More opting to buy now, pay later

[jeremyow]

I had a bad experience once and i remebered it for life. I bought an item and paid by installments since its interest free. It didnt cross my mind to pay by installments since the item i bought is not expensive at all and i certainly am able to pay it at one go. Since the sales person suggested paying by installments and its interest free, i see no harm so went ahead with his suggestion.

Then comes by credit card annual fee. I tried to waive it but got rejected for the reason that i am still paying an item on installment using that credit card. I ask if i can pay off the remaining amount owed, the bank customer phone officer say i have to pay a additional amount of i think S$1k for the breach of contract. The amount i owed is only $200+.

From then onwards, i never use those so call interest free installments via credit card anymore. And i also hardly use that bank credit card anymore. Banks are worst than loan sharks imo. There are details which banks will hide from u.

I just got this exact same scenario from the bank whom I stayed long as a customer. In a short summary, the cust svc gal tried to pull a fast one on me by refusing waiver due to a small o/s installment payment < $200.

I simply threatened to pull out all my funds and cancelled all my cards with them if they dare to impose.

I got waived. The banks are simply bullshitting.

Yes, I am not a revolving door, ie. paying min every mth, but still looking on the account of decades with them, they never took this into account.

Bloodsucking moneylenders.

I see no consistency in the service standards of banks. One who is more assertive can have his/ her way by threatening to terminate all cards with the bank and/or pull out the funds from the bank in order to get the annual fee for credit card waived while another more softer type having no bargaining power just have to accomodate to paying the annual fee. I personally have similar enounters before on one occasion having less bargaining power and another occasion more bargaining power and got my annual fee waived.

So far, the best encounter I had is with a bank which I rate it as having high service standards as the bank atomatically renewed my credit card one month before expiry and sent me a new card by mail. I supposed the annual fee is automatically waived for the new card as well since I did not receive any notification about the annual fee as yet. No hassle on my side at all. I truly enjoyed such excellent customer service. This bank is sta....... char....... bank.