"You have a new bill from Chase Credit Cards"

zxcvbob wrote on [Sat, 6 Oct 2007 15:18:42 -0500]:

What's a Billpay "Payment Center"?

It sounds like maybe this is an issue with a bank online payment center or something. Not Chase. However they should be a little more accomodating, if you don't act like a jerk on the phone with them.

When I log into chase.com I don't see anything called a Billpay Payment Center.

I receive emails same day when a new statement comes out.

That's the payment service at the bank (the email I quoted was sent to the bank, not to Chase). I see it when I log in at my bank. They get an electronic bill from Chase, post it to my account (but don't automatically pay it until I sign in and click on it), and they send me an email notification so I'll know there's something at my account that needs attention.

I don't know yet if it was a Chase problem or a bank problem. The bank should be able to trace the whole transaction and find out. I wasn't a jerk when I called, but I didn't grovel either (maybe I should have just a little, instead of assuming they would waive the fee.)

What I've done with other accounts where I don't receive electronic bills is set up an automatic payment for $20 a few days before the bills are usually due. When the paper statement comes, I log in and change that payment to the correct amount. If the statement never gets here or I fumble it, $20 goes to my account, which is more than any minimum payment amount I ever receive -- so I still might end up paying some interest for the month, but no service charges. Assuming this eventually gets resolved without me canceling the account, I may cancel the electronic billing and go with the same system for Chase.

Bob

zxcvbob wrote on [Sat, 6 Oct 2007 16:19:06 -0500]:

Ah, I pay through a bill payment vendor, however I also have all my accounts registered with the issuing bank. That way I get an email from the bank when a statement is issued, as well.

You don't get it. They prefer you be late. It generates them much more money. Thumper

I do get it. But sending out the statement the night before it is due to generate extra late fees is a foul.

Bob

Do you have an alert set for "Payment due in X days"? That's the main one for me with most cards. With Chase, that's configurable, I have it set to seven days.

Brian

It doesn't sound like that's what happened, your bank may have only received it then, I doubt that's when they sent it.

At 18%, a running balance of $10K (the average amaerican's balance) produces $150/mo in interest. This is what the card companies 'want'. Late payments quickly put the account into a lower rating and while it may drive the interest up in the short term, it leads to the defaults. It may be obvious, but the first step to default is a late payment. JOE

They want you to pay. They just love it when you pay late. Thumper

I'm not sure I understand any of this post, nor the reason for it, but reading some of the other replies, I must ask, Why don't you have the bills sent directly to you? What is the date on the bill? Is that different than the usual date? (Hint: my credit card closes on the same date every month.)

What is a bill payment service? How much does it cost? (For the OP, this month it cost $35 more!) How much time does it save you? I think I'd prefer to be in control of this, as I'm in control of all of my financial business.

Elizabeth Richardson

I just had a similar problem with a paper statement for my Bank of America credit card. I also use electronic bill pay, so I generally don't look too closely at my bill until about a week before it is due (that's when I have a reminder set). However, on my last statement, BofA backed up the due date by a week, meaning I ended up looking at the bill on the day it was due. I paid by phone, incurring a fee, which I later got them to waive.

When I called to get the fee waived, I asked them about the reason for my due date changing so dramatically when it has remained on the same date (within a couple of days for weekends and holidays) for the entire time I've had the card. They said that they have a new policy that allows them to change the date essentially at random (that's not really a "why") and that the due date would continue to move around in the future. However, they did allow me to request a fixed payment date that would stop it from changing. Which I did.

Then I stopped using the card because I think this is a stupid thing to have to request.

Moral of the story: keep an eye on your due dates...

-Will

Gosh, Will, I always pay my BofA credit card by phone and there is never a fee. In fact, the recorded information explicitly says there is no fee to pay by phone. I must say I'm surprised.

Elizabeth Richardson

When you use the same-day payment option (i.e. account is credited for the payment on the day you make the call to make the payment), there is a fee. When you don't use that option, there isn't.

-- Rich Carreiro snipped-for-privacy@rlcarr.com

I'm doing essentially the same.

I just set up a low interest balance transfer from a credit card to pay off a car loan. Including the balance transfer fee I'm saving several hundred dollars over the life of the loan. I use Microsoft Money to calculate the payoff schedule for that and another account for which I did the same thing. Money adjusts the payment amount every month, considering relative interest rates and minimum payments. I can't schedule automatically because it's constantly changing.

I set up an automatic draft by the credit card bank from my checking account for the minimum. My Money-calculated payment should occur before that minimum payment. The issuer adjusts scheduled payments to include other credits. The result is if I don't mess up, I pay it off on schedule and don't get double-billed. If I mess up, the minimum gets paid and I don't suffer missed payment fees or, worse, escalation of the interest due to not making payments in a timely manner.

Right, and of course I had to have the payment credited that day in order to avoid late charges and interest. The pay-by-phone fee was $15 as opposed to the larger late charge (but they did waive the fee after I complained).

-Will

I just got off of a conference call with Chase, my bank, and the bill payment service. The reason I did not receive an electronic bill until the night before it was due was because one of Chase's servers has had problems for several weeks AND THEY STILL WOULD NOT WAIVE THE LATE FEE OR THE FINANCE CHARGES EVEN THOUGH IT WAS THEIR FAULT because they said the statement was available on their web site.

The bank is gonna refund the $39 late fee and the finance charge. I'm still considering canceling the Chase account; I will definitely cancel the account if they use the late payment as an excuse to jack up the interest rate. I may cancel the account even if they don't; I'm not sure the generous rewards program is worth doing business with [use your imagination]

Bob

Canceling the account seems to be a no brainer at this point.

I would cancel. Hell, you might even get a call from some other Department at Chase offering you incentives to keep your account there. Also I would tell them that you are reporting them to the attorney general for fraudulent charges because of their equipment failure. Thumper

I had a card where the shifted the payment date, although I wasn't signed up for alerts and was just going on the previous month's due date, so I missed it by one. They wouldn't would waive the late fee, so I grumpily paid.

After the payment posted, I called back to cancel. They immediately got in a dither and refunded the late fee.

Brian