How to Handle Phone Calls for Late Credit Cards
Smart credit management includes paying your cards on time, but sometimes a cash crunch makes it necessary to let a bill deadline slide. Managing this with your credit card issuer can help you minimize the impact on your credit rating and reduce the fees.
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Instructions
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Call your credit card issuer. Be ready to spend some time on hold; you'll have a better experience if you are polite to the phone representative, which will be difficult if you're rushed for time. Write down the date and time you made the call.
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Most phone representatives will greet you with their name; write this down, and ask them for their name if they do not provide it. This serves two purposes: you want to be able to track your communications with the company, and you want to use the representative's name during the conversation to establish a personal connection.
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Explain why you expect your payment will be late; don't go into excessive detail, but it's valid to explain if your situation was unavoidable or unforeseeable. Don't make inaccurate claims about your past payment records or how "good" a customer you are; the representative almost certainly has more detailed records than you do, and will be able to catch you if you misrepresent yourself. However, if this is your first late payment with this company, it's worth pointing this out.
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The representative will read you the boilerplate explanation of what happens when a payment is late, usually involving late fees or a change in your credit terms. It is appropriate to ask for a one-time exception to these rules; many phone representatives have the authority to waive a late fee, or accept a smaller minimum payment as "on time." Focus on the terms which are the most costly; a change in your interest rate is most likely to be more expensive than a one-time fee.
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Once you have agreed to a revised deadline or payment, don't miss it. Subsequent calls to the company will show that you negotiated an agreement and then reneged on its terms, which will make it impossible to negotiate in the future.
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On your subsequent bills, double-check to ensure that terms of your agreement were fulfilled. If you were charged a late fee which was supposedly waived, or if other unexpected penalties were assessed, repeat this process. Quote back the date and time of your previous calls and whom you spoke to, and remain polite -- it is possible that the representatives did what they were supposed to, but you both fell victim to a computer error.
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