Credit card bull

nadams

I have a credit card through my local credit union. They obviously do not service the card in-house, but rather it is serviced through ezcardinfo.com.

I have a payment due on the 25th, and have been trying to sign in to the website to pay it for the last week and a half. The website has been in varying stages of broken that entire time, and I've not been able to successfully get into the site.

So today, I give customer service a call, hoping to make a phone payment.

"Sorry sir, you can't do that.... your credit union does not allow for us to take phone payments".

Okay, so if I send in a check today, it's not going to get to you until after the payment due date. That means I will get a late payment charge, correct?

"Yes sir, that is correct. It usually takes 5 days to process a check payment."

Okay, so your website has been broken for a least a week and a half, and you're telling me that I'm going to have to pay a late charge because YOUR website is broken?

"Yes sir, that's correct".

Okay, so what can I do about this?

"Well, I can transfer you over to website support and you can talk to them."

And what is that going to do for me? They're going to tell me the site is broken, and I should mail in my payment.

"Well, they might be able to give you a timeframe when the site will be back up"

Okay, fine... send me over.

And that's where I sit... been on hold for over 20 minutes due to high call volume. They don't even have decent hold music. It's the same little riff over and over again in between "We're sorry for the wait, and we look forward to assisting you" :mad::mad::mad::mad:

How can a financial institution have their website broken for going on TWO WEEKS and not have heads rolling in the tech department? Hell, where I work, if anything is down for TWO HOURS, you're a complete failure.

Their datacenter had better been burned to the ground and all the servers melted into a puddle for this kind of downtime. And even THAT would be inexcusable, as I'm sure they have to have some sort of DR plan.

Aaaargh....

Thanks for letting me vent.

nadams

Well, from what I could understand from the guy at website support, the website will still be down for a couple of days. That was as precise as he could be.

Guess it's time to call my credit union and see what they have to say about this.

Face

Take your money somewhere else.

jinjuku

Time to record it and post it on youtube... The pen is mightier than the sword.

fatchowmein

I thought the new bank laws prevents them from counting the payment as late if they receive it on the 25th (if you overnight the check) regardless of whether it takes 5 days to process?

Or has that part of the law not kick in yet?
Or did you miss the overnight cutoff?

nadams

fatchowmein wrote: »

I thought the new bank laws prevents them from counting the payment as late if they receive it on the 25th (if you overnight the check) regardless of whether it takes 5 days to process?

Or has that part of the law not kick in yet?
Or did you miss the overnight cutoff?

I haven't explored that route yet.

I'll probably just end up having to make the payment late with a check, and then argue with them about it afterwards and see if I can get them to reverse the late payment charge.

schutz2106

Or walk into your credit union with the money and tell them to fix this or your gone.

nadams

Called the credit union, and I can make my payment there. If I had an account with them that actually had any money in it (checking or savings) they could've done it over the phone. But, I only have the CC and a truck loan with them. So, I have to drive to their office and make the payment in person with a check. That's 30 minutes away... but, it'll save me $30 or $40 for a late payment.

Next time I won't wait so long to see if the website comes back up.

nguyendot

It's called the post mark rule. Whatever it's postmarked at, is the date it's posted, even if the USPS loses it.

davidcity

The CU's are getting like the big banks...they fee you to death to get even for tighter regs that keep them from rippin you off, then to smak you so more, they give you lousy service.

nadams

Well, I can't logically leave this credit union. Firstly, they were the only ones who would give me a loan on my truck at the time (used vehicle, and I had just bought a house).

Now, they're the only ones who will give me a credit card at 10% interest. Everyone else wants 20% or more... and the balances that I transferred to it are still holding steady at 5% interest, 2 years after I transferred them.

kevhed72

File a complaint with the BBB.

cstmar01

kevhed72 wrote: »

File a complaint with the BBB.

Bingo.

And honestly a website for a CC or anything shouldn't be down that long. Hell even when our's is down for about 10 mins durning overnight processing people freak out....

but if you go into the CU and pay there, it shouldn't be a problem, even if they have someone else service it etc. If you did get hit with a late fee I would take it back to the CU and state to them the issue and normally if its a one time deal MOST banks/CU's can be resonable as long as you don't tell you are going to kill them with a sholve, then you might have some problems...

heiney9

nadams wrote: »

I haven't explored that route yet.

I'll probably just end up having to make the payment late with a check, and then argue with them about it afterwards and see if I can get them to reverse the late payment charge.

Or you could set up a recurring auto debt. Set it.........and forget it!! Popeil style. No late payments if an auto debt takes it from your bank account on the 20th of every month.

H9

madmax

Every time I've ever been late sending a payment in I've called after they receive it and ask if they could remove the service charge. They usually ask why. I say I forgot to send it in and they say to call when I get the next bill and they will be happy to remove it. I call in, they remove it. This has happened with discover, amex and chase.

wallstreet

Get your debts inline, and then head out the door. Banks and credit unions make most of their money off the people that can least afford it. The only way to get out from under their thumb is to improve your credit score.

cstmar01

wallstreet wrote: »

Get your debts inline, and then head out the door. Banks and credit unions make most of their money off the people that can least afford it. The only way to get out from under their thumb is to improve your credit score.

sure :rolleyes:

tonyb

I had an American Express card....for 30 years. For my loyalty of paying a fee to use their card and never making a late payment in 3 decades, the **** raised the rate to 30%. I couldn't cancel it fast enough. Yet they still wondered why I wanted to cancel.
Arrogence up the wazzo.

Stew

I had a Capital One American Express card for years. Earlier this year they told us there had been a fraudulent charge to our card but it never showed up on the bill. My wife tried to pay the balance but they wouldn't accept payment until the fraud issue was resolved. A few months later, I noticed that the interest rate was almost 30%. I called and they told me we were late on a payment - the one they wouldn't accept. I spent a few minutes explaining and finally got fed up and told them to either put the rate back where it was or cancel the card. No longer have the card. My only guess is we never carried a high balance so they didn't want our business.

brettw22

Things like mortgages and car payments should be set up on auto pay.......who does checks any more? I pay my electric, gas, and cell auto-pay as well.......simple.

nadams

brettw22 wrote: »

Things like mortgages and car payments should be set up on auto pay.......who does checks any more? I pay my electric, gas, and cell auto-pay as well.......simple.

My mortgage is EFT, as is my car insurance and my life insurance.

Electric, all CC's, internet, and natural gas are all paid online when I choose to pay them.

The only things I normally have to pay with check are my truck, water, garbage, and sewer. This is because they either DON'T accept online payments, or charge more for it.

BTW- originally talked about CC website is still not working. And you know what really irks me? There has not been any notice posted on the site saying that they're experiencing difficulties or that the site is unavailable... It just... doesn't work.

Face

Bbb.

madmax

Have you tried another computer? They would be out of business if it was really down for this long.

nadams

madmax wrote: »

Have you tried another computer? They would be out of business if it was really down for this long.

Two at work and one at home. All do the same thing. The Customer Service lady confirmed that their site has been unavailable, and tech support could tell me nothing more than it would be "a few more days' until it was fixed.

steveinaz

Welcome to the down side of credit. Don't ever expect to be treated fairly, you're just fooling yourself. Pay the full balance every month. Did they not send you a "paper" bill? I never elect "paperless billing" for exactly the reason you had a problem.

Years ago I got screwed over an "opt out" notice that was sent to the wrong address--Chase management said "too bad." Use credit cards to YOUR advantage.(buyer protection, rewards, security) Never, ever carry a balance.

WilliamM2

nadams wrote: »

Two at work and one at home. All do the same thing. The Customer Service lady confirmed that their site has been unavailable, and tech support could tell me nothing more than it would be "a few more days' until it was fixed.

The card I have through my credit union is also handled by www.ezcardinfo.com . I made a payment last week, and could log into my account just fine this morning. Sure it's not your computers?

tonyb

brettw22 wrote: »

Things like mortgages and car payments should be set up on auto pay.......who does checks any more? I pay my electric, gas, and cell auto-pay as well.......simple.

Thing is,when you set up auto pay, you also are set up for auto deduct when problems arise. Plus you leave yourself open for theft in my view. I don't pay jack online, only small purchases if I have to with a CC that has a low limit to minimize the losses if it ever gets stolen.

I have alot of friends who love the ease of paying bills online. I also have a few that have been ripped off too paying online. To me,nothing is secure anymore, too many tech savy criminals out there.

munk

Refuse to pay the late fee, and send a letter to them explaining why. If they ding your credit, you then send a letter to the three credit reporting agencies requesting the ding be removed as invalid, enclosing the original letter. They will have to remove the ding by law.

muncybob

munk wrote: »

Refuse to pay the late fee, and send a letter to them explaining why. If they ding your credit, you then send a letter to the three credit reporting agencies requesting the ding be removed as invalid, enclosing the original letter. They will have to remove the ding by law.

....well, almost. The creditor in question will then be queried by the reporting agency and the creditor has 30 days to respond(at least that was the time frame a few years ago, not sure if it' still 30 days or not). No response is award to the debtor by default and entry is to be removed. The response (if any) by the creditor is then reviewed by the reporting agency and it can get a bit hairy after that...but in this case I wouldn't be surprised if the creditor never responds and your ding is removed.
If you do have to go down this road be sure to involve all 3 reporting agencies!

madmax

One friend had autopay on everything with the date set too close to his pay date (also auto) and had late charges on everything due to a screwup of the paycheck company. Never been a fan of auto since seeing that train wreck.

nadams

WilliamM2 wrote: »

The card I have through my credit union is also handled by www.ezcardinfo.com . I made a payment last week, and could log into my account just fine this morning. Sure it's not your computers?

Odd... I just loaded a computer for a client with a fresh load of Windows XP. Nothing on it but all the latest Windows Updates. Still doesn't work. I get the login screen, enter my username, and it just goes back to the username screen. After about 4 tries, it goes to my challenge question. Enter my challenge answer... same deal... after a while, it might take me to my Passmark page... but I never get beyond that. It never accepts my password.