My wife paid her credit card a couple of days late.
Between work and taking care of the kids (that includes me too) she forgot the exact due date. It isn’t a card that’s used often.
It happens.
Unfortunately we got hit with a no payment fee (about $30) and an interest fee (a couple of bucks). There were no other late payments on the card so I decided to call the company and ask if they can drop the fees. We’ve been good customers and have been paying in full every month.
So I called the number on the back of the credit card.
I go through all of the phone hoops and get to an account person. He asks who I am. I give him my name and tell him I’m calling on behalf of my wife (this is a credit card she had before we were married). The account rep then says he sees my account. My account? This is my wife’s card! It seems that Bank of America is the issuer of the AAA card and since we have a banking account there he could see my account.
So I tell him our situation, that we never pay late and always pay in full, could you drop the late fees? He tells me since I’m not on the account he can’t authorize it. My wife has to tell the rep to put me on her account. So now I give her the phone which kind of defeated the purpose of me calling since she was taking care of the kids, and she gives him permission to add me to the account. Took two minutes maybe. Easy process. I get the phone back and go back to the original question of removing the fees. He looks at the account and says he can remove the no payment penalty but there’s nothing he can do about the interest fee. I press on the interest but he won’t budge. It was a couple of bucks and it was our fault so OK we’ll pay that. At least we got the no payment fee taken off! The whole process was a bit annoying but in 15 minutes we were able to eliminate a $30 charge.
Fast forward a week or so and we get a package in the mail.
Two new credit cards for the account. We didn’t ask for a new card. Since they added me to the account they assumed that I too would need one of their cards.
Hmm…interesting. I guess they want me to start charging on the account too! Now they double the chance of a late payment or interest charges (not really for us but hypothetically)! What they did wasn’t wrong from what I can tell but it annoys me that they automatically sent out another card assuming I wanted it. Very aggressive marketing on Bank of America’s behalf.
This gets me thinking though.
What cards do we have between us? Should we consolidate some accounts with both of us on the accounts? Until now it hasn’t even been a thought. We’re both responsible with our spending and very open with our spending habits. I like the idea of one separate card between us so we can buy gifts for each other without the cost popping up on a shared statement. How can this affect our credit scores? I need to do some research on this.
P.S. To prevent future late payments we signed up for email alerts from the bank that tell us the payment is due in a few days.
Do you think Bank of America was sneaky in sending us another card?
For those married folks out there – How do you handle credit cards between you and your spouse? I’m interested in hearing your stories.
