The Good Life on a Budget

• Posted by JvW on August 22nd, 2007 filed in Uncategorized

I made the phone call to the credit card to ask them if they would remove my late fee. My heart was pounding so hard, I was sure Larry the customer service rep could hear it through the phone. Why was I nervous? I was afraid he would say no, but on top of that, I was afraid that he would judge me for missing my payment.

This is probably because I am judging myself for missing the payment. “How did you let this happen?” I asked myself, time and again since I saw the charge there. I feel sick to my stomach and guilty. What a waste of $39. So despite my fear of Larry, I called and asked them to remove the late fee.

Larry: What can I do to provide you with excellent customer service today?

JvW: Well, Larry, I made a mistake. I made a late payment on my credit card. (pound pound) As this has been my only late payment in some time, I was hoping you could help me by removing the late fee.

Larry: OK, let me look into this for you.

It didn’t work. But not because of Larry - he said there should be no problem removing it. The payment I made for August just hasn’t shown up on their system yet, despite the fact that I made the payment on their website and it is pending on my bank account. This is pretty annoying. I was hoping to rip off the band-aid and get this over with. Now I have to wait until it posts on the credit card website and call back.

The good news is, my mistake won’t change my interest rate. Larry said that they will only review and revise your interest rate if you have 2 late payments in a 12 month period, and this is my first in a looooong time. I am pretty happy about that, as this is my lowest interest rate (12.99%) and at the bottom of my debt snowball. I didn’t want this to affect my whole debt payoff plan.

So while I don’t get to check this off my to-do list, I feel better about it knowing there should be no issue. I know it’s silly to be nervous to make phone calls like these, but the important part is to do it anyway, stand your ground, and get what you need. I am the only person who will stick up for me, so I had better do it.