Household Finance company delays payments to get late fees from customers

May I suggest an alternative for those of us who have been subjected to the bad business practice of delaying posting payments for the collection of late fees.

My suggestion is that consumers who do business with Household Finance Services/Company take their payments directly to the local office in their hometowns, if possible.

I decided to start this practice after Household Finance treated me in a similiar fashion. I mailed a payment to the Company roughly about ten days prior to the due date of the payment. The payment posted to my Household Finance account the day after it posted to my bank account.

I thought how could this possibly occur - How can they get paid before they receive the payment. After confronting Household with my documents, I was given credit for the late fee assessed but I honestly belief that but for the paper trail left I would have been out of luck and my plea would have fallen on a deaf hear.

Since that time, I have delivered my payment to a local Household Finance Office and they usually posted the payment to my account the same day I deliver it. This way the only late fees or holding of my payment I am subject to are those that I impose upon myself.

Posting payments late is not always done with the idea of collecting late fees. Deliberate yes! The strategy is to post the payment late, charge a late fee, and in so doing cause the consummer to call the company and complain. Making the call is the objective of the company, because once they have the consummer on the phone, it is an opportunity for the nice rep reversing the late fee to sell you something. If the call is not made and the late fee stands, the attitude is, well at least we made some money.

It is not an uncommon startegy. Other large companies use it. I am a former employee of Southwest Bell and Providian Financial, and I witnessed first hand at both those companies, how the scheme works. Late posting, late fee charged customer calls and complains, representive apologizes for the error and reverses the late fee, a live customer on the phone/opportunity to sell a product.

Terry Williamson