Discover Card, Check Free aka Click Pay
Ripoff-0% interest rate slammed with late fee and finance charges using e-billing and auto pay

Check Free aka Click Pay are my online banking service which offer "e-bills" as part of the service. I chose to receive e-bills from Discover Card which had 4 months left on a 0% interest APR.initially I was manually paying the e-bills with no problem. I then selected the "autopay" feature from Check Free which guarantees the creditor will receive the minimum amount due by the e-bill due date.

My last discover payment was due on 6/1. It was automatically and electronically paid by Check Free on 5/30/02. Discover Card did not post the payment as received until 6/3/02.5/30 was a Thursday, 6/1 was Saturday, 6/2 the statement closing date is a Sunday. Payment posted Monday. Discover told me it does not post payments on the weekend.

I was hit with a $35 late fee and $48 finance charge and was now paying interest losing my 0% rate. I called Discover to explain the circumstances that this payment was automatic and paid on time. "Sorry sir payment was received late the problem is with Check Free". They also told me electronic payments must be scheduled 3-7 days in advance. This was an AUTOPAY and I do not pick the date paid it automatically paid for me!!!

I went to Check Free who can prove the funds were electronically sent to Discover on 5/30/02 and should have been received no later than 5/31. They tell me the problem is with Discover not posting the payment when received. They did there part sending the payment in time based on the e-bill due date.

After calling Discover again getting no where and then getting a manager on the phone and explaining everything all over again I am told once again that electronic payments need to be scheduled 3-7 days in advance - I'll say it again this was autopay I do not set a payment date. This manager then drops the phone mid sentence and leaves it there for about 12 minutes-I can hear people working it the background and then simply hanges up the phone. She offered nothing except to blame me for the problem and telling me that electronic payments go to a clearing house hired by Discover. Payments are not posted to accounts until they are received from the clearing house - the one they hired to receive these payments.

I call Discover right back and ask to speak to a manager, explain again, same blame me. But now I have a clearer picture. Discover and Check Free have a contract to do these e-bills and auto pay. I got this from Check Free which I'll say more later. Niether company see a problem with the system or whats happened to me. They point at each other and blame me for not scheduling. Hello this is autopay!!! No scheduling allowed by me! I am going back and forth between Check Free And Discover like an idiot.

I tell the Discover manager they have set this system up to fail. If they don't see the problem they must do this out of greed - they want 0% cards to become high interest cards. Why don't they tell Check Free to make sure they pay e-bills with autopay 3-7 days before the due date???"Not there problem, My tough luck"

This Discover manager starts double talkig trying to confuse me. I then tell him I guess litigation is the only way to get to the bottom of this and maybe a judge can figure out who is to blame, Discover or Check Free. I'm convinced both are to blame. I also mention that I will call My State Attorney General to report this. I know I'm not the first to go through this.

He then tells me he can drop all finance charges and late charges and put my rate back to 0%. This, after days of being told this was absolutely not an option. He connects me to a mystery man who within seconds is sending my account back in time like non of this ever happened. No fuss, "oh you need the late charge dropped too, no problem". I can't believe what is happening.

I called Check Free and spoke to an agent who told me not to use autopay. This is one of thier services and she knows about problems. When I ask her why not change or drop Discover? She tells me they have a contract with Discover and is clearly not going to report any problem. Just advises me not to use autopay especially with Discover. Again why doesn't Discover and Check Free have it in thier aggreement to have these payments sent in earlier. I believe these practices are designed to bilk us out of our hard earned cash.

Discover is a greed machine. Threating them with litigation is the only way to the mystery man.

Steve
Anchorage, Alaska

Company: Discover Card, Check Free aka Click Pay
Country: USA
State: Utah
City: Salt Lake City
Address: PO Box 30395
Phone: 8003472683

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