Remember in my Five Credit Card Tips to Remember post I told you to analyse your bills? Imagine my shock and surprise when I received my most recent credit card bill and saw a finance charge. I’ve had this particular credit card for just over two years and I had never seen a finance charge appear on the bill. Whenever I receive any bill, I automatically check it for discrepancies and approve all of the purchases and payments listed. This does not usually happen, but on the one-off time that I does, I have to make sure that I spot it. That’s how I found this error.
It occurred to me that I might have paid my bill a bit late. But then I stopped myself and checked the last bill, where I then realised that it was paid on time. I racked my brain trying to think about what this finance charge could be. At this point, it did not even register that the bank could have made an error. I was convinced that somehow I had made some mistake and could not remember!
Reviewing My Credit Card Bill
I went to the previous bill and noted that it was also paid on time. The finance charge on the current bill was a date that I know that I did not make any purchases. I checked my diary, where I keep all of my bills and receipts and there was nothing there. I put down the bill and went do some other tasks, but that $2.49 kept bugging me. The back of my neck was getting warmer and warmer and I knew that it would not go away until I got the matter sorted out.
Instinctively, I took up the initial agreement that I received when I first got the credit card and went through it section by section. I found nothing. I read that if there were any changes made to the agreement I would be identified in writing. Somehow that seemed to calm me down and I concluded that it must be an error and the bank would have to give me an explanation. I put all of my paperwork in my bag and decided that I would call the bank first thing in the morning.
The Outcome
The next morning, I made a call to the bank, still trying to wrap my head around this finance charge. After what seemed like eternity, one of their customer service representatives answered my call. I told her that I was calling to query a finance charge on my credit card statement. She politely told me that they were having some computer generated issues and they were trying to correct them and that I would see a credit appearing on the next bill. What a relief!