I would love to hear some success stories about getting late fees waived. Here’s mine:
Last month, I realized I had not paid my mortgage. I just … forgot. Didn’t pay. Never thought about it. And it was Jan. 21! I quickly made a payment but a few days later when I got the statement for February, sure enough there was a late fee of $42 and change (must be a percentage of the loan balance).
My mortgage company is already getting literally hundreds of thousands of dollars in interest from me. I really did not feel like giving them an extra $42. I used the messaging service and sent a short, to-the-point message saying (very politely!), Can you please remove this fee? I’ve never been late with my payment before.
Well, guess what – a couple days later I got a reply that they allow a one-time waiver during the life of the loan and they were removing my fee. Hurrah! (I find it hilarious that they will forgive a late payment ONE TIME in 30 YEARS. Lol thanks for your generosity.)
But a win’s a win! If you are generally on time with bill payments but slip up now and then, it absolutely doesn’t hurt to ask for forgiveness. Late fees are applied automatically so you have to call or message to get them removed, and I think they count on most people not bothering. But it’s definitely worth a try.
I bank with a credit union & I had a really, really bad month where I had 3 late fees of $30 all come out at once. (The first was for ‘overdrafting’ by literally 3 cents, ugh!) I called them & asked to have the fees waived since I’d be getting my paycheck the next day. They agreed even though I had some issues just the month before. Having that $90 back was a huge help. If I had just accepted my fate I would have had the same thing happen the next week for being short by $10.
Forgiving ONE fee for a 30 year loan is crazy! Soooo generous! Glad you were able to avoid that $42 charge! ?
here;s something real different i co-signed for my granddaughter for a car and when she was late they took my 125;00 dollars from my saving to make the payment, i went into the credit union to get it straightened out, and they told me that’s the way they do things, best of all i told my granddaughter and she never offer to pay me, i can tell you i will never co-sign for any one again
I’ve been there with credit card fees and utilities. The credit card companies have been forgiving for the most part, but city utilities are a different story! They don’t mess around forgiving late fees. Super annoying.
I’ve since learned to set up automatic payments on a credit card for all the accounts where late fees are an issue. I pay off the card monthly and I get a few rewards points to boot.
Have I got a story for you! Some years ago, I had a famous tax service (to remain nameless) do my taxes. My wife and I had to pay taxes in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. We had moved from PA. to MD., and I had worked in PA. and DE. I thought it would be best to let the professionals handle it. We dropped off our paperwork and signed as needed. We picked up our receipts a week later.
Didn’t give another thought until two years later when the MD. Comptroller’s Office sent us a letter. Apparently, we had not paid our state wage tax in MD. or DE… We owed back taxes, late fees and fines in both states. Well over a thousand dollars, that we did not have!
I contacted the tax office in MD. to see what could be done. They had my wife come in and bring our paperwork with her. Not only did comptroller’s office go over our taxes, they waived the late fees and fines. Best of all, the lady called her counterpart in DE. and had them do the same. We still had to pay the back tax, but it still saved us about a thousand dollars in fines and late fees. Apparently, the tax service had paid PA. taxes.
My wife had the Comptroller’s office do our taxes for the next three years. She always brought donuts. They are not allowed to accept gifts but, they ate them anyway, As for the tax company. I couple of years later I received a check for $42.00 as part of a class action against them.
I’ve had good luck with credit card companies by being honest and just saying I forgot to pay the bill. If you have a good track record with them, and don’t regularly forget to pay the bill, most will waive the late fees.
I had a situation recently where I paid my energy bill online. Unfortunately I must have typed in my card information incorrectly, and the payment was returned. I was able to speak to someone and they waived my “late” fee, which was around $42 or something like that. It took a few calls, because the first person I spoke to said no. Persistence does pay off!
Victory!
Had a situation with a credit card where I missed the deadline by a day, called them and they did waive the fee, just apologized all over myself and because of a good history, success.
Another was a credit union with a savings account for my son, they want a minimum balance and if you go below that, a surcharge. 1 call later and it was waived, just had slipped my mind as the statements come quarterly. Money was quickly transferred to his account.
Set up auto-pay to avoid credit card late fees. It’s available with most banks and adds convenience to the bill pay process. And you can establish rules for your payment like the amount to pay and the date you want the payment to go through. UNO Online
