This is a true and personal story written by my friend and colleague Jim Malmberg, executive director of ACCESS (American Consumer Credit Education Support Services) whose wife recently learned she was being charged hefty fees, she didn't owe. No, nothing new or surprising...just a warning for consumer;
Look Closely at your Chevron and Texaco Credit Card Bills This Month
If you have a gas credit card from either Texaco or Chevron, you need to look closely at your bill this month. There is a chance that you were charged a late fee due to their screw-up. The charge was apparently caused by a change of ownership of their credit cards. But the company isn't volunteering to make refunds.
This is actually a personal story that appears to affect a large portion of Chevron's customers. My wife has had a Chevron card for many years now, and she has never been late on a payment. But that didn't stop GE Money Bank, the new owner of Chevron and Texaco cards from issuing a late notice even though her payment was processed on the day it was due!
It all started with a rather nasty letter that my wife received last week. The letter said that she had sent her payment to the wrong processing address. This is very interesting since the address that she sent her payment to was the address printed on her payment coupon - a coupon which was printed by Chevron. Still, according to the letter, "You were previously notified of a change in ownership of your Chevron / Texaco Credit Card account." Well, no she wasn't. But we'll let that go for a minute.
The letter went on to provide the "correct" processing address and to inform her that if she didn't change the place that she was sending her payments, she might be hit with late fees due to a delay in processing.
The day after she received the aforementioned letter, she received her latest Chevron bill. There were two items of significant interest on the bill. First was that her last payment had been processed on 4/1/08, which was the actual due date for her bill. The second item was a late fee... for what, we are not sure. Apparently, one day notice was enough for Chevron and they wanted to get a jump start on the next quarter revenues. Maybe they can squeeze out an extra billion or two in late fees; as if oil prices weren't high enough already.
But my wife doesn't intend to be a contributor to Chevron's effort. Such a Scrooge! So this morning, she sat down and called Chevron and found that the company had a prerecorded message on its line, stating that they sent out a letter in error to many customers about changes in their billing address. They then went on to apologize for any inconvenience. (As an aside, they could have said that "if you received such a letter, any late charges will be refunded and you don't have to spend an inordinate amount of time hanging around here to speak with a customer service agent." But they didn't do that. So much for the apology.) She was then put on hold for a good twenty minutes.
When an operator finally did come on the line, she wasn't very pleasant. Even after explaining the situation to the operator, the best she could get was that they would make a "one-time courtesy adjustment" to her bill and waive the charge. How Chevron was doing her a courtesy by cleaning up its own mistake and making her waste her time was never really explained. Is that really any way to treat someone who has been a good customer for years? It must be some new secret strategy by the company's marketing geniuses! I'm simply too dumb to understand it.
By virtue of the fact that Chevron, or perhaps it is GE Money Services, has a prerecorded message on their customer service phone line noting that they made a mistake, they are fully aware that they were the cause of the problem. It also means that they know it is a large scale problem.
The company knows who they sent the letters to, and they should just automatically credit the charges and issue a letter of apology. But there is no indication that they are doing this. There is no mention of the issue on their credit card website either. That's not good because it doesn't give cardholders the feeling that the company wants to do "the right thing".
The only thing we can say to Chevron / Texaco customers is look closely at your bill this month. Just because you paid your bill on time doesn't mean that you won't be hit-up for a late fee. And even if your bill is late, it may be through no fault of your own. You may just have sent your payment to the wrong address - the address Chevron printed on your payment coupon. Now why in the world would you do a stupid thing like that?
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It sounds like my experience. The other thing they do is to keep slipping the due date on a 25 day cycle. It is a horrible corporate policy designed to trick consumers into thinking they are paying before the due date but finding out that they are "Late" and then assessed a fee. I had my due date set to the 10th of the month and when I logged online this morning I found out that the new due date was this morning the 31st. It moved 10 days??? Aren't they making enough money on the high cost of oil? I read they posted a 14 billion dollar profit this morning, you would think they could invent a billing system that doesn't take advantage of the consumer. Maybe I should just change to a different top tier gas card
Totally agree! Due dates moved so close to the billing date that if you are gone for a short period of time, you may need to pay in advance of billing date.
I have heard from consumers who find they are late simply because they were on vacation for a couple of weeks, and by the time they got home, went through their mail and paid it -they were late.
Same happened to me, Now the late fee they charges triggered a audit on my account so after 10 years of NEVER being late except for this one time they moved my due date, they want to lower my credit line and re-qualify>>> i'M now a bad risk.
NEEDS TO BE A CLASS ACTION LAW SUIT SO CHEVRON CANT KEEP THE MILLIONS IN LATE FEES THEY CHEATED EVERONE OUT OF
In December I also got hit with a late fee. My bill was 67.00 and the hit me with a 35.00 late fee. Thats a 53% charge. (Didn’t Block Buster get a class action suit for this same thing?)
I tried to call them a number of times and after holding on the line for over an hour (each time) I got sick of waiting and hung up. In early January, I finally got thru to the “escalation department”, and they agreed the fee was too high and would only charge me 10.00 but I had to make the full 35.00 payment and then they would credit it to my card. I ask, “so will you send me a check for the balance?” They said no, but I could use my card to spend the 25.00. I said “so your still forcing me to spend money at chevron. I only use my chevron when there prices are close to the same as their competitors.” She told me that see would see if they could credit my account and call me back.
Being a busy business owner, I waited for her to call me back. Having not received a call back by February, I called back in and after an hour and 25 minutes on hold, I finally got thru. The guy I talked to could see where she said she was going to call me back, but there were nothing else done. Oh and they charged me another late fee. He also agreed the fees was excessive and that he would put in for a credit to my account and tried to get me to make the full 35.00 payment and then I’m force to spend the balance on my card at chevron. When I complained about it he said to send in the 10.00 and he would push the credit department to put the credit thru.
So I get my bill in March and guess what. They process my payment and they charged me a late fee for the late fee that they were suppose to credit. Nice. So I just called today and after being passed around between departments, and then waiting on hold for over an hour, got a hold of someone that actually kept me on the line while the reverse both late fees. Finial! She then proceed to tell me that my account had been canceled this month because of some letter they supposedly sent out in December 2008 (which I never received) wanting a guaranty payment. “So I’m supposed to send in money to keep the card? I’ve been a customer for almost ten years, have never been late accept for December of 2008, and you cancel my account with out notifying or calling me?!”
I told her to go ahead and leave the account canceled, and that my business and personally wouldn’t be purchasing anything from chevron or Texaco in the future. This won’t be hard because there is now only 3 of their stations left in our county. I told them their customer service has been horrible and with they way they are treating their customers, I expect that they will be going the way of Circuit City and disappearing.
Good riddance.
I have been doing business with Chevron for more than 10 years. I paid my February balance of $840.00 13 days late and received a bill on my March bill as follows late fee $83.50, report fee $5.00 and interest fee of $16.20. My new bill which I received on March 19th has a payment date of April 2nd. I complained they said they would give me $.05 off per gal for two months. So they agree the charges are excessive but will not remove them. I asked to talk to a supervisor but they will not let let you talk to them unless your account is on hold. They did say the supervisor would call me back at "their" convienence. By the way the "report fee" is for printing and mailing their bill. The late fee is 5.7% of the unpaid balance includes past due and current balance. Then interest on top of that. I cancelled my card and will not buy Chevron or Texaco fuel in the future.
I just received a Chevron statement which added a $5.00 "report" fee to my gas charges of $33.00. This is the last straw in corporate greed. They're aren't even going through the pretense of a late fee or finance charge to pad the billions in excessive profits they reap on the charade of gas shortage price increases. Now they are just unabashedly extorting money for no reason other than sending you a bill. I'd encourage every Chevron holder to contact the U.S. Attorny, the state Attorny General, the better business bureau and their local and federal congressional leaders to illuminate this fraud. I appears that unless this type of greed in America is exposed and people go to prison, it will continue unabated like cancer on methamphetamine
Amazing how many good paying customers chevrons greed has affected. We had the same thing happen to us and we have been a customers for 10+ years . and never been late , then they changed there billing practices sending the bill on the 5th and payment must be received by the 19th. That is a fourteen day turnaround as a business this is ridicules and the late fee for being 24 hours late is 76.00 on our bill, and we also where caught in the address change problems originally.
Another greedy company where customers mean nothing. I will be contacting the above mentioned contacts this must be stopped.
Something stinks. Here's my story.
At 11:30 pm on Friday, June 5, 2009, I logged on to my credit card account with Chevron to pay the bill which was due tomorrow - Saturday, June 6, 2009. Imagine my surprise when, a half hour before the beginning of the day my payment is due, I find there is a $25.00 late fee on my account. For a payment that is due TOMORROW!!!
Looking back through my records, the exact same thing happened in August of 2008. Our payment (in full) was paid ONLINE with a printed receipt showing it paid at 5:00 am on the day it was due, which was long before close of business no matter where in the United States they or I were located; it also was on a Wednesday, so not even a weekend delay could be blamed. I complained to Chevron that my payment was made long before close of business on the due date/day; this was their response:
"Our records indicate that the payment in question was applied to your account on August 7, 2008 ... As this payment was received after the payment due date [of August 6, 2008], a late fee has been added to your account and a monthly billing statement has been generated. ... However, in the interest of customer service and goodwill, we will credit your account for any late fees that are assessed. ... [Emphasis mine.]
I have no control over when they PROCESS my payment; they could sit on it for a week and wait for the due date to pass before posting it, yet they were willing to work "with" me "in the interest of customer service and goodwill ..." !!!
I would add that we have been credit customers with Chevron for at least 20 years, have always paid our bill on time and, with very few exceptions, have paid the bill in full, without carrying a balance from month to month. I let it go after getting the late fee removed last August. But since this has happened again, and is even worse this time as the payment was made the DAY BEFORE the due date and the account already shows a late fee assessed, I am sensing something shady going on. I plan to go back over all the statements I have kept with a fine tooth comb and filing whatever complaints with whatever agencies I can to stop this practice.
I have kept a screenshot (in addition to my printed receipt showing the payment made the day before it was due) for my records. Everyone in this county and across the world are in financial trouble, but Chevron appears to have a plan to get themselves ahead of the game: by committing fraud against its consumers.
WOW!!! These letters I have read on this website is IDENTICAL and I mean identical to what has happended to my wife and I over the past 4 months with chevrontexaco. THANKS to each and every one of you that wrote in it was a big help to us because we were thinking that we had just goofed up and this one day late due to their posting has cost us every month. And yes we have been Chevron customers both with our business and personal for over twenty years. THANKS AGAIN, each and every one of you for letting us know we are not alone.
Sincerely,
Ken & Sandy
Las Vegas, NV
Wow! I thought I was only one of a few that has had issues with Chevron. Like those who mentioned their story here, Chevron has moved my due date from always being on the 2nd or third of the month to the 31st of the previous month and therefore a late charge of $29. The other thing is that I suspect they playe around with my bank information I use to make payments from online. For the past six months at least, I would just log in online and type in the amount I want to pay and the date I want the payment to be made and that was it. I would never have to change the default checking account information. We'll this last payment was taken out from another checking account I had setup in my profile, that account did not have funds. I use it for other specific loans. Since there were no funds available in that account my bank charged me $20 NSF fee and Chevron charged $29 fee for returned payment and $29 for late fee. I beleive they randomly changed the account in hopes this would happen and get more money from the cardholder. Now the information on the bank I used for the past six months is not in my profile with Chevron, it is gone. I did not delete it...I think something happened purposely or the system had a glitch.
I agree there should be a suit brought against them for all the scams they are doing.
Unfortunately Vince, you are far from alone. I receive emails from consumers on this regularly. You should send complaint to the FTC and to your State AG -maybe they -or an attorney who reads these complaints will act. Thanks for sharing with us here!
We opened up a Chevron Business Card Account in September 2008. After making our first payment we noticed a late fee charge of $46.59 and $13.00 in interest. For the second month we were charged a late fee of $45.94 and $12.56 in interest. After seeing these late fees and interest we placed a call to Chevron in November and were told that the company recently changed the billing cycle from thirty days to fourteen days “to better serve the customer”. We immediately sent a letter to cancel the account and requested a final bill citing the reason that 14 days net is not realistic terms for a business. One day after receiving the final bill for $52.00 we used a third party internet bank service to pay the bill in full to avoid more late fees and interest and still could not avoid them.
Unfortunately because we have refused to pay these additional fees we are being sent an invoice every month for another late fee plus interest. Our balance is now at $175.30. This account has been sent to an attorney for collection purposes. We have sent a letter back to the attorney disputing these late fees and interest charges as illegal.
It is clear that this company is scamming its large customer base by illegally charging every customer late fees and interest to boost their monthly revenue. After looking into it further on the internet we discovered full web pages devoted to complaints about this same issue from many customers.
Someone needs to start a class action lawsuit against this company to take back the millions of dollars they have taken illegally from their customers. The remedy that we seek is reimbursement of those fees and zeroing out our balance as well as our credit rating to remain unblemished by this.
I have been having trouble with chevron for months. I had to start sending my payment certified mail return receipt. My payment was always a day or two late. Even though I have the signature cards proving my payment was received on time I'm still getting $39.00 late fees and interest fees on the unpaid balance.
My balance is paid off every month. I have called NUMEROUS times and been told such stupid things like it's the mails fault for delivering late. i'm not quite sure how that works when I've got signature cards that show otherwise. I've been told that someone has to sign for the mail then get up from their desk and distribute it.
I've been told it goes to a lock box and the post office signs for it. I've been told it goes directly to their bank and they sign for it. I've asked to speak to a supervisor and was laughed at and told supervisors don't speak to customers. I've been told I can get a one time reimbursement for one of the late fees. That has'nt happened yet. That could take one to two billing cycles and if I don't get it then I'll have to resubmit a request for reimbursement. I got my recent bill a few days ago and again there was a late fee and interest fee.
I called and spoke with someone who wanted me to fax her a copy of the signature card and she would get back to me by the end of the day. That was 3 days ago and no word yet. I called again yesterday and asked to speak to a supervisor and was told one would get back to me. That's not happened yet. I confronted this person with being told supervisors don't speak to customers and he told me that was not true. I have since written a letter to Chevron but I'm not really expecting anything out of it. I've also filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and the Attorney General.
I'm self employed and can't have this type of negativity on my credit report. I've been a customer of chevron for 15 years. My due date was changed without my knowledge. I received one statement on the 10th of the month with a due date of the 16th. I don't know if chevron trains their people to be as antagonistic as they are or if it's just plain ignorance. I'm also considering obtaining an attorney. My next step may be to cut my card up and send it back in pieces.
I have been a chevron travel club member for 39 years. This year they have kept my membership payments screwed up. I have been paying $8.50 a month, for $2500.00 accident insurance and travel club membership. This month they want to charge a late payment fee of $2.00 on what they claim was a late payment, which they charge my credit card $0.13. Needless to say I canceled my travel club membership. They have ripped the public off enough on their high priced gas and oil. I won"t be purchasing any products from texaco or chevron directly, if I can help it.
Wonder if this same thing happened with my card. I requested copies of my June-Sept statements and they didn't send June... I have had my Chevron Texaco card for several years. I had never been late with a payment. AND THEN June of '09 I paid my card in full They charged a $10 late fee. BUT I get my statements online (better tell you here I have NEVER received a single e-mail telling me when my statements were available) I was never made aware of this charge and it didn't get paid. Then the next month they added another $10 late fee and again I was never made aware. I knew I hadn't been using the card so I never checked the account online. I get a notice from my credit reporting agency that there is a "30 day late" mark on my credit report so now I go looking. I find out it's Chevron/Texaco, I go online and pay the "Past Due" amount not realizing ALL the fees and charges are late fees because the late fees are late. I go into "Past Statments" and there are none available. I called, got a real person on the phone and their explanation for this is your account balance was too low, you wouldn't get a statement for these months!!! You're kidding right. I now have a 30 day late on my credit report, my interest rate on this card increased by more than 50% "they can't over ride this", my credit line went from $2000 to $300, AND I got shafted for late fees on late late fees that were billed but never sent in a statement because I didn't have "activity" on my account and the balances were too low! Will not close the account because of the damage it can do to a credit score but I'll walk before I use their card again.
Same thing is happening with their Business cards or fleet cards.
Fleetcor bought them and now they rip everyone off the exact same way, shorten terms and late mail statements so you get 2 days to pay!
I am shocked at everyone situation! Only because I also have been charged uneccessary late fees. Not only that, I have had numerous surgeries over the past decade which has put me out of work each time during re-cooperation time. I had a credit limit with the "old or previous Chevron" credit card with a $1,500 credit limit. I paid every penny of it off! Then they became "GE". They have reduced my limit to $100.00. What IS THAT ABOUT! what can you do with 100.oo of gas in a month besides Nothing! I live in the foothills of Sequoia National Park. I drive 50 miles to go to the grocery store or to anywhere!!! What to speak of I got my Chevron card mainly to re-build my credit. What a rude awakening to the Real world. Welcome to credit HELL!
A lot of people are upset with G E Credit. They have cancelled their accounts with G E Credit.
Sem like they are taking over all accounts and I don't like the way they do business.
Great blog.Thanks for this info
If you have a Texaco or Chevron Card blog post;
Well it's over 2 years since someone posted on here my experiences with Chevron/Texaco over many many years was never any of this in late fees. We never had any. Instead, from people I talked to and saw for myself it was ALL OTHER gasoline and one major credit card (American Express) at first followed by others doing this deal of changing payment dates on people (including me) which I looked at my bills like a hawk seeing it myself and making sure I paid close attention every month, hearing others say they were adding late fees to their accounts that had to be overturned by the Congress from others out cry, and still are not waiting more than 15-21 days to set aside to make payments between pay periods. I kept a calendar with 3 months of my regular assigned bills along with dates and approximate or real figures of what and when my bills would come in and due date almost like watching a due date for a pregnancy and actual delivery day and time! Companies were lowering so many peoples credit limits that was almost near ridiculous to have it. I was on vacation with my husband filling up his gas tank at BP in 2004. He was turned down for the charge with $0 balance owed! Since he doesn't pay bills as I have for 40 years, when we came home, our credit limit was only $75 a month down from $3900! Then they began charging a yearly fee of $29 to use it! That is still going on 8 years later. I think what happened was when he handed his card to a very busy place in Florida, the cashier had our account mixed up with someone else. I called once we got home but was refused by someone at BP to be helpful and change us back to the credit limit we had for many many years. Then the country crunch arrived with everyone being hurt in 2008 with accounts credit limits lowered and people seeing the economy change. I decided to just let the state attorney generals and consumer credit agencies along with Congress deal with it. They did stop changing due dates, gave a slightly more time period to pay, and were more consumer friendly on the telephone even though most company customer service representatives were out of the country doing these U.S. jobs! Banks are still not lending to businesses or drastically reduced their smaller entities power to stay in business. I see credit easing up more, and my cards are going up in credit limits more than I ever had before. I never asked for them to. Am I going to complain? No, I'm not as this country is in a huge mess with others out of work temporary or permanently. Jobs are really not coming back as many people gave up looking or ran out of unemployment checks. These jobs are being recycled by different persons being laid off to go back on checks or can't get them anymore and also are doing seasonal work. More are on food stamps and medicaid and housing vouchers. Too many people had their homes foreclosed due to appraisals going down from homes lost on home owners streets to devalue them or went on a credit card frenzy during holidays stopping house payments. My home has been paid for many years but is only worth half the value from the neighborhood. It should be made commercial being on a very busy highway. Pay attention to those on tv who teach weekly how to handle credit and save instead of buying things not needed. We are headed for more commercial and home foreclosures and bankruptcies in the millions. It will take a decade to come out of this "Depression". Now it's college student loans and no jobs or low paying jobs with your grown children and grandchildren coming home; they are welcome when they do what they can do to contribute in any way possible even if the younger ones cook or take out the garbage. Adult children can take even minimum wage jobs with their families watching the kids for them and spending time together just as it was when my parents were growing up. If anyone remembers the weekly tv series program, "Dallas" in the 1980's, the rich all lived in the mansion in their own quarters but ate meals together. My parents generation had huge homes in town raising 7-12 children with everyone marrying and living there together pitching in from grandparents down to aunts or uncles or cousins. They are getting to know each other once again or for the first time and not running all directions moving out at 16 - 18 to "get away" from their parents and "this town." They have a new appreciation and new perspective for their dad and mom. We just have to wait it all out together pulling our resources and using our labor to pay for necessities.
CANCEL your Chevron Credit card immediately. Due to an internet error my payment of $333.00 was late 10 days. My new charges for the next month were $880.00. I paid the $880 on time but was charged a $109.00 late fee on the $333.00.. What the heck?? How can anyone charge a late fee of $109 on a balance of $333.00??? The representative said the late fees were calculated on the total balance owed. When I told her I was only late on the $333 she said "read your credit card agreement." There needs to be a class action lawsuit against Chevron/Texaco. As other comments have stated, doesn't Chevron make enough money off their fuel to not have to screw their customers with fraudulent fees?
Cheryl, I just did exactly that.
I am livid - they been lowering my limit down from $1,000 to $150.00. And every time they do it, it shows as if I went over the limit. They are not charging a penalty for that, but "are required to report this to the credit bureaus." Right.... NOT!
He warned me that I could never ever have one again, and i said thanks but I do not ever want to do business with GE Money Bank ever again.
I was told they reviewed my credit and decided I was bad risk. Funny thing is, I have qualified to obtain new credit from other companies - I guess they are more trusting?
If only I knew how - I'd do that Class Action Suit - maybe other will hop on board and we can do that?
Ingrid
Is it worth taking the chance of losing long time customers because of greedy CEO's etc. When you call to complain you end up talking to someone with limited use of the english language and such heavy accents that you can't understand what they are saying. In other words you are talking to a trainee at a call center and your'e being recorded for training purposes. GE capital must have updated my profile without authorization and sent my bill to a rental property I own and when the bill wasn't paid they tacked on late fees and finance charges and also added card security service (unauthorized) to the bill. Then sent a bill to my real address saying it was late and added all the fees and allowed third party cramming. I am now in the process of cancelling my CHEVRON-TEXACO cards and any other cards affiliated with GE Capital.