CREDIT CARD SURPRISE

THIS IS A LETTER I SENT TO expressonline@bpi.com.ph

Sirs/Madame’s,

I write to you to express my disgust on the way your billing system works, if it ever exists.

Let me tell you my story.

On September 25, 2006, a Friday, I and our department’s driver went to Merchandise Control Office (MCO) to fetch the mails for our company, Clark Development Corporation. MCO is also the site for Clark Special Economic Zone’s Post Office. Being from CDC’s Records Management Office it is one of our department’s task to fetch all mails for our company employees. As I rummage through the mails, I noticed that I have one coming from your institution. It is a small note that tells me…

… that I have to pay your institution some monies “Seven Days upon” the printing of the note. The note was dated August 18, 2006. A quick calculation shows that it is upon the exact date, Sept. 25, 2006, I have to pay your company. So, I told our driver to drive me to BPI-Clark so I could settle my bill promptly. Please note here that I haven’t yet received my billing statement for the billing period. We arrived at BPI-Clark at about 2:45 P.M. As I was filling a payment form, an employee there told me that transactions for bill payment are offline, and that the machines could be offline for about one and a half hour or so. I told him that I could not wait a long time in there and I asked him if I could pay somewhere else. He told me that I could pay through BPI-MAKRO in Mabalacat or at ECB in Nepomart, Angeles City. Since it is raining and we have to deliver the mails, I asked him if I could pay the next day. He told me that BPI-MAKRO is open on Saturday and assured me that I could pay there.

The next day, Saturday, I went to BPI-MAKRO in Mabalacat to pay. I was told by a guard that BPI-MAKRO is closed on Saturday, and he was pointing to a sign on the door that says “Closed”.

Okay, I can read that.

So, I went to NEPOMART area in Angeles City and searched for any ECB outlet. On the BPI-Angeles Branch, the guard told me that there is no ECB in the immediate vicinity only BPI and Equitable. I asked him if I could pay through ATM transaction and he told me that I have to have a BPI bank account to do so.

On August 29, 2006, a Tuesday, my BPI EXPRESS CREDIT CARD billing arrived. And I have to pay P2,400.00. Knowing that the payment is way way pass due, I decided to wait for the next billing statement, September 25, 2006.

September 22, 2006 I went to BPI-CLARK and paid P1,900.00. Please note here again that, again, I haven’t received my billing statement.

Today, October 3, 2006 a batch of about 40 or more envelopes coming from BPI came on my desk. One of them is for me. I am not surprised anymore that although I have to pay my bill on or before September 25, 2006, your mail designed to remind us of our obligation to you came seven days AFTER the Bill date. (Those 40 or so billings came to our post office on October 2, 2006)

Isn’t that nice?

And I have to pay you P3,766.30 on or before September 25, 2006. As I have mentioned, I have paid P1,900.00 on September 22, 2006 (no billing statement) so that means I still owe you P1,866.30. Today, even if I paid the remainder I will still be paying any incurred interest, right?

Please, consider me this… I have two more credit cards registered on my name. None of them arrives on our Post Office AFTER the Billing Due Date. More so, SEVEN precious days after their due date. I also have electric bills, telephone bills, internet bills and rental bills which I pay much diligently like a trained canine. None of these bills comes the way yours comes – very, very late.

Please consider this also. I have to pay interest incurred not because I failed to pay on the billing date, but because your billings arrived well after the billing date. Definitely, and plainly, it is your fault or your billing method’s fault, or whoever send those bills fault. Not mine, or for that matter those 40 colleagues of mine’s fault.

Consider me this, again. There are 40 of us here who will have to pay you interest and or late charges. Let’s say that each and everyone of those 40 people have to pay P100.00 for Late Payment Penalties/Interests, that means, collectively, we have to pay your institution P4,000.00. And if your practice of sending those bills the same way again and again and again, that is a steady income of P4,000 per month. And it is not our fault.

And, consider me this. If we could not pay on time or if we could not pay in many successive times what we owe you, interests files up then a computer generated paper signed by an attorney will arrive on our mail, right?

Such irony.

In this regard, may I ask…

What courier service have you contracted to deliver those bills?

Is the way you send them actually intentional?

Is this really a conspiracy?

expressonline@bpi.com.ph