Citi Automated Late Fee Credits
I have talked in the past about staying organized in order to avoid mistakes in this hobby. With so many deals and cards to keep track of, it can get difficult. Even the most organized of people can one day find that they missed the due date on a card. Unfortunately even if you pay only a day late you get hit with a late fee and interest on your balance.
The good news is that banks do tend to reward their good customers in this area. I have missed payment dates a couple of times over the years and have contacted the bank and had them agree to credit back the late fees and interest. If you always pay on time and are never late they will normally give that courtesy.
One way I have suggested to request a credit in the past is via secure message, but now Citi is making it even easier than that. I heard from a reader yesterday about his experience getting a fee credit from Citi on his AT&T Access More Card. It is pretty amazing.
I had a very good Citi experience just now. I missed my AT&T (huge!) payment by one day. Realized the morning after and paid right away that morning. Decided to wait a few days and call now to ask them to credit back the late fee ($25) and interest (more than I care to admit). Got the automated system … which, of course, asked me what I was calling about. I was tempted, as always, to say “representative” … but instead said “late fee”
The automated system paused for a brief few seconds and came back and said: “I’ve taken a look at your account and have some good news!” … then something along the lines of: “I see that you have a late fee of $25. I’ve taken the liberty to refund you that fee. I also see that you have interest of $X. I have taken the liberty to refund you that fee. You should see the credits on your next statement.”
Conclusion
On one hand it pains me to think that Citi can have an automated system so well programmed that it credits fees while at the same time they have a website that completely locked me out of all of my accounts for closing a checking account. Sigh. Either way this is pretty amazing, good customers service and the bank should be applauded for it. Of course the best thing to do is to not miss the payment in the first place, but no one is perfect!
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this isn’t the only bank to do this… comenity bank’s cards also have that in their system. for some reason I want to say Barclays also has it but i cant remember if it was them or someone else that i did that with.
I’m glad banks are making this somewhat easier to do. Thanks for letting us know about the other banks.
[…] A New Automated Way to Get a Late Fee Credit with One Major Bank! by Miles to Memories. I’d love Citi to add something like this to their app, it’s fairly standard for most places to waive late fees if it’s only once. […]
I had a similar experience last week. I floated a few hundred as I awaited a 4th night free reimbursement and the first month was charged interest accordingly (like $4). I used my Prestige card a bit more last month and had an interest charge of about $18. I was surprised and called for an explanation. Spoke to a lady and before she could even explain why, she reversed the interest charge. Not bad!
I don’t run balances but wasn’t aware that the grace period for purchase grace period isn’t valid when running balance. Didn’t know that…