OT AT&T Credit Card ripoff warning

I just learned a lesson the expensive way and thought I'd share it with others.

I had a credit card payment due on 3/15/2007 and I paid it on 3/2/2007. I paid next months bill early, on 3/21/2007. This payment was applied as a late pay on the bill due 3/15 and I was charged a $39 late payment fee, even though their records show I had already paid the bill on 3/2/2007. Anyway, this threw all my payments a month behind, what was for this month was being applied as a late payment to last months bill, etc.. A $39 late fee every month...

Anyway, there is a do not pay your bill time between the due date and the closing date. The AT&T card is from CITI, other CITI cards might also automatically add in a late fee if you make a payment between the due date and closing date. Sheesh, I was only trying to pay my bill early! BTW, My minimum monthly payment was ~$21/month, On 3/02 I paid $100 and on 3/21 I paid $330. They did credit me one $39 late fee for March, but I guess I'm stuck with the months after that... Lesson learned - don't pay you credit card bills too early (I have it set up on bill pay now!).

Reply to
Roger_N
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The lesson you should have learned is: Get a bank loan and pay off that credit card, then close the account. I use only debit cards.

Reply to
Rex

AT&T was once a good company but now is in a class with Enron.

John

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john

Reply to
RoyJ

Reply to
JR North

Sounds like good advise, I use only my debit card now too. Unfortunately most of my life I have had low paying jobs living paycheck to paycheck. One story pretty much sums up my work history, I designed, built, and programmed a PLC controlled servo hydraulic press for one of the big 3 auto makers for about 60% of the pay rate the guy installing the hydraulic tubing was getting. But my income vs expense is now enough that I don't need to use credit cards anymore!

Reply to
Roger_N

Talk to them! They don't want to loose you as a customer, especially if you have a balance. They have already drilled the well and are just pumping oil from you. They don't want to upset that flow. BTW, use another vehicle to handle your debt, cards are designed to make a lot of money if you have a balance.

Kudos to me for manipulating the card companies for years! I have never paid a dime of interest or fees and have carried as much as $40k for year after year juggling zero interest teaser rates and moving the balance from bank to bank. It took my bookkeeper some time to cross all the "T"s and dot all the "I"s but it's all paid off and didn't cost more than postage and time. I have thirty Platinum cards that have zero balance...maybe I'll max them out and disappear!

Reply to
Tom Gardner

Which is a reason to avoid high-interest debt at all costs. (Yes, I know, "once you get behind...")

There is a strange deal in the USA; if you are poor, you pay more for certain things...lots more. Credit is certainly one of those things.

Example 2: Have you ever seen the folks that line up in the check cashing store to pay good money just to cash their paychecks while the rest of us do it at a bank for free?

Example 3: Housing. We own a fairly decent home. It costs us less to own that home than it would cost us to pay weekly rent on a crappy working man's apartment.

One big reason why my wife and I are not broke is because we have always done whatever it took to avoid paying interest. Your money buys much more that way!

Vaughn

Reply to
Vaughn Simon

hear hear. The last credit card I owned was in 1985, and when I discovered it had paid for motel rooms for my wife and her boyfriend...never will I have plastic.

Gunner

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Reply to
Gunner

How about sending me one, and then giving me the Go! signal so we can max em out together.

Whummm...can I buy a used truck with a platinum card?

Not very much..say $5k?

Gunner

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Reply to
Gunner

When I get ready to dash, I'll send you a few. Each are minimum $25k. Just max them out on the day I say and disappear.

Reply to
Tom Gardner

Gotcha!!!

Ill be waiting by the mailbox.

Gunner

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Reply to
Gunner

Send me one also, I want to do a balance transfer ! :-)

Reply to
Roger_N

Not a good idea, I think they will come back on you after they can't find me.

Reply to
Tom Gardner

I can sell the credit card for about 50% of the maximum, getting cash from an anonymous individual in just about any part of SO. Cal.

I can get a REALLY nice truck for $12k

Or better yet, 2 really good trucks and a utility body F150 at a school auction. Think jack stands and tarps..hot spares.

Lol

Gunner

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Reply to
Gunner

I fiddled around with my finances and discovered that if I eliminated that credit card payment by paying it off in full, my minimum account balance would still be in the green. So, I paid it off in full! I'm sure I'll have a late fee from last month, that should be updated in a day or two, then I'll pay that off. Their greed has cost them more in interest than they made on late fees with this account.

Reply to
Roger_N

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