Best Credit Card Issuers for Customer Service

Was just re-reading to ensure I hadn’t missed a detail and wanted to point out that credit utilization has no history. You could be at 99% for years and then pay it down to 1% and it would be exactly the same as if you’d been at 1% the entire time. Not that it excuses the CU’s mistake, but as long as you’re not planning on applying for new credit before the next statement date this will have no long-term impact to your credit score.

This is a good point, all of mine report on the statement date, but it’s possible Penfed has a different reporting cycle. Shinobi (or someone with a Penfed CC), can you check and see if the reported date on your credit report is the same or different from your statement date? That might explain the discrepancy.

What happened is that the reporting date, and the amount owed, never changed. Well into January my credit report was still showing the old early December reporting date as well as the amount I owed back on that date. Of course that amount had been paid off timely later in December.

Penfed never updated the credit bureaus with my early January data. They didn’t send it. For whatever it is worth, this never happened before at Penfed. Prior they always sent my updated data on the day my statement closed.

I just hope when my statement closes next week that they send the update, to the credit bureaus, as they always did in the past. That will solve my dilemma by erasing the old December number, which is thousands of dollars too high and hurts my score.

1 Like

Ah, thanks for clearing that up. So it wasn’t a case of timelines, they just plain didn’t report it. It’s astounding to me that they weren’t willing to fix it.

Actually, it’s not that astounding. It’s an automated process and when the occasional error occurs none of the front-line agents know how to handle it. I find that very few companies have decent processes for escalating rare issues like this. On more than one occasion I’ve had to resort to emailing executives to get attention on these types of issues.

1 Like

The “decent process” is disputing the information on your credit report as being inaccurate. The credit report is the one providing you with the incorrect information, after all. It’s as likely to be due to their own error as it is the credit card company’s, anyways.

1 Like

Or a fraudulent transaction.

I have a Citi double cash MasterCard. I check my card fairly often especially after a purchase or a bill payment.

Last week I noticed a charge that I didn’t recognize.
ATT*CONS PHONE PMT 800 288 2020 TX. $90.43

I called the number and was connected to AT&T. Consequently I ended up talking to several different departments. I have 3 AT&T services but didn’t owe anything. I do have an iPhone that my son had given me that he paid for on his business account.

Finally I was connected to an intelligent agent who checked my iPhone number. She asked my name then asked for my son’s name. She said my phone was paid by my son.

I disputed the bill with Citi card. They immediately took $90.43 off my account. Next thing I did was look the name and number connected to this bill on my computer. I’m amazed at what I read.

Fraud big time!! Personal notes from people involving this number. But how was my credit card number obtained?

I’m now really checking my card regularly.

You don’t need to “check” it, you can just sign up for email alerts. Every time a transaction occurs, they’ll send you an email with amount and merchant info.

1 Like

If that means checking your statements against receipts, then yes, do it monthly, when your statement comes in. Otherwise, how do you know which charges are legitimate?

But my real issue is, how did my credit card number get used?

Is my credit card number listed in some kind of bank or just a mixed combination of numbers inserted.

Sounds to me like a big time fraud operation.

There’s no point in worrying about that. I’ve had cards go straight from activation to the sock drawer, then a year later have a fraudulent charge. Its going to happen occasionally, and you just report it and move on.

4 Likes

I’ve had cards have a fraudulent charge before I even received the card in the mail :crazy_face:

6 Likes

I’m getting worried about the fraud issue connected with my Citi cc and my e-mail.

I mentioned earlier about a fraud charge $90.43 on my credit card. Citi removed the charge while they are investigating.

So now we have a new month. Yesterday I noticed an email notification from the same outfit. Basically stated, now I owe $90.43 plus this month $190+. Sign Open MyAtt Native App.

Even though there is no charge yet on my Citi Card I’m beginning to worry a bit. I didn’t touch anything on the email, just deleted it.

Wondering… How did this organization get my e-mail account and what should I do?

I don’t know why this posted that payment in blue. Maybe don’t touch it!!!

Thanks, slappy…

This makes me sick! I’ve had this card for years and most of my monthly bills are on auto payment. Probably how I got hit, using such an old account card.

I’m going to give it a while before closing the cc to see if they really try to put another charge through. Hopefully Citi Card finds out something on their investigation of the fraud.

But they also have my e-mail and don’t know what to do about it.

When you reported the fraudulent charge, they should’ve issued you a new card.

Sounds more involved, if she’s also getting emails from the merchant. That’s more identity theft than credit card fraud. While I normally suggest just reporting the fraud then moving on, this may require a little more sleuthing.

This may be a time for a CFPB complaint against the merchant (not the credit card). Not that the CFPB itself will help, but the complaint will get into the hands of someone at the merchant who’s generally more competent and capable of actually resolving the issue.

3 Likes

My thinking

Complicated problem finding a competent person with the business (when fraud) is suspected to handle the e-mail issue. It’s deciding whether to just delete the email and watch for another Citi Card charge to appear.

Maybe Citibank investigation will be enough to stop and close the problem.

I’m going to wait.

Problem is, Citi’s chargeback seems to have processed, that’s pretty much the extent of Citi’s “investigation”. Now the merchant is contacting you to say “you” still owe them the money. And it is, or quickly will be, past due - and if they can email you, I’d assume they can do other debt collecting things to you as well. You are innocent, but getting to the proper endpoint can cause a lot of unnecessary grief in your life (accounts, credit report, etc) along the way. You should seriously consider trying to get ahead of this while you can.

I believe you said the merchat was AT&T? I’d suggest not waiting, and submitting a cfpb complaint against them. Just describe the email and charges, attach a copy of the email and credit card statement (showing whatever transaction details there are), and state that you’ve already wasted too much time trying to get someone to resolve this account you’re apparently being billed for that isnt yours.

This complaint is far more likely to get in the hands of a competent person than hours of cold-calling the company. Worst case, you’d at least have formal documentation of your attempts to report and resolve this fraudulant account, should they start attempting collections on the unpaid balance.

2 Likes

Thanks glitch… sounds so complicated, but I’m going to give it a try. :frowning:

I try to avoid non online dispute CC’s. My new BlockFi card makes you call but I’m going to put up with it since 3.5K CB and I’ll try to use it for safe purchases like insurance payments etc.

So I guess AMEX is no longer pro card holder, what’s the next best CC for disputes?

Based on the thread here… Discover I guess? But unless you’re churning their 1.5% card annually to keep getting 3%… it doesn’t offer great rewards. I’ve never had a Discover card so I can’t really say myself.

My experience has been that there are a few issuers that are awful (Barclays, BoA), some that are YMMV (Chase, AMEX), and almost nobody that’s excellent. One exception was City National Bank - I had their Crystal Visa Infinite for a few years. That card was great because you got airline reimbursement credit for every authorized user, and you could add up to 6 of them for free. They gave you a personal banker who dealt with any problems. After hours support was bad, but if you could wait until your banker was at his desk, he could do pretty much anything and everything for you.

CNB has since gutted the card and it’s almost worthless at this point.