Two Months Later....

March 7th I sent off what I thought was to be an end to my association with Wal-Mart credit department. I sent a letter and a check closing my account. That was the beginning of the nightmare....

By March 20th, the day the monthly payment was due, the check had still not cleared my account so I called and asked what the hold up was. They said my account was definitly closed but they had no idea where my check was. "It might have been shredded", was the response I got and "wait seven more days" to see if it would clear. On March 24th I received a letter from Wal-Mart that closed my account and said I still had the same balance. I knew I was in trouble. I called my bank and stopped the missing check. Then on March 28th, three weeks after the check was mailed, Wal-Mart found and deposited the check. On the 29h, thinking that I had taken care of the first check I went into the store and gave them another check for the full amount (over $1000) to close the account.

On my way home I stopped at the bank to deposit my state tax refund and found that the first check had been processed regardless of my stop payment. I hurried home and called the bank. They said the check was off by one digit so they didn't catch it in the stop payment. So I immediately stopped the check that I had just dropped off in the store, the second time I had to pay $25 to stop a check! Now I had to wait and see what happened.

A few days later the bank reversed the first check and put the money back into my account. The second check never hit my account and was stopped by the bank. I waited a week and then mailed the third check for the full amount to Wal-Mart. This check was deposited in a timely manner and cleared by bank with no problems. Now I waited for the statement that I knew would come with all sorts of stupid charges on it that I would have to ask them to remove.

Yesterday I got the statement and called Wal-mart. They had posted two returned check charges, one late fee and finance charges on everything. I was very polite and explained the situation to the pleasant speaking employee. She finally understood after about 5 minutes and said she could remove the returned check charges but that was it. I told her that I would not pay a late fee when I had been trying to pay off the account all month, way before payment was due. She put me on hold for 3-4 minutes (a very long time) and finally came back to say that her manager would refund the late charge but there was nothing to do about the finance charges. I said..$23.00!!!" You can't remove $23.00?" She said no, there was nothing they could do to which I said, Yes, you can. You can remove the finance fee as well.

She wondered, not very politely now, if I would like to speak to her manager and I said, yes, of course! Another 3-4 minute hold ensued in which I'm sure she was hoping I would just hang up, but I waited. Finally she came back on the line and said that her manager was waiving the finance charges as well. I said, "So you are telling me that my balance is now $0.00, is that correct?" to which she replied, "Yes, ma'am" and I said, "Thank you very much and have a nice day."

I was exhilarated! It only took 2 months and $50 to be free of Wal-mart credit. I thought about asking them to pay my stop payment charges, but decided I better not push my luck!