth into the problem, I don’t let go. Last night, I spent 45 minutes on the phone with Capitol One getting the fraudulent “protection” charges of the bill and preventing them from occurring again. I eventually got 100% of the fees refunded. Granted, the total amount for the three charges was only $5.03 but, if left unchecked and unnoticed, may have eventually been well into the hundreds of dollars. Sadly, the first customer representative I spoke with was unhelpful and rude and I was forced to report his behavior to his supervisor — he refused to acknowledge that Capitol One had any responsibility for the errant charges from their “business partner”, and said that Capitol One was powerless to stop or reverse the charges. When I mentioned that the charges were fraudulent, he refused to give me the phone number of the partner. When I mentioned the “What’s in Your Wallet?” slogan of Capital One that promises hassle-free service on the side of the consumer, he said “Thank you for calling Capitol One”, and hung up on me! The next two people I spoke with at Capitol One were very apologetic and shocked by his attitude and ineptitude. With a few clicks, the charges were reversed, the “protection” was canceled, and I had 100% of the fees returned. Why couldn’t the first guy have done the same?!
Keep sweating the small stuff; your wallet will thank you for it!
