I am surprised by how much attention has been paid to threats from the credit card industry to place new charges on those of us who use their cards but pay off the balance every month. Some might do so, but others will hold off to keep our business. Besides, everything is negotiable.
Before it became standard for many cards to come without an annual fee I used to send simple letters in response to statements which included such fees. I just told them that I was not willing to continue using credit cards which charge an annual fee and that unless they were willing to waive the fee they should consider the letter a request to terminate the account. They always waived the fees.
That’s a pretty damn good idea, actually. The things we don’t ever consider…
I didn’t bother with the stamp. I called their 800 number. For one thing, that costs them more money. And doesn’t cost me the cost of the stamp.
It also takes more time for me to call a 800 number and get through to someone than to write a quick letter. Postage was also several cents cheaper back when this was an issue.
I figure I can always surf porn while I’m on hold.
There is a car loan I have with a company that if you make your payment on-line, they still charge you almost 15 dollars. Why they want to charge so much for a customer doing “self help” is beyond me. I’ll ususally get on the phone with them and argue 20 minutes to get the phone fee waived or if I lose, I then mail my payment in.
I’m amazed they would charge for this. One account, I think it is Best Buy, doesn’t charge for routine on line payments but I’ve noticed there is an option for a “rush” payment where you have to pay. I doubt there is any reason why all payments can’t be handled immediately and this looks like a sneaky way to get money out of people who don’t pay until the last minute. You have to schedule your payment a few days ahead of time in order to pay for free. It is even more bizarre to charge routinely. I certainly wouldn’t pay on line in such a case. When I finance cars I often set that up as an automatic withdraw figuring the same payment will be made every month anyways. With other types of payments I’ll often want to review it before paying, but a car payment is going to be made regularly without need to review it.