Silly me!
GE MoneyBank charges you fees to make payments in any format other than electronic transfer or mailing a check. I had a $60.00 payment due in two weeks, with $1999.00 owed on an account opened with a $6,000 limit 8 months previously.
I went online and attempted to make a $1,000 payment, but I somehow typoed myself into a $10,000 payment! I immediately attempted to adjust, or retract the payment, but their online system doesn't allow adjustments, or cancellations. I immediately called the customer service department, where a representative identifying himself as Sam informed me that there was no way to adjust the payment amount, nor cancel the payment and start over.
I told him that it seemed inconceivable to me that there was no one who could take care of this simple thing, as my entire account was never $10,000 and it surely must come off as a simple error.
Sam put me on hold and came back to say that I could call another number and do a payment over the phone, which would cancel out the online payment, but that I would be charged $10 to $15 for doing that. I BALKED!
We talked around in circles for a while and I requested he escalate me to the next level. He apologized for not being able to help me, and I accepted that he did not have any way to do what I was requesting.
Next up, I get someone in the escalation department, who says she is the supervising manager, Kristen. She snidely explains that I am the one who made the mistake, and it is I who must pay for my mistake by either allowing the $10,000 charge to go through, and wait for a refund. Have the charge bounce if I did not have that much money in my account, and therefore get socked with NSF fees from both my bank AND GE MoneyBank, or, I could pay her ONLY $15 to have her take the payment over the phone and, thereby cause the cancellation of the $10,000 electronic transfer.
I spent 15 minutes discussing the ridiculousness of them expecting me to PAY them for the right to PAY them! I offered to just pay the entire $1999.00 as a replacement payment and she still insisted that even if she did that, she would still charge me $15 for the service of fixing my mistake. As if to seal the extortion, she pointed out to me that if I did not deal with her, $10,000 would be taken out of my account if I had it, and that it would take A MINIMUM of 30 days to get any refund of the overpayment. (I guess she learned from the police officers & traffic court prosecutors who offer you a parking violation or seat belt violation in place of a speeding ticket)
Like any one who has dealt with banks in the past, I ended my call with this shrew and ran off to my bank to protect my interests and returned to call them back after my hastily signing papers at my bank to block their evil plans. (My bank was shocked at the crude response I was given)
I call back after stopping the electronic transfer via the bank and I get lost in the phone tree. I try to get a live person, but I try in vain. I hit the "Cancel My Account" selection, expecting to get a live person who would at least ask me about securing my final payoff, if not attempt to talk me out of dumping the card, but no, I get a recording saying my credit is now zero and a letter will be sent, and the damned thing hangs up on me! I call back and try again, and I get told by the computer that I am being transferred, but get disconnected again.
I call back and finally get Gregg, who actually wants to help me. He puts me on hold, and comes back with the same story as to how he is not allowed to change the charge, and he is not allowed to waive the fee for doing the phone payment that would cancel out the $10,000 transfer, but offers that what he CAN DO, and is willing to do is to refund me the $39.99 fee they charged me for being a day late on a payment several months ago (which they were totally unwilling to do at the time), and that would cover either the phone payment service fee, or the returned payment charge. He then went to see if he could make it all happen, and found that because of a time zone difference, he could not do the payment so that I would not be charged BOTH FEES, so he advised that I wait until after midnight to post the payment as I originally intended, as the system would be freed up then. I could then make my payoff and go in peace. As a parting jesture, he also re-established my credit line. (I don't know if I really want that, but, ok.)
Although I can understand a company not having an easy way to cancel an online payment, there should be a way to avoid this kind of situation. Some of my other financial institutions allow an outright cancellation or an alteration of a payment for days after the web payment has been set into motion. At any rate, one should be able to get a simple decimal point moved when talking to someone on the phone. Come to think of it, most of my credit cards simply DON'T ALLOW OVERPAYMENTS! You can't even pay them more money than you owe, let alone more than you ever borrowed!
Other than Gregg, I found this company to be totally crappy! They would not do anything for me when my payment posted ONE DAY LATE, thus causing a late fee, and they steadfastly insisted on being greedy about this obvious error that is not even possible at most responsible institutions. They also play games with the dates one pays and posts in order to get more fees.
All this and a ridiculous interest rate! Had I not had an interest free period (which I paid the amount off prior to it's expiring) I would never had signed up for anything with them in the first place.
J
Buffalo, New York
U.S.A.
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