Credit Where Credit is Due, part I.

A while back I talked about getting new credit cards that give us airmiles on the purchases we make. We’ve been using them these days, and our old credit cards have mostly went to the side.

However, there were a couple of recurring charges I forgot about, and one of those is a monthly hosting bill with GoDaddy for one of my websites. It’s $3.99 a month. Remember that amount, just $3.99.

So once a week I check my credit cards and bank statement online to see what I need to be doing, and yesterday morning I checked them out. Lo and behold, there was that little bitty charge on my credit card, having shown up after I’d last checked them, but look at this, the bill is due THAT day.

Now there’s a nice dilemma! Remember that amount? I owe a puny $3.99. That’s it. What happens if I don’t pay it on time?

I tried calling the company several times to find out the specifics, using the 866# that is both on the back of my WaMu credit card, and on the website at the contact information page. Most of the time what I got was that screechy noise you get when you’ve connected to a fax machine. I finally got through once, and asked if I didn’t pay the $3.99 today, but it posted later, would I have to pay the late fee, and how much was it?

The answer was yes, I’d have to pay a late fee, and the amount is $39.00. Ouch.

Okay, for my part, I flubbed it by not keeping closer watch. I decided to choose the lesser of two evils, and pay the $14.98 express payment fee so I wouldn’t have that huge late payment fee.

I got online and set about trying to pay it. I clicked the button beside the “Pay Account in Full” and went on. A box with red letters popped up to inform me that the minimum payment is $15. Fine, I’ll pay it and let them owe me some money. Filled in the box with that amount, and clicked the “next” button again, only to have ANOTHER box pop up that informed me that was more than I owed so I couldn’t make that payment.

Round and round, no matter what I tried, it wouldn’t let me pay anything. ARGHHHHH!

As for the credit company, they made it almost impossible to pay my bill. It didn’t work to call, the online payment wasn’t working, so I sent an email, but by late evening when I still hadn’t heard from them, I tried calling again and again and again until finally, miracles of miracles, once more it finally went through.

They have one of those tortuously long voice mail systems with push this number for that, and this one for the other, until they finally used up all the numbers on the phone and had to start over again. When they finally got to the payment by phone section, I jumped right on that.

Only thing is, they wouldn’t let me pay just $3.99 by phone either, even though that’s what I owed, but for some unfathomable reason, the automated system did allow me to make a minimum payment of $9.00. Beats me how they came up with that dollar figure, but I agreed to it and the express charge, and gave it up for a bad deal.

So today I finally got an email from that credit card company telling me how they’re open 24/7 with this 800#, only it was NOT the same number they have on the website to call, or on back of my card. They also informed me I could pay online anytime. And the real kicker was they had the audacity to tell me I’d overpaid, and since I did and used the express payment they couldn’t refund my money!!! That was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back.

I sent back an email explaining how I was forced by their system to overpay, it wasn’t my idea, that I thought their service was lousy, and it would be nice if the 800# they said was open 24/7 was clearly available to the public as the number you're supposed to call, and thank you very much, please cancel my credit card.

I haven’t heard anything back from them, but it ought to be interesting.

Meanwhile, the last couple of days seem to have been my time to tangle with companies, and I had a couple of other go rounds. Stay tuned for “Credit where credit is due, part II”!!