Bank Of America Late fees, even for on-time payments! Ripoff Charlotte North Carolina

I have been an MBNA credit cardholder for 7 years. MBNA is now owned by Bank of America. I always pay my credit cards off, in full, every month. Because I travel frequently for work, I like to have automated options for paying my bills because I am often not home to collect the paper copies of the bills in the mail. For my MBNA card, I have used the pay-by-phone option and the online option for convenience. This month (July 2007), my "payment due" date was Sunday, July 29. Not wanting to incur a late fee, I went online to pay my credit card balance for the month. On the website, there is a statement saying that payments received before 5:00 PM EST will be posted the same day. However, when I pressed the "pay now" button, the website revealed that my payment would not be posted until July 30. I called a customer service representative from B of A, and she told me that even though I had made the transaction on time, I would get a "late payment" charge because B of A does not process online payments on Sundays. Even if the human being in charge of processing the online payments can see that you made the payment transaction on or before the payment due date, you still get dinged with a late payment fee. Sure, I could have made my payment earlier, but how convenient is online banking and bill pay if you are still beholden to traditional banker's hours? Shouldn't online banking and bill pay allow us, as consumers, to make our payments and do our banking whenever we want? Obviously, it's not just a coincidence that B of A (and other credit card companies) assign "payment due" dates on Sundays because they know that a.) no mail arrives on that day, and b.) no online transactions will be processed that day. As a result, me and many other customers incur a $39.00 late fee even if we have made the effort to pay on time. After a lengthy--and somewhat heated--discussion with the customer service representative, she agreed to waive the late payment fee. I will follow up to see if that happens. Bank of America phone representatives cheerfully begin phone calls by asking "how can I provide exceptional service today?". They can start by honoring on-time payments, making their online payment system a 24/7 system, and routinely waiving late fees if it is evident that the customer completed the payment transaction on or before the payment due date.

Consumer Anthony
San Francisco, California
U.S.A.