That’s the message I got the other day from a major credit card company.  Is it in your wallet?  Probably.

We’ve had a card with this same company for YEARS.  We’ve had balances that were REALLY high, and they’ve certainly made a good amount of money from us.  Our balance is down significantly now, and haven’t added to in in about a year.  So, YAY us!

Anyway, since I love me some Bank of America Bill Pay, I have my BofA account receiving E-Bills for this card, and it’s scheduled to pay automatically every month.  And every month, I look at my list of outgoing payments to ensure everything is kosher.

Somehow, this month, I didn’t notice that BofA  had never received an E-Bill from my credit card company.  So BofA was never prompted to create a payment.  So my credit card payment, of $135.00, wasn’t made.  AAK.  I was, of course, oblivious to all of this.

Until Friday morning when a random 800 number appeared on my caller ID.  And I answered it.  And the person on the other line identified themselves as being from the credit card company that’s in my wallet.  And then I accidentally (REALLY!) hung up on him.  And was like “Oh, shit, I have no idea why they were calling.”  So I did some research and realized that the payment had never been made.  My online statement showed me that I was 8 days late and I had an outstanding payment due of $404.00, which was due by March 14th.

Now, when you’re period is 8 days late, it’s fairly significant.  BUT, when your credit card payment is 8 days late, and you’re not usually late, you’d think it wouldn’t be that big a deal.

You’d be wrong.

The credit card company that’s in my wallet had already sent my account to collections.

F to U to the C to the K.

I immediately scheduled a regular monthly payment on THEIR website which was scheduled to post later that day.  Within an hour or so my phone was ringing again and it was the handy dandy collections department of the card that’s in my wallet.  I explained the situation to the woman, who didn’t seem to give a rat’s ass, and ended the call thinking the drama was over.

I was wrong.

As I sat at my desk pondering the ridiculousness of the situation it occurred to me that a $404.00 payment seemed REALLY high.  I mean, my February payment should have been $135.00.  Add in their $40.00 late fee and another $135.00ish payment for March and you come up with $310.00.  So why did I owe $404.o0?

Because they’d increased my interest rate from 9% to 23%.  After being 8 days late on my payment.  TWENTY-THREE PERCENT!  Are you fucking kidding me?

So, I immediately called them back and demanded that they reduce my interest rate.   To which they responded, “You need to discuss this with a different department” and then promptly disconnected me.  So I called BACK.  And spoke to the correct department.

Which is when I learned that regardless of the fact that as of that evening I was going to be current, and regardless of the fact that I didn’t have a payment due until MARCH 14th, they were still unable to reduce my interest rate.  I need to pay the entire $404.00 before they’d discuss adjusting my interest rate.

*Insert sound of screeching records here*

WHAT?  But I’m now current.  I even paid an extra $40.00 to my account.  “Yes, but it hasn’t posted yet and you didn’t pay the entire amount.”  Okay, so tomorrow, after it’s posted and I’m current for my February payment, I STILL can’t call back and discuss this with you because I’m not current for my March payment, which isn’t due for another three weeks?  AND, I’ll have to pay the extra $100 in interest before you’ll discuss reducing my interest rate?  “Precisely”.

This conversation continued for 10 minutes because I simply couldn’t wrap my brain around the fact that they were going to leave my account in collections even AFTER it was current.

Finally, just as my brain was about to explode, I said “Then I’ll just transfer my entire balance to another card” and hung up on the bitch.

And now I’m just PISSED.  I’m annoyed that they’re screwing me over after being only 8 days late on a payment.  I’m annoyed that they’re doing this to THOUSANDS of people across the country right now.  I’m even more annoyed that most of those thousands of people ARE having financial difficulties and are late because they simply don’t have the money and not because of a technical glitch.  And doubling their interest rate isn’t going to to ANYTHING to help the situation.

I’m gong to call Capital One and fight this.  I’m going to be an annoying pain in the ass until they reduce my interest rate and credit me back the extra interest charged to my account.  And then I’m going to redeem my rewards, transfer the balance and cancel the card.  Screw them.

Capital One will NOT be in my wallet in the near future.  Or ever again.

**If you’re here from StumbleUpon, and you made it all the way to the end, you deserve an award!  I’m hosting a giveaway for a $50 cell phone case…it runs until 6/15/09 and there are cases available for almost all phones and PDA’s!**

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