Originally Posted by
txpenny
Hyperbole, or do you really believe charging a late fee(s) is extortion?
I don't know the policy at Chase or Citi regarding late fees and or reinstatement fees, since I don't pay my credit card bills late, but I doubt AMEX is the only CC company with these charges.
Most other lenders have a rule to waive the occasional late fee (usually one per year per account, or something like that). If you call in they just do it. It's happened to me a few times -- just 1 or 2 days late because I missed an alert.
Not giving points if a minimum payment is missed is a horrible policy. Very few lenders still do that.
If the OP doesn't like the policy I don't see the problem with moving business elsewhere. It's not about the $35, it's about whether you want to do business with a company that is inflexible. I've given up on Amex for similar reasons -- I find them very customer-unfriendly in general (not just because of stuff like this). I stopped using Barclay for the same reason -- they are just a horrible company to deal with. I find Chase to be the best for actual products, benefits, and customer service, by far.