September 16th, 2008

It Doesn’t Hurt to Ask

2 Comments |

Discover_Open_Road

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.

2 Comments

  1. 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!

    Eric at 6:19 am on September 18, 2008
  2. 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.

    Kenneth Lin at 10:55 am on September 22, 2008

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