I've had it with Macy's

[Hads930]

The most amazing part of the whole story is the part "my wife bought a purse for $60."!!!!! Can she take mine shopping sometime and show her where to find those?

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by Noah930

If you have a credit card with actual monetary credit on it (as in, you've paid more than you've charged, so there's a positive balance in your account), how would you expect the credit card company to deal with it? If for months and months, the monthly statement indicates a positive balance and you don't request any refund check, and you then make a purchase (for greater than the credit balance), you'd think you'd just have to pay the difference and all would be even, right? Do credit card companies do it any other way?

Well, apparently Macy's does.

My wife has/had a Macy's credit card. We had about a $40 credit/balance on it from some sort of returned item. That showed up on the monthly statement for several months. She then purchased a purse for $60. The next statement showed that we now owed $20. Just pay $20, right? So that's what we did. Paid the balance on time.

6 days later, Macy's sent us a check for $40. And the next statement indicated we owed them $40...plus whatever late penalties/finance charges they drummed up. WTF? (BTW, we never cashed that check.)

Credit cards are useful tools, but they require maintenance. Normal business is done by machine or minimum wage short bus zombies but every company does have an office for problems and complaints. Skip the short bus zombies and go straight to complaints. Make sure you don't owe them for any purchases. Make copies of all your statements, explain what happened just as you did here and start sending letters. Every time you get a statement with a balance for late penalties and finance charges send the letter and the copies of all the recent statements and demand credit. It may take six months, but they will eventually give you a credit for all the BS charges. The problem here is they give you credit for the BS charges on your last statement, but while the credit is being processed the computers are adding more interest charges for it - it may be as little as 50 cents. So your next statement will show a credit for the BS charges that appeared on the last statement, plus interest accrued while the credit was being processed, plus a late fee. You just have to be persistent, keep sending the letter and the statements. Before you are finished, make sure you receive at least two statements with zero balances. Then formally close the account. You have to be patient. The whole process can take nearly a year. Been there, done it.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Originally Posted by Noah930

Hey, had you read the thread, you'd have noticed it was my wife that did the shopping! Through I have to confess, we bought our dining room table from them as well as some nice kitchen knives. Oh, and Hello Kitty shirts. You know, for our little girl, of course.

Actually, my wife (who's a Bostonian) never thought much of Macy's. However, from my west coast perspective, I've noticed that it's a little bit more upscale here. Not necessarily Bloomingdale's quality, but you can get Boss/Armani/Canali suits here in the west coast stores--something that's not readily available in the New England stores.

just a gentle rib.

note that, dollars to donuts, those labels are not the same quality as you'll find in Neiman's, Saks, Barneys... Macy's is famous for luring in high end names to produce "quality at a price." Still nice stuff, just not exactly the same, and for 99% of the public, it won't matter. The knives and manufactured goods are the same, maker agrees to lower profit for higher volume. If I have anything against Macy's, same as Target, Home Depot, Walmart, etc., is that they are Main Street killers.

Amazed at the Hello Kitty phenomenon. My host in China last week had HK license plate frames.

[Noah930]

Originally Posted by Hads930

The most amazing part of the whole story is the part "my wife bought a purse for $60."!!!!! Can she take mine shopping sometime and show her where to find those?

Yeah, our bank account's a bit lucky that way. She's got a New England modesty against showiness. She once received a high end designer purse for a gift (which wasn't flashy and actually quite elegant, except for the subtle yet strategically placed label which must have added $$$ to its price) and quietly confessed to me she didn't really care for it much.

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

Make copies of all your statements, explain what happened just as you did here and start sending letters.

That's what I plan on doing as a next step. As a guy who's has the diligence and fortune to pay off in full every statement I've ever received, I find any finance or late charge to be a slap in the face. And an insult to my inherent cheapness.

just a gentle rib.

Sorry, shoulda added a smilie to the end of my comment, too.

[RWebb]

the US does not have an effective regulatory agency for consumer credit - tho the president who many people don't like on PARF is trying to create one

thus, the stores are free to do almost anything they want

state agencies cannot touch them b/c they are all in the Dakota territory (on the financial frontier) and they have lobbied (paid for) very favorable treatment there

I would never own a dept. store credit card.


Do you care about your credit score? IIRC, you likely have sufficient assets to not worry about it. If so, do not pay the charges, and write them a nice letter as to why. They will immediately zap your credit report w/o your knowledge. Wait 2 months and get a free copy, find the nasty and dispute it. This will not raise your score, but if a human takes the time to actually look at it, (and wants your credit) they may well give you a favorable loan anyway.

It will not have much effect on the score - might drop you 50 points or so. It will vanish in xx years. (3??)

Too busy? Too much work to take all the time? They they have won.

The best thing is to copy your post to your representatives in the Senate and House, and say you want a consumer credit agency formed. It will not help you directly, but it will help millions of people worse off, and help shift economic emphasis from "Financial Engineering" to something more worthwhile, improved medical devices, or better solar panels, as examples.

[jyl]

A lot of the consumer finance industry is based on screwing people by not quite enough for the screwed to take action. People are busy, they make it confusing and a hassle, and the dollar amount is just small enough that you just give up.

There is very little regulation of this, and the industry is blatant about evading what there is. Remember Congress imposed limits on raising credit card interest rates, and the companies rushed to jack up the rates on anyone with a balance, before the law took effect. They didn't care that they were doing it in the teeth of a deep recession, when people were struggling.

Edit: they put my neighbor in BK that way - his business was down badly in the recession and he'd had some major health problems, resulted in him being vulnerable with a bunch of credit card debt - the card companies rushed to jack his rates for zero reason, he was current - and that put him under. Tough for a 70+ guy to go BK. All has ended fine, the BK judge loved him (my neighbor presented a plan to pay all his debt), and he's recovering, as the economy does.


After the restrictions went into effect, the companies jacked up fees for everything, and are making their money that way. Similar with checking accounts. Fees for ATM withdrawals, balance inquiries, overdraft protection (and many banks sign you up for overdraft protection by default), are all high. The card companies also raised merchant fees, but that got them a legislative backlash, because they made the mistake of going after other businesses. Business is poltically organized, business gets what it wants in Washington. Consumers are not and usually do not. Business loves the "smaller government / less regulation" stuff, because then they get to go after individual consumers with no restrictions. Between, say, Bank of Anerica and Mrs. Joe, it isn't much of a contest.

By the way, does M even run it's own store card? These are often outsourced to GE Capital etc.

[ths911]

I too canceled my Macy's card after I began receiving 2 Macy's bills per month. 1 was for the items purchase at Macy's (Macy's portion of the card) and one for the items I purchased away from Macy's (Visa portion of the card). It took a few calls to customer service to figure out why I was getting late fees for full payments I thought I was making on time. Go figure -- The 2 bills had different due dates and were considered 2 separate statements.

Too confusing and not worth the headache.