Credit Card Paid On Time; Assessed Late Fee Anyway

Posted by EileenQ
on March 13, 2008

During the Christmas holidays, I paid my bills 10 days early both to avoid any postal delays due to increased holiday mail and because I was going out of town.

In January, I was quite surprised to open my Costco bill to see that I was charged a late fee, even though my balance appeared to be cleared. Baffled I called Costco customer service and was told that they had gotten my check, but it was past the due date.

I had no way of proving that I had mailed the check way in advance of the due date and they had no way of proving they had received it well past the due date.

What was interesting, though, was how quickly they reversed the charge. They didn't hesitate to credit the late fee. This made me suspicious. I had the feeling that they had done this to a lot of people and anyone who called them on it, quickly got the relief they were requesting.