So a few months ago my wife (Stephanie) was purchasing something from Amazon when she noticed she could get 10% off if she applied for an Amazon credit card (which also gives her Amazon points when she uses it). She used the card (actually a Chase card) a few times, always paying it off at the end of the month. She sent in her last payment (due July 4th) as usual, and thought everything was normal.

Fast forward to Friday, July 20th. We receive a new statement in the mail... with a $39 late fee assessed. It seems the payment wasn't entered until July 6th. Steph was a little upset, so she called Chase to try and get the fee removed -- but they wouldn't budge. They refused to waive the fee even after she told them to close the account. Needless to say, we were not at all happy with Chase at that point.

Then I started thinking... we have a Chase mortgage, a Chase auto loan, and three Chase credit card accounts -- one of which has been open for 4+ years and seen thousands of dollars worth of use. If they weren't going to waive this $39 late fee, I would simply close all the accounts (well, except maybe the mortgage ).

I found a statement for the oldest Chase credit card, and gave them a call. Upon reaching an 'account specialist', I informed her I wanted my account closed. The answer was, "You've had this account for 4 years, why are you closing the account." I told her about Steph's experience just moments before, and informed her that I would be closing all my Chase accounts. She immediately asked for Steph's account number, and then asked to speak to her. Steph agreed to keep the Amazon account open if they would waive the fee, and thus I agreed to keep the 4 y.o. account open. Problem solved.

So moral of the story, if at first you don't get what you want, try a bigger hammer.

Nice going. This brings a new meaning to the term "leverage" when it comes to personal finance.

I have a MBNA credit card that has been open for 4 years and definately has seen some interest bearing balances in its day. I closed one of the accounts that I pay this particular credit card with and then accidentally tried to transfer a payment from said closed account. I got a $39 late payment fee for this because the "check" essentially bounced. I called one account specialist and they would not budge even with me threatening to close the account. Mad, I hung-up the phone and called back, the new person didn't even question me, listened to my story and promptly removed the charge. My moral of the story was, if at first you don't succeed dust yourself off and try again..... Though I think Aaliyah sang a song with lyrics in the same vain....


EDIT: I failed to mention that the credit card that got the late payment fee was paid in full, and the payment where I tried to transfer from the closed account was pre-emptive....

If you have good record, you can also try to appeal to them. I missed payment once or twice and was able to leverage my good record to have the late fee and finance charge removed.

I didn't even have to call--I used their online message system to dispute a $39 returned payment fee ( I think I entered the account info wrong, its a new card) and they readily agreed to refund it because I was a valued customer. Valued? I've had their card 2 months or so!

Still, I was surprised at the simplicity

This reminds me a bit of the line in the film Casino, where Deniro is describing the fall of the old ways in Las Vegas. He mentions a case where a 'whale' lands in the casino lobby, but some acne prone belhop won't give him a room until he gets a social security number.

Sure, I've been able to get fees waived too, but they'll only do this about once a year. After that, you've got to really push for some service or for them to 'value' you a little more than they'd like to offer. In any event you're just talking to some tele-person who hates their job too, but is constrained by the standards of their organization. It's often not worth the effort of 2 hours of phone calls and stress just to get some piddling dispute resolved.

I wouldn't be surprised if they lost money by waiving the fee (obviously, they lost the $39 instead of collecting it from you, but I'm referring to the residual loss) in consideration that retaining your future business would eventually pay it off and it's not as if they're selling a tangible product that you consumed to earn the $39 fee. However, maybe, their CSR time, in conjunction with your 'customer satisfaction' value combined to greater than $39, so it was easier for them to waive the fee than have to spend 40 minutes of their reps time explaining the policy and insisting that they were right. Add in the cost of their paperwork to process all the account closings, and I'm fairly certain it's going to be worth their time to keep your account. Are they considering all this? I'd like to think so, since I'm just coming up with it off the top of my head, but they probably have people that are paid to do this type of critical analysis. But, perhaps they called your bluff (maybe it wasn't a bluff, but a lot of people would bluff) and stuck you with the fee. So you have to go with your 2nd choice bank, pay the $39, and waste the time getting it all switched. Makes for a pretty lousy afternoon, dealing with so much hassle, but maybe it's worth it for you to send the point. Or maybe they'll never get that message....

These huge companies (like Chase) have enough pull to snow over any dissenter. The OP made this clear because as much as he might like, it would cost a huge amount of time and money to change all the accounts over, and I'm saying _all_, including the mortgage. Otherwise, what would they care? Even if you were successful, they woudln't feel that either. It's like tossing a pebble into the grand canyon. You better have a 'hammer' the size of the GDP of Ecuador if you ever want to effect a real change. The margin of profit that they work to is perhaps much less than we might think.

I'd like to send a huge message to all corporations and the US government, fwiw. Instead, I'm going to buld a shack in the Saskatchewan(sp) wilderness and broadcast pirate ham radio signals to the rest of the world about how evil capitalism is.... we need to go back to the gold standard... lol.

I'm seriously not usually this pessimistic.

Actually, they really do seem to be making as much profit off of fees as most people think - http://www.advfn.com/news_Bank-of-America-2Q-profit-rises-5-pct_21507254.html this article says Chase had net income of $5 billion, and says that consumer fees are helping to offset credit losses.

I think this is the power of negotiation

Be prepared to back it up. I had a similar situation where they upped my rate on a card. I don't carry a balance, but I objected to the rate increase on principal: I was no greater a credit risk now that I was when they gave me the card 4 years ago. I threatened to close the account, and they basically said make my day.

In the end I think they didn't really care since they were only making 2-5% at best off merchant transactions from me since I never carried a balance.

Ladies and gentlemen the only industry where you're a freeloader if you pay your bills in full on time every month.