Credit cards can be confusing. I know someone who used to pay her credit card bill after every purchase to avoid any charges. That was stressful. It’s important to understand how your credit card works. Credit card companies usually give you a grace period to make your payment by a specific due date to avoid interest and late fees. Sometimes you may still get a surprise from credit card billing errors that could cost you.
This happened to me on Monday, October 31st. It was a little odd because my retail credit card company called me twice that day. They never call me. I didn’t provide any of the personal information they requested to continue the call.
Unlike my major credit card companies who may call to get an approval on large purchases or to verify a transaction is mine when I’m out of town. But this retail credit card call was very different. It left me wondering why they were trying to reach me.
That’s why I grabbed my credit card and gave them a ring. It didn’t take long to find out why they were calling. Two words stood out to me in my account overview message “past due.”
I couldn’t believe my ears! That’s not right, I thought to myself. Then the search was on to find my last credit card statement.
Here’s What Happened…
You see my credit card bill was due on October 25th. The amount due was $26.22, which was for a dress I bought on September 28th. After I tried that dress on at home, I saw it was much cuter on the hanger in the store than on me. And I decided to return it.
On October 8th, I went back to the store and returned the dress. My credit card account was credited for the return. Now I had a $0 balance on that bill. That’s why I didn’t pay my October 25th credit card bill.
Customer Service to the Rescue: Credit Card Billing Error
When I talked to a customer service rep, she reviewed my account. She noticed that my return had been credited back in full on October 8th. And she didn’t understand why I was charged a late fee and had a past due account.
After doing her research, she asked, “Would you like for me to credit you back the late fee?” Well, let’s see – who wants to ever pay a late fee that was applied in error? Not me. That was an easy “Yes.”
However, I wanted to understand how this happened at all. She replied, “It must have been a system error.” That answer was insufficient. I asked her to escalate my call to a supervisor.
After holding on for quite a bit of time, I walked through everything with her supervisor. He reviewed my account thoroughly and agreed I should not have been charged a late fee. In the end, he apologized for the error. He told me it wouldn’t negatively impact my account/credit. He also had the issue escalated to their IT department to investigate what happened further.
Credit card billing errors happen. While I’ll probably never hear back on this one, I wanted to share my story with you – just in case this ever happens to you. I sure hope it doesn’t. Until then, this is another reason to review your credit card statements every month to check for any errors that may be costing you money or impacting your credit.
