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I recently missed a credit card payment by one day (my first one ever in my history of credit starting from over 10 years ago), and I called the credit card company to have the late fee waived. I reasoned that this was a mistake, that I have excellent credit history (my score is very, very good too), and that it won't happen again.

I pay off my entire amount every month, and the credit card company agreed to waive the late fee. However, I was charged an interest on the balance that I had because I had missed the payment. I had tried calling them to waive the interest charges but had no luck.

Are credit card interest charges negotiable to be waived? I know late fee and interest fees (not charges) can be negotiated, but I was told this charge could not be. From my perspective, my activity would be worth more if I stayed as a customer than to let such a minuscule amount drive me away from their service.

What can I do to successfully negotiate the interest charge if possible? Is this something dependent on the company itself or will I have to bite the bullet and live with the charge?

3 Answers3

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As the saying goes, anything is negotiable.

And in this case, I have had credit card interest amounts refunded before. I had not realized that a promotional APR had ended and a higher APR was in place. I was carrying a balance so I got hit with some interest. When I finally noticed, they agreed to go back and credit some back interest.

So yes, this is possible. However, it depends completely on your credit card provider, your account history, your current credit disposition, and more. It won't hurt to ask, but you may get "no" as an answer if they have a policy against it, or they don't see you as a big customer, or they're having a bad month for their bottom line, or if the moon is in the wrong phase.

Tips to try to get interest credited/waived would be the same as most when dealing with credit cards:

  • Ask to speak to a manager
  • Ask to speak to the cancellation department
  • Threaten to switch/balance-transfer to another card and cut this one up
  • Alternatively, ask if they have any promotions going on
Steven
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I think in this case it will be difficult to go back for another fee-cancel after you already got the penalty waived. But, anything is possible in theory.

Ramit Sethi has a lot of material on negotiating. http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/best-of-iwt-word-for-word-scripts/

His book also recommends putting your credit cards on auto-pay so you don't have to worry about this. I agree, and have done that for most of my cards.

BillSeitz-3F
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Yes, you could ask them to waive your interest and penalties provided that you are seen as a valuable client to them. I always ask for a waiver since I always pay late but in full amount. What I do is I always use my credit card in every transaction I could have. I am a frequent user and I pay in full amount monthly. They can still get income from me since they can get 'merchant fees' from my transactions.

If you are infrequent user and you are asking for a waiver, they might say no since they can't get any income from you aside from hoping that someday they could charge you with interests and penalties.

JND C
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