Credit card dispute question

[Farang]

Against my better judgment I got a Macy's card a few months back (think I even made a thread asking if this was a bad idea, yes it was).

I made some returns and ended up with ~$130 in credit on the account. I sort of just let it sit there and forgot about it until today.

Last month I made my first purchase with the card, thinking I should start using that $130 that was just sitting there. I also made a purchase at Macy's, all told I used all but $4 of the credit I had on the account.

Now I see that my first outside-of-Macy's purchase was split onto a new line of credit. So when I log in to see my balance, there are two balances. One a credit of $43, the other a debt of -$65 (-$40 for the outside-of-Macys purchase, -$25 late fee for 8/15).

From my point of view I owed that Macy's company $40 last month, and they owed me $43. When I spent the $40 it was from the $43 they owed me.

Lesson being don't get a store credit card.

Question being do I have any recourse if customer service tells me to screw off? Sort of want to be prepared for this call as I have never had a late payment on my credit. goal of the call being:
1) Removal of late payment from credit history
2) removal of late fees, use one balance to pay the other
3) close the account

 

[Newbian]

Got to love fine print.

 

[wiredspider]

so you didn't get your statement or check it online all this time?

 

[Farang]

so you didn't get your statement or check it online all this time?

As far as I knew I had $130 sitting in the account so no, for 2 months I didn't pay any attention. The card had only been used 2 places so I wasn't overly concerned about fraud

 

[amdhunter]

Store cards are retarded. Friend of mines got a $500 Best Buy card that had a $79 fee from day 1 and 28% APR...lol

 

[nick1985]

Dude, they know where you live and can unlock your door in less than 5 seconds.

 

[LookBehindYou]

Store cards are retarded. Friend of mines got a $500 Best Buy card that had a $79 fee from day 1 and 28% APR...lol

This. The only store credit card I use is for JC Penny, and that's because you get a lot of "extra 20% off" or "$15 off" type deals if you use it. I go to the store, use the card, then go home and pay the balance.

 

[Anubis]

Store cards are retarded. Friend of mines got a $500 Best Buy card that had a $79 fee from day 1 and 28% APR...lol

man that sucks my BB card has a 4k limit cost me nothing and got me 15% off everyrthing i purchased on the day i signed up with 36 months of no interest.

was a great fucking deal.

i paid it off in less then a year and havent used it since

 

[Farang]

This. The only store credit card I use is for JC Penny, and that's because you get a lot of "extra 20% off" or "$15 off" type deals if you use it. I go to the store, use the card, then go home and pay the balance.

yes it was a dumb move, I instinctively knew it at the time too, but I was making a large purchase and signing up for the card saved me $60 or so.

 

[dullard]

1) Credit histories record late payments that are 30 days, 60 days, etc late. You are only 2 weeks late and thus it won't appear on your credit history. Often creditors won't bother with filing the paperwork unless you are several months late. I don't think you have to worry here (Assuming you pay that $65 immediately).

2) If you are polite, you'll probably get one fee waived. This will likely be your first and last fee waived by that company. If it doesn't work, call again and again until you find a person on the phone who will listen to you. Finally, if no one will listen you saved $60 with the card, lost $25. Call it a $35 profit for you and a lesson learned. Not to bad afterall if you think about it.

3) I'd leave the account open if I were you until ALL issues are solved. Pay it off fully, wait a couple months to make sure the bills are all $0. Then close it. It is just easier to deal with them if you keep it open and another problem arises.

4) Don't make assumptions any more about how they'll apply your credit. Read all bills as companies love to do this. For example, many CC companies would mail you a $130 check and you'll never have a credit like you thought you had. The check may take weeks to arrive to you so when you thought you had credit you would have had a check coming your way instead. It is all in the fine print, but why make assumptions? Just check the bill once a month and no problem will occur.

 

[Rumpltzer]

Call the card. Explain the situation. Ask them to remove the late fee. If I remember correctly, the Macy's card gave me some crap but they did remove the fee (card of a non-native English speaking friend).

In 18 years of having credit cards, I've been charged fees for one reason or another maybe 5 times. I've been able to get them removed in every case.

I'd cancel the card soon afterwards (after everything is resolved). If they make me eat the $25 fee, I'd kill the card on the spot.

 

[darom]

The same happened to me: signed up for A credit card per the sale's clerk advice (20% off), made a purchase - sent a payment a month later. Then I went on a vacation. When I got back, I saw a pissed off notice from Macy's stating that I owed them some penalty fees.

As in your case, they opened a store card and a credit card. Apparently I made a payment on the store card which was in positive. I never wanted 2 damn cards in the first place. After talking to the Macy's rep and closing my 2 accounts, I googled for the whole Macy's BS offerings. There were a lot of similar cases online. I guess they are still doing the same confusing crap to people.

 

[Squisher]

dullard is spot on, especially about checking it for a couple months. Sometimes late fees are charged for more than one month even though you brought the balance up to zero in the previous month. Its all in that fine print.

 

[Pollock]

This is a reason I like to use Mint - I can easily check all of my balances at one time and make sure my unused cards aren't somehow gaining a balance.