Big Hammer Theory on Credit Cards

So you’ve been dinged with a late fee or some other penalty on your credit card account with Citi or Chase or whatever. You called them up, ready to play the “please remove the fee or I’m canceling the card” game when they call your bluff and say that you can cancel, they’re still taking the fee. Well, what can you do? Do you tuck your tail between your legs and run, living to fight another credit card battle another day?

No, you pull out your big hammer and give that company a good whack. If you have another card with that issuer, call up that card and tell them you want to cancel. When they ask why, tell them that it’s because they refused to refund a piddly little charge on your other card. If they let you cancel, then start canceling all the cards from that issuer and see how quickly their tune changes. If they let you cancel every single one of those cards, don’t fret… just apply for a new one! There are plenty of credit cards with application bonus offers so you don’t have to worry about getting a new card (remember, with credit cards, you are in charge, not them!)

The back story, in case you didn’t click through, was that Amazon’s credit card (tempted by the dollar off purchase offer) charged Jethro’s wife for a late fee because of payment timing and they refused to refund the charge. Jethro called up and wanted to cancel his 4 year old Chase card and Chase offered to refund the late fee on the Amazon.com card. In this case, the 4 year old Chase card was the big hammer and Jethro swung like a champ.