Help, my credit card charged an annual fee!
Asked by
saservp (
291
)
December 2nd, 2010
Gah! I hate credit cards so much! Can someone offer me some advice?
I am young and I have three credit cards which I almost NEVER use, and when I do use them I pay them off in full. I only have them because they are my only lines of credit for building a credit score.
My problem is one of the cards randomly switched the terms of service on me without me noticing and now there is a $50 annual fee bill which showed up in the mail.
I was livid and called them and complained, and they said that I had the opportunity to revert to my old terms of service but the expiration to notify them had passed already. The thing is I was out of the country when that piece of mail came! :(
Now I have a credit card bill with a $50 charge for the fat bankers and I don’t know what my options are.
1. I can close the account and lose my oldest line of credit which will hurt my score, but
2. Even if I close it, I would still have to pay that $50 fee, right?!
I feel so cheated by this crappy bank!
Any advice would be appreciated.
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5 Answers
Call back and ask to talk to a supervisor. Explain your situation again and request they remove that charge. Point out that you have been a loyal customer of theirs and would like to remain one. I would be surprised if they wouldn’t oblige. While you got them on the line request a lower interest rate, I do this twice a year and get at least one reduction every year.
One addition to @Cruiser…
Be sure to cancel the card/account immediately, while you’re on the phone with the supervisor, if the bank won’t budge on the fee. And let the bank know that they will never see another cent of your money. Most credit card companies are clawing to get business… I get at least four offers a week, and all with no annual fee. Also, people cancel credit cards and get others all the time. A minute change in your credit score is no excuse to stay with a bank that doesn’t value your business.
With the card reform going on now, they have to disclose that information to you, and odds are, they did. Make sure you read everything. Go online to your CC account and see if they posted it there.
Lately, with Obama limiting their profit potential, CC companies have been instituting these types of fees more regularly, but they have been sending out notices. If you didn’t cancel when you “were notified” you agreed to the charge.
Contact the bank and ask them how and when they notified you of the charge. When you are on the line with someone, ask for the charge to be reversed and cancel the card.
Do you get these stinkynotes from mint.com? I hate ‘em.
“You were slapped with a fee!”
I swear at mint and archive it.
If you don’t like the card’s terms of service, ask them to change it. Sometimes they will.
If they won’t, dump it. You may get a better offer from the same company in a month or two.
In order not to hurt your credit score, negotiate with the credit card issuing company to remove the annual fee charges since you were out of the country and did not receive their notice. You can opt to maintain the card if they agree to remove the annual fee and use the card only when necessary.
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