the post in which i bear my credit soul...

Today I had the privilege of looking up my credit report on https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp...

I went on to see because recently I applied for a car loan and was denied by two different banks because of "delinquent payment history"

I also received a notice yesterday about one of my store credit cards credit limit being lowered because of "recent delinquent payments"

Hmmm... NOT OK! I am known for being a serious FREAK about making sure my balances are paid in full at the end of each month. And if by chance I have ever made a late payment, I have always been able to resolve the issue. I've been very proud of the fact that I have good credit and i've been striving to keep it that way so that later on when i want to say buy a house or something trivial like that, i'll be able to.

Anyways, turned out that I had a $67.06 balance on my capital one card. So I was really upset, but realized that if it was indeed my fault (which I assumed it was) i was more than willing to pick up the slack and just pay it. But before I did that, I wanted to call and talk with them about making sure that they understood that I wasn't just neglecting to pay it due to a lack of fundage, but as a complete oversight and will they PLEASE TAKE THIS OFF MY REPORT!

Well, when I called, I was given to an account specialist who stated that I had a balance of $67.06 and that if I would like to pay it in full right now then I wouldn't be sent to the creditors blah blah blah.

Not 2 minutes later as I was getting ready to authorize the payment he said that the balance to pay in full was now $70.something (i don't remember the exact cents)

*tires screeching* wait a second, hold the phone! Which is it buddy? I mean i know it's only like a $3 difference, but I know enough to know that these people are specific if they aren't anything else. So I said, "could you please tell me exactly what my balance is because I just heard you say 2 different amounts."

He didn't give me a straight answer.

Instead he said something about finance charges...

So that got the wheels in my brain turning and I asked then "why are these supposed finance charges not appearing on my STATEMENT!?"

And i was answered with an explanation that went something like this:

"well you see ma'am, finance charges are ecrued because of interest on purchases. It is applied to the total balance when you receive your statement and are subsequently responsible for paying them."

Well, that's mighty interesting now isn't it? I have no problem paying interest on a credit card that I know has an interest rate on... however I am NOT ok when I am paying interest on a balance of ZERO.

It was at this point that I realized that I HAD INDEED paid off my card in full back in July, and that there was a $.54 finance charge applied to my card in AUGUST that resulted in $67 of late fees over the next 4 months.

I don't know about you, but that's some seriously good interest off $.54. Sign me up for that please, i'd like to take part in whoever's gettin the benefits of that!

I had held it together mostly up to this point... but after realizing this, I totally wigged. He told me there was "nothing they could do since I had received the statement in the mail" blah blah blah

So I asked for a supervisor/manager.

I explained to her that had these charges been as a result of my own delinquence to pay off my balance in full, I would have no problem paying the bill right now. However, because i was being charged late fees off of a finance charge that was applied to a BALANCE OF ZERO I was absolutely unwilling to pay this bill.

She said that she could waive 2 of the late fees, and since I knew that was only $30 (less than half the bill) I insisted that while I appreciated that, it was still not acceptable and the bill needed to be balanced to zero again.

After a few minutes and minimal voice raising, she came back to tell me that she had waived all late fees and FINANCE CHARGES THAT HAD ECRUED ON THE FINANCE CHARGE FROM THE BALANCE OF ZERO.

Thank you.

And with that, I would like to close my account with Capital One. You better believe I pulled every card I could think of including the commercials that advertise capital one being the card that has no "hidden fees" and the whole "no hassle" deal. I'm telling you what. I have NEVER ever had a problem like this with a credit card. And as I'm sure you can imagine that i will never be opening an account with Capital One again.