Saving money by picking up the phone

As I was perusing my Mint account the other day, I noticed that for the first time ever I had incurred a fee from my amazing bank, Charles Schwab. What? Didn’t they read my post about how much I adore their fee-free services?

It turns out that I had deposited a check that bounced. Now, this is the first time this has happened to me and it seems like a pretty unfair situation…I had no idea how much money the check writer had in her account, so how was I supposed to know the check was no good? And then I was charged a fee? I picked up the phone, called my favorite bank (24-7 customer service that employs Americans to work their call centers) and had the fee waived within three minutes. I didn’t even have to ask, they just fixed it for me! Charles Schwab maintains its gold-medal banking status! Hooray!

The lesson for you all is that when companies charge you fees- maybe you accidentally missed a payment, or there is a minimum balance that you didn’t meet- don’t just blindly pay the fees. Pick up the phone and ask that the fees be waived! This is more likely to be successful if you don’t make a habit of whatever it is you were charged for. I have had high success with the phone call technique.

The reason why this works is because banks/credit cards spend an awful lot of money on advertising and recruiting new customers…a few hundred for every new customer. It is in their best interest to keep you happy.

Picking up the phone to call can also help you if you are having trouble making your payments. Calling your credit card company or your student loan manager and explaining that you can’t make the payment and you would like to see if they can help you out for a month or two is significantly better than not making your payments and having it impact your credit. Actually every time I call my student loan manager they ask right off if I can afford my payment and tell me that they can put my payments on hold for a few months if I need them to- I think it is part of the call center script!

Life happens and sometimes that means you incur a fee, but any bank interested in keeping you as their customer should be able to accommodate the occasional hiccup from an otherwise excellent customer. Don’t be shy, don’t be embarrassed- just pick up the phone and ask!