Sony Card Deal WARNING

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ceckman

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I'm posting this in the Deals thread as a warning to be very careful in cashing in on the Sony Card deal of $100 back on a purchase of $299 or more.

Here's what happened to me - just be careful it doesn't happen to you. Also, please note that I'm not saying it's not my fault that the following occurred, it's a tricky situation though and I really suspect Chase of pulling some crap on me. Anyway here goes.

I got a Sony Card in Dec 07 and used it to make a purchase to get $100 back from the Sony Style store. Sure enough my first statement comes and they've already credited me the $100 back so all is good. I intended to pay the whole thing off right away but for whatever reason at the time I made a minimum payment since there was a 3 month grace period before interest kicked in as long as I made the minimum payment.

I also made the HUGE MISTAKE of signing up for electronic delivery of statements through Chase's online site.

I never intended to use this credit card for much and I made no other charges on it, basically got it just to get the $100 back on a one time purchase.

Well unfortunately I forgot about it AND I never received email electronic notifications that my statements were ready to be viewed or that payments were due. This is despite the fact that their website claims you should receive these notifications. They claim I was sent them but my gmail account that I never delete email from shows no records UNTIL today (the lovely thing about gmail is that you can search it quite easily.) Yes, the card I've forgotten about has now incurred 3 late fees of $39 each and interest charges for the past 3 months. It is curious that the emails never reach me UNTIL they have closed the account and referred it to Chase's collection department....hmmm, suddenly their email electronic notification system works.

Needless to say I was a little miffed and contacted Chase about this. Of course, I was told that since I signed up for electronic delivery it was my responsibility to remember to make the payments each month without any reminder and that in effect when I agreed to electronic delivery online I agreed to these terms.

I had to speak to 4 different people and spent about 1 1/2 hours on the phone. I finally got them to agree to reverse 2 of the late charges but I still had to pay interest of about $25 and then the one $39 charge. I took my lumps and I paid it all off and closed the account - good riddance. I still came out about $35 ahead but I also had to endure 1 1/2 hours of highly unintelligent automatons before I got to a supervisor who acted like she was doing me the biggest favor in the world.

So, the moral of the story is be VERY CAREFUL if you sign up for the Sony Card and opt for electronic delivery through Chase. I have 3 other credit cards and use electronic delivery and notification on all of them and I have never had this problem. Clearly they value me as a return customer and someone who generates regular income for them from merchants.

If this doesn't belong in this thread I apologize - please delete. I know there are several discussions that center specifically around this deal in this forum though. I'm simply posting as a public service to others who may be considering cashing in on the deal. I still think it's a great deal....if you pay everything off in time and don't rely on Chase to make good on their electronic delivery/notification if you opt for it.
 
Well, it sounds like it was all your fault. You went that long without remembering to check your statements? you're lucky they reversed any of the charges.
 
[quote name='MikeHoncho']Wrong section. This belongs in deal discussions[/quote]

What do you mean? He saved $35. That's a good deal
 
I also think this is the wrong section, but I sympathize with ya, Ceckman. That situation is kind of your fault, but I get into the same sort of trouble now and then. If they really want your money, they should be emailing you like they're supposed to.
 
Yea man, sucks about the charges. I have a Chase credit card too, and they don't e-mail me about when my statements come online. But that isn't a problem for me because 1) I check my account everyday and 2) I recieve notification when there is 7 days until a payment is due. The second you have to set up on your own by going through the Alerts section, but it's close to the same thing. 7 days gives me enough time to send a payment that day and they will process it in more than enough time for it not to be late.

I just really hope this taught you to be more careful next time. Sounds like you got away easy.
 
forgetting bills? sorry, your fault... you shouldn't even post this and definitely not a warning considering nobody is this careless. You think you can get away with not paying everything in full? That's so wrong. Signing up paperless statement is cool (i'm a tree hugger), but you still gotta make sure you don't delete e-mails from the bank and most importantly, don't put them in the Spam folder.

This is like.... Warning, don't get a mortgage, i forgot to pay the bill for three months and now they want my house...
:roll:
 
I did everything that you did, but since I wasn't negligent I didn't have the problems you're having.

great deal though... even though I've only turned on my PS3 for 3 games.
 
3 months worth of late charges? Dude, gotta notice when a month goes by w/o a statement. Warning bells should be going off.
 
[quote name='darken']What do you mean? He saved $35. That's a good deal[/quote]

Lol!!

Sucks OP. I have been contemplating getting the Sony card for the past couple weeks. Can't make up my mind- especially hearing about how it can affect your credit
 
I'm impressed that you got Chase to reverse 2 of the late charges. I have never heard of them reversing any charges for anyone. Other cards usually give you a grace or 2 a year, but not Chase.
 
forgetting to check your bills is your fault, email is not faultless, the failure of delivery could have been youre email carrier, use this as a learning experience and be a little more careful next time
 
I did that deal too. There is nothing wrong with it as long as you pay it off. I have several credit cards and have great credit. The key is to keep the balance at zero. Who is going to finance a car to someone who has three credit cards maxed at 10k a piece?
 
nobody cares you forgot to pay your card for 3 whole months. when you played your ps3 did you forget how you bought it?

/close thread
 
Dude, you knew that you had to pay. It seems like it was all your fault. I think that you thought that maybe they would forget or the account might have been done away with, so you went along....
 
The customer service I've had with my Sony Card far exceeds that I've had with my Chase Freedom and Amex. Nothing but good things to say about them.
 
While I personally hate Chase (they lowered my credit limit despite me never missing a payment and always paying more than minimum), it was entirely the OP's fault. Going 3 months without checking your account is just insane. I check all of my accounts everytime I get a paycheck. It makes for a nice reminder to make sure there are no unauthorized charges (I do 90% of my shopping online), and to check to see if I am paid up for the current billing period as well as when my next payment will be due.

I add the approximate payment due dates to my calendar as well, and check the calendar regularly (using iCal on a Mac).
 
[quote name='rmb']Not gonna add to the flames but would like to add something meaningful to your thread. Maybe this will help op

http://www.suzeorman.com/index.cfm[/QUOTE]

she is a crook. she has deals with companies like FICO and gives tips that will give them business. yeah she has some good advice, but you never know what is real and when she is just trying to make a buck.
 
[quote name='strdr4']I did everything that you did, but since I wasn't negligent I didn't have the problems you're having.

great deal though... even though I've only turned on my PS3 for 3 games.[/quote]

I've yet to play a single PS3 disc based game on my 60GB. It's just an upscaling PS2 and Blu-Ray player to me so far.:lol:
 
Thanks for the warning...







NOT!

borat.jpg
 
You, sir, are in the wrong on this one. The SonyStyle card is probably the best credit card I've had yet. Since signing up last August I have:

Paid $350 after $150 credit for my 60gb PS3
Received God of War 2 and Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds from redeeming bonus points
Been awarded $100 in free bonus reward points
Been awarded Free Companion Airline Tickets for a year
Won a PS3 for free by just clicking a few buttons on the website daily
Racking up bonus reward points daily for more free stuff
Have NOT paid a penny of interest until August of this year (and will not if I pay down the card)

I also HAVE received my statement reminders through my e-mail. Check your spam. Otherwise, you should be signing up online to view your account at will for just about everything nowadays anyway.

Please do some more research and enjoy this card more thoroughly like the rest of us have.
 
Auto-payments are your friend.

You should always have your credit cards signed up to automatically pull the minimum from your checking/savings account just in case you do forget about the due date so there is no risk of late payment fee, which seem to get increased every quarter.

But back to the topic at hand, I actually have 3 cards through Chase. Chase, Sony and Amazon. I very rarely use any of them but I have electronic statement delivery and I never had a problem getting statements.

Did you happen to check the terms of service for electronic delivery? Some of these places state that it could take 2 or 3 billing cycles before electronic delivery kicks in.

But in any case, Rewardzone Mastercard > Sony Card. ;)
 
Here is my question, when paying your other bills, how did you forget to pay your Sony Card?
I pay all of my bills on one day every month, it makes the process much easier. I open a browser tab for each bill I need to pay and close each one as I pay it. Couldn't be any easier.
 
This story can apply to any bill-related situation, not just the Sony Card or Chase. If you statements are lost in the mail, or you don't get your emails, it doesn't change the fact that you owe the company money by a certain date.

I mean, while you were playing your PS3, or whatever you bought, didn't that set of a reminder of, "Hey, wasn't I suppose to pay this thing off?" :)
 
So you forgot about payments for a card for 3 months? Regardless of how hectic your life is, this should have been one of the more important things.

I have Chase's email statements and I always get them on time. So I'm not sure what happened with that.
 
You mean to tell me that being irresponsible with a credit card can have financial repercussions? I refuse to believe it.
 
Completely your fault, end of story. I got this card for the $100 back deal only and used that towards my PS3.. Paid the card off and got my PS3 for $100 off retail.
 
You guys are pretty harsh.

A company is required to send you a bill for what you owe by the due date, it's dirty pool to let someone rack up charges, never notify them, and then claim late fees 3 months down the road.

Also as someone with a chase card I can attest that their website is occasionally screwed up. A while ago they merged with another bank (Bank One I believe) and it screwed up half the customers logging in - then the phone operator told me I had to phone in my payments, then they started charging for that so I had to get on the line another hour while they de-fucked my online account.

I'm a pain in the ass to any company that's not dilligent about it's duty to send me a bill, but as a human being who has missed a credit card payment out of forgetfulness I sympathize with the OP - not getting a bill and not knowing the ever shifting monthly duedate ain't cool in my book.
 
All I'm going to say is that mail gets misrouted sometimes, be it electronic or snail mail, so it helps to have a backup somehow. What I mean is, even though you tried being 'green' by going paperless, you should have still had them send you a paper bill each month.

Many of my friends who do their banking and bill paying online STILL have their bank/credit union send them paper copies of their statements every month, it just acts as a reminder so they don't 'forget' something.

Even if you forget to check online, getting that paper bill in the mail acts as a wake up call to get you going 'oh shit I need to pay this'.

This is definitely NOT a warning to others of anything but how to be financially irresponsible. Even I know when I make a bill, I have to pay it or else I'll end up paying more in the end. You're just lucky they were nice and took off two of the late charges.
 
You guys are pretty harsh.
Click to expand...

True, we are. Nonetheless, we aren't the ones that came on here with a thinly veiled attempt to pawn off our own carelessness as a "warning" for others. If you're responsible, there is no need to heed this "warning."

A company is required to send you a bill for what you owe by the due date, it's dirty pool to let someone rack up charges, never notify them, and then claim late fees 3 months down the road.
Click to expand...

True, again, but it is still your own responsibility to know the status of our financial obligations. The TC knew he had to pay his credit...or, at least, he should have known. I have had mix-ups and cross-ups concerning credit cards. I go out of my way to know they are fixed.
 
Thanks for all the insightful comments CAG friends.

It's been quite humorous to read the posts cautioning me on my credit situation, etc. Please don't worry about me. I own a home and my credit worthiness is not the issue.

For all of those who say I am to blame or that the fault lies with me - When did I ever say it did not? I said I made a HUGE MISTAKE. It was a cautionary tale.

My mistake was to presume that electronic notification was consistent and reliable based upon my experience with three other credit card companies. Clearly after this experience I know it is not. My experience with Chase's credit card division was not a good one. I spoke to 4 different people and got a slightly different story from each. First they told me my account had been closed in December - that would have been the same month I opened it. The they told me I was receiving mailed bills though I clearly had signed up for electronic notification. Finally they said that they had records that my bill notifications had been emailed and had not bounced. I have never deleted an email from the account to which they purportedly sent the electronic notifications. I genuinely believe after getting so many stories that something got screwed up on their end. Yes it's still my fault. But it's not great customer service either and it could potentially happen to someone else who is fallible like me. For all the infallible people who spend their days checking their credit card balance online 3 times a day this post was not for you. Please move on.
 
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