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Last month I went to Smokies vacation with my friends and due to the sessions of planning and euphoria during and after the trip I missed paying my balance on my Chase Freedom credit card. I was lazy enough to realize it late and cognizant enough to make a prompt payment as soon I realize the miss. In all, I was late in payment by one week.
When I checked the statement yesterday there were $25 in late fee charge and $14 and some change in interest charge. I made up mind to call the Chase customer service and request for a waiver.
Today I picked up my iPhone, opened a new browser and in Google search window typed in chase customer service number, within a second google came up with the number and I tapped on the number, bang the call went. A few clicks after connecting to their voice response system, I reached one of the customer care professional, Ms. Elena Brown (if I got the name and spelling right).
I explained her the situation and requested if the charges can be waived. The response I received was “Thank you Mr. SB, I see that you are one of our best customers, I will go ahead and waive that fee“. In few seconds she replied that the late fee was waived, I requested for the interest charge waiver too, and after checking through the account details she realized that my payment, in full, was made. She then went ahead and removed the interest charge from my account.
I couldn’t thank her enough, said a sweet little “Thank you very much“, she did ask me to enroll in 5% cash back program on gas, which they are going to run in first quarter 2012. I was already enrolled in it.
The call lasted a little over three minutes. In all, the complete process took less than 4 minutes from the time I picked my phone and the call was finished.
Let me send a “Thank You” to Chase for their superior customer service through this blog, if they find it through twitter or by any other means.
Generally I don’t post on Tuesdays and never post an article of less than 600 words, but since this is so fresh in mind and so satisfied I am, I decided to put this down quickly. This story should inspire readers to do the following.
- Always be diligent in inspecting your monthly statements.
- Always pay your dues on time.
- If you think the fee assessed can be waived, do call the customer service and try your luck.
- Set up monthly automatic payments to be on safer side. (I had this setup earlier but broken now since Bank of America did lock my checking account for wrong reasons).
- Establish a superior payment history to get a superior treatment.
Let me reiterate my opinion, if you use credit card in a correct way, it is way better than using cash or debit cards. Didn’t I mention about that 5% cash back on gas?
Readers, did you ever try this kind of phone call to any credit card company? Did you fail or did you succeed? Do share your experience.
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Glad you got the fees waived. I would advise against setting up auto-pay for credit cards though. It is easy to not check the statements for fraudulent charges if the payment is made automatically.
Very true! Unless you set for a exclusive day of month for checking all your statements. My other credit cards got auto pay setup and every month on 15th I check my statements.
I think I missed a payment by 1 day or something like that when we were traveling a few years ago. I also called them up and got it waived. It’s nice that they are willing to work with customer on these fee. I would consider changing credit card if they refuse to work with us.
of course I would have cancelled the card then and there had they refused. Customer is the king and that should be the mantra for all financial institutions
that is excellent! customer service is very important. Today, i had to call ATT because they charged me twice for the upgrade fee. she was getting upset at me because she was adamant that the charge was only made once. I pointed to her in the bill and proved her wrong. Although she removed the 2nd charge, her attitude towards a customer really didn’t sit with me well. Hopefully, all these big companies can weed out these bad customer service support.
Actually they go by the script and the training they had. Its really has to do with company policy. I won’t blame the specific person who dealt with you. I would rather question ATT policy in resolving customer complaints
This is where a good performance or good credit helps. I had a late fee waived earlier this year. I never received the statement and just forgot about it. It was the first time for me in over 20 years.
I think this happened to me after a few years. Having a good record as customer goes a long way, at least it should be recognized by all
I have had nothing but good customer service at Chase (and I work in customer service myself, so I like to think I pay more attention to the little things). Earlier in the year, my checking account was overdrawn when a doctor’s payment I’d mailed a couple months prior was suddenly cashed (the doctor’s office emailed everyone affected to let them know that payments hadn’t been processed for two or three months). I had been planning on depositing a check I had with me, but instead of doing that on the way home from work, I waited until the next morning (and didn’t make any transactions, because I knew my balance was low). All told, my account was overdrawn for about six hours, and Chase transferred money from my savings account to cover the difference. They also charged me a fee to do that — while less than a $35 overdraft fee, it was still $12 that I didn’t want to lose.
I emailed Chase and explained the situation and asked for the fee to be waived. I acknowledged that I needed to be aware of outstanding payments, but that it was an unusual circumstance and I did not have a history of overdraft, and that I had already deposited more into my checking account. They were quick and efficient and made a one-time exception to absorb the $12 fee. I appreciated that!
Really, these little things go a long way. It creates a trust and a brand value. I wish all banks are like that. Thanks for your comment a valuable lesson for my other readers.
Your phenomenal history with them was certainly at play here. I’m happy that they used their discretion and waived the fee. That was certainly 4 minutes well spent. That’s an interesting point by @MC. I’ve considered the same thing about automatic payments.
Still I’d like to go ahead with autopay, given that I have a set date and time every month to scrutinize all bills from cell phone, credit cards to electricity and cable.