{"id":3451,"date":"2009-02-04T23:23:22","date_gmt":"2009-02-04T23:23:22","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/?p=3451"},"modified":"2009-02-04T23:23:22","modified_gmt":"2009-02-04T23:23:22","slug":"interview-with-an-insider-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/interview-with-an-insider-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview With An Insider, Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to part two of my interview with a credit card industry insider. The Insider agreed to speak with me on the condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n

Part one can be read here<\/a>:<\/p>\n

JSteele: <\/strong>Do you have any advice on dealing with your credit card company.<\/p>\n

Insider:<\/strong> Hint \u2013 when faxing to your credit card company \u2013 put your name, contact information, acct # on every page and # it page x of y pages \u2013 that may help keep it clear for the reps. Don\u2019t just fax in your statement, circle a charge and write, \u201cnot mine\u201d on it. There are thousands of pages being faxed in every day and these machines are not next to someone\u2019s desk \u2013 they are off in the middle of the floor \u2013 and they may not be checked for hours.<\/p>\n

CSRs are trained to not offer waiving an annual fee (or any other fees). If a cardholder \u201crequests\u201d this service, the CSRs can do it, but they cannot offer it. So if you want your annual fee (or any other fee) waived, you need to specifically request that the CSR do so \u2013 don\u2019t hint around that they should \u201cdo something for you\u201d. Tell them what you want. If they don\u2019t do it, ask for their supervisor.<\/p>\n

Hint – treat your CSR with courtesy \u2013 yelling at CSRs, calling them \u201cdopes\u201d or threatening them is no way to have your problem solved. They will become defensive and refuse to help you. They are not paid well \u2013 they get 2 weeks of training which cannot teach them everything they need to know about every single possible situation. Turnover in that job is very high \u2013 it\u2019s horribly stressful. A little kindness and compassion goes a very long way.<\/p>\n

JSteele: <\/strong>What is your take on the new rules? Do you think they will affect reward offerings? What rules do you think are missing?<\/p>\n

Insider: <\/strong>I have really only briefly read over the new rules and I think they\u2019re great (from a personal perspective \u2013 industry wide I\u2019m sure they will make plenty of waves). I am curious what a \u201creasonable\u201d amount of time to make payments will be \u2013 will that be 10 days, 20 days, more?<\/p>\n

I am sure that the banks will find a way to keep profits high \u2013 after all \u2013 it is a business and they need to be profitable \u2013 but it would be nice if the rules were clearly spelled out for a cardholder when they applied for and got a card, and the rules were not then changed on the cardholder when you are in debt up to your credit line.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know if reward offerings will be affected that much. I could see them charging a higher fee for participating in a reward product, but these products are money makers and I don\u2019t see that potential going away.<\/p>\n

One thing I thought I had heard of them doing, but I haven\u2019t seen anything definite about it, was that there would be clearly printed on the statement how long it would take you to pay off your balance if you made minimum payments. Some people are still just shocked to figure out that it can take them years to pay off their balance. Of course they don\u2019t stop charging either \u2013 they make minimum payments, and then charge that amount right back on the card in the next month. It\u2019s a never ending cycle.<\/p>\n

A credit card is a tremendous convenience and comes with some benefits that don’t come with cash (extended warranty, rewards points, cash back) but the cards needs to be used responsibly. The agreements that come with the cards spell out a lot of the rules but hardly anyone reads them – they toss them and start charging. When they find themselves in trouble, they want to blame the bank for upping their interest rate – but they agreed to these terms when they accepted the credit card.<\/p>\n

I think people need to be better educated about credit cards – and banks need to play a bit more fairly with their cardholders.<\/p>\n

JSteele: <\/strong>In my experience, there seems to be three kinds of credit card customers, 1. the “deadbeats” that I described (like myself) who always pay their balance in full, on time. 2. The trapped revolvers, who you described, who often pay the minimum, and sometimes late fees and over the limit fees. 3. A small number of people in between who occasionally carry a balance, but pay it off in a few months. Would you say this is accurate? Do you know what the approximate percentage of each is among Americans? Do you think these are lifetime habits, or are a significant number of people move between groups?<\/p>\n

Insider: <\/strong>I would believe that the 3 groups are basically lifetime habits, with some minor switching around on people’s part when their situation changes. FYI – I don’t carry a balance, but if we are out of work, I will have to carry a balance to make ends meet.<\/p>\n

My interview concludes with Part 3 tomorrow.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome to part two of my interview with a credit card industry insider. The Insider agreed to speak with me on the condition of anonymity. Part one can be read here: JSteele: Do you have any advice on dealing with your credit card company. Insider: Hint \u2013 when faxing to your credit card company \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[26],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nInterview With An Insider, Part 2<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/interview-with-an-insider-part-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Interview With An Insider, Part 2\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Welcome to part two of my interview with a credit card industry insider. The Insider agreed to speak with me on the condition of anonymity. 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