The Blog Pound

Saturday, November 17, 2007 , early morning

Credit card beef

I have just one credit card beef today. I’m being frugal with the complainin’.

My credit card provider, Capital One, recently made fancy new changes to their online account management system. Now you can link accounts so you only have one login, and you get lots of other pretty bells and whistles. What you no longer get, apparently, is any sort of statement or online transaction list which reveals the date that finance charges were applied to your account. You can see the terrible amount that you were charged in fees, but they no longer say that the fees were applied on November 8th, for example. Now you just have to guess.

I can see that I have credit available on a couple of cards, and either is enough to cover some meds for the cats. However, if a finance fee is yet to be applied, the cost of the meds plus the finance charges will put me over my credit limit. Then I’ll get dinged $39 for being otl, even though it was a finance charge that put me there. A finance charge once put me over my limit by less than ten cents, and I was still charged $39.

Capital One keeps sending me little email messages, asking me to stop delivery of paper statements to save trees. However, those paper statements are the only simple way for me to access all the information I need about my accounts. I certainly feel I’m “computer savvy”, but banking sites leave me confused and befuzzled about the information I’m seeing. Bank of America at least offers a statement download which looks identical to a paper statement, but Capital One seems to be adding ribbons and bows to hide the fact they’re removing information.

I realize how awful it is to be up to my neck in credit card balances, but that’s the way the ball bounces, and definitely a topic for another entry that I don’t want to write! I just wish it was easier for me to manage the debt I have, without making simple mistakes which cost me even more.

By the way, I apologize for so many complaints lately. If I don’t tell you about it, though, my head might catch on fire.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 11/17 at 07:17 AM
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About Me

My name is Leigh-Ann, I'm Canadian, and I live in the United States. This gives me great insight on cross-border issues, like American vs. Canadian candy bars, and curling vs. golf. I enjoy coffee but not caffeine, as I like to think I'm agitated enough already. I think a day without Starbucks is a day without sunshine (there are no Tim Hortons here, so I make do with what I've got). I love animals and birds and fish and even most of the creepy crawlies on the sidewalk and in the garden, but I prefer it when they stay out of the house. I'm a veterinary technology student at Penn Foster, and I'm the Director of Wee Paws Animal Sanctuary. I bottle-feed lots of kittens, and try to find homes for society's less fortunate felines. If you'd like to make a donation to Wee Paws, click the button below, or click here for more options and ways you can help.

I live with the fantabulous Flippy. I write a blog about fibromyalgia at Tired Girls. Feel free to check out the photo gallery if you want to see 500 pictures of my dogs, cats, birds, etc. Get in touch with me via the "contact" link above - I'm actively seeking work, and specialize in Internet/social media marketing (but I don't blog about it). My background is in radio and television. One more thing: this blog was designed to be displayed at 1280 x 1024 in IE, because that's just the kind of girl I am.

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