Stop the presses! You know how most banks are glad to let you charge more than your credit limit and then charge you fees for the “courtesy?” CreditMattersBlog reports it turns out Chase will let you block these “over-the-limit” purchases. You just gotta call and ask for it, 1-800-432-3117. If you’re a Chase credit card customer and sometimes find yourself going over your credit limit and incurring fees, putting an over-the-limit block on your account could be just the thing.
fees
Comcast Giveth (Fees); Comcast Taketh Away (Fees)
By 4.30.09
Graham’s roommate is moving out. The cable and Internet are in his name, so they called up Comcast to change the name on the account. Simple enough, right? Surprisingly, it was. Until they wanted to know why there was a $10 fee to change the name on the account.
Amex Hikes Rate, Drops Balance, Then Tries To Bribe Customer To Pay Off Debt Early
By 4.28.09
Courey Gouker’s recent experience with American Express encapsulates every trick the company has pulled in the past few months to drive away their customers, including dropping the credit limit, hiking the rate, and even offering him a cash bonus to pay off his balance in full. In addition, the company’s CSRs made promises to him that they didn’t keep, and notes on his account have gone missing. About the only thing they haven’t done is email a photo of the CEO flipping him the bird.
Letter To T-Mobile Executives Results In Fees Waived, Charges Reversed
By 4.28.09
Chris was surprised to find that T-Mobile didn’t cancel his account as promised a few months ago. What’s worse, the note on his account that mentioned his cancellation request was missing, and nobody at customer service would help him. Chri works for a “very large consumer electronics company” that he won’t name (we’re pretty sure it’s Apple) and thinks customer service is important, so he gave up on the CSR angle and instead came to our site to find contact info for T-Mobile executives. One EECB later, Chris is free from T-Mobile and the ETF they tried to apply.
Orbitz, Travelocity, Expedia Suspend Airline Booking Fees
By 4.28.09
If you’ve been avoiding the big travel websites because of their booking fees, you might want to reconsider. Orbitz, Travelocity and Expedia have all stopped charging airline booking fees until May 31.
Man Downloads Movie While In Mexico, Receives $62,000 Wireless Bill
By 4.28.09
If you’re going out of the country for more than 15 seconds, don’t forget to turn off, remove, leave at home, freeze in a block of ice, disable, or otherwise render unusable your wireless card. Above all, do not download Wall-E for your nephew to watch on your computer. Unfortunately, we do not have any more details about what was going on here, because Clark Howard apparently has to get back to his NASCAR pit.
US Airways To Charge Fee For Paying Fee
By 4.28.09
US Airways must be running out of ideas. Instead of coming up with a new fee for a previously free service, the dullards in corporate could only muster a top-off on a pre-existing fee. See, for a while US Airways has charged $15 for the first checked bag and $25 for the second, but now there will be a $5 additional fee if you pay those fees in person rather than online. In other words, a fee for paying a fee. A bit of a watery effort, if I may say so . Come now, gents, put your thinking caps on. We’re looking for a little more sizzle and crackle in our airline fee innovations.
Southwest Says They're Gaining Passengers Because They Don't Charge Fees
By 4.27.09
Are you more likely to fly Southwest Airlines because they don’t have fees? Southwest thinks so… but US Airways, arguably the most fee-crazy of the airlines, says it doesn’t matter because they’re making so much money.
T-Mobile Reinstates Useless $18 Handset Upgrade Fee
By 4.26.09
Sorry T-Mobile customers, buying a new phone will cost an extra $18 now that the telecom has resurrected the handset upgrade fee killed off last December. The telecom apparently couldn’t handle going months without the cash-generating but otherwise useless fee, which T-Mobile described as “a real customer dissatisfier.”
Here's What The Airlines Are Charging For Luggage
By 4.24.09
Daniel at dansdeals.com has put together a chart of baggage fees for 22 US and Canadian airlines. Spirit takes the prize for most expensive, but there are a dozen contenders for second place. The best: Southwest, Air Canada, Porter and WestJet. If you travel with lots of luggage, you may want to bookmark this page for future reference the next time you’re purchasing tickets.
At Six Flags, You Have To Pay A Fee To Print Your Own Tickets
By 4.22.09
We know Six Flags is desperately trying to avoid bankruptcy, but that’s no reason to go all Ticketmaster on the people who want to have a good time at Magic Mountain in Los Angeles.
Accept The Rate Increase Or Pay A "Downgrade Fee"; RCN Will Get Money From You Either Way
By 4.21.09
RCN knows some of you aren’t going to be happy with having your fees increased, especially in such a tight economy. They know that some of you will probably decide enough is enough and call them to request an account downgrade. They’re going to make money off of that, too.
U-Haul Forgets Customer, Forgets Guarantee, Then Forgets Extra Day Agreement And Threatens Criminal Charges
By 4.20.09
Consumerist reader Dionicious and his brother tried to rent a trailer from U-Haul over the weekend. First they were faced with a closed location, then they had to ask before the company followed through on its $50 “Right Time, Right Location” guarantee. They hoped that was the end of the screw-ups, but the next day an angry employee called and threatened to file criminal charges against the brothers. Too bad there’s not some sort of $50 “We Threaten You, We Pay” guarantee.
Government To Banks: Why Are You Making Predatory Loans With Taxpayer Money?
By 4.13.09
The bailed-out banks have found a new way to annoy the government, according to the Congressional Oversight Panel, the body named by Congress to oversee the federal bailout. Chair of the committee and friend of the blog, Elizabeth Warren, is concerned that the same people who are subsidizing the banks are being targeted by abusive lending practices, says the Wall Street Journal
Canceling Vonage Early? You're Going To Have To Repay That Instant Rebate
By 4.11.09
If you cancel your Vonage service before the end of the first year, you’re going to need to pay $70 for Vonage’s proprietary router on top of a $29.95 cancellation fee. Don’t even try to return the soon-to-be useless router because that’s simply not an option.
In Other Magical Lands Hotels Charge You The Price They Quote
By 4.9.09
Christopher Elliott, travel guru, has got to be a liar. In his latest blog entry he posts a story from an American who stayed in a hotel in Vienna... and was charged the room rate times the number of days he stayed. Can this magical hotel really exist?
IGN Says Capcom's "New Content" For Resident Evil 5 Is Already On The Disc
By 4.8.09
Update: Several commenters have pointed out that the size of the download seems to indicate that your $5 gets you new code, not just an unlock key. The original post is below.
5/3 Increases Overdraft Fees By $2
By 4.7.09
It was a beautiful thing. And then I paid in cash. Scan of the 5/3 fee increase notice inside.
