September 16th, 2008
It Doesn’t Hurt to Ask
Recently, I got busy with work and forgot to pay my Discover card. They have great online access but somehow I locked myself out and it took me a few days to get it all sorted out. The result was that I got hit with a $39 late fee.
By all accounts, I deserved the late fee. But I also know that most companies will waive it to keep a customer happy. I figured it was worth the 3 minutes to write an email through the online customer service feature. I hate phone prompts and waiting.
Well one day later, I got my response back:
“Thank you for your message about the charges appearing on your Discover Card Account. I can certainly understand your concern with the fees that were assessed. Because you are a valued Cardmember, I will be happy to issue a credit for the Late Fee in the amount of $39.00.”
In case you were wondering, this is the Discover Open Road Card. I have good credit and I have never been late with Discover. I also want to praise them for not throwing me into penalty pricing. I don’t carry a balance but I would have been annoyed if they raise my rate, ’cause I was 4 days late.
Just goes to show that not all credit card companies are evil and by just asking, things can get resolved.
That is great news about the late fee, but is it still going to end up on your credit report? I would pay a $200 late fee to avoid something like that!
It shouldn’t affect my credit score. Most delinquencies that that are reported to the bureaus are known as 30, 60, 90 days. You have to miss a full billing cycle to get reported. I was only 4 days late.
There are exceptions to every rule so there may be some creditor that report immediately but I would argue those are not true 30 day delinquents.