I allowed myself to be stuck with the branded BMW “loyalty” card when I purchased my 2008 BMW 328xi;  no fees, reward points, why not?

It turns out the BMW Card servicer is aggressively seeking to make money on short billing cycles and their own internal (intentional?) bungling of payment processing.  The gig is to add late charges which they will not back out when a payment mysteriously turns up ONE day late. Of course, the payment is late according to them, with no good way for the consumer to prove how long a payment sat before processing.

I just cancelled my account in disgust over a one day late fee which I promptly called BMW Financial about and they took to “senior management” to decide whether to remove.  Apparently, the answer was NO because today’s bill showed an additional $25 late charge on last month’s fraudulent $35 late charge, plus a FINANCE charge on said late charge.  Also, this week I get a letter from BMW Financial saying my credit card account is past due.  The only charge on the account not paid was the disputed late fee.  Nice job. This trick adds up to real money quickly.

The final straw?  The billing cycle.  19 calendar days from date received to due date.  Since the servicer will advise that you need to send the payment at least 5 business days ahead of the due date to insure prompt processing (ha ha), that gives you a 14 calendar day billing cycle.  The due date is May 26, however, so how many of the BMW Card’s holders will trip up on the fact that May 25 is Memorial Day and hand over $35 to the servicer for no good reason on a  13 day billing cycle.  This is called a double bill cycle and is enough to make me go activist on Pres. Obama’s credit card reform bill. No wonder the bankers’ lobby is fighting so hard against it.

Enough, I have plenty of other credit cards which deserve my loyalty because they do not hassle me this way.  Anyone else out there have issues with BMW Financial?

thanks for the tip...ill be sure to steer clear of that


_________________
Aftermarket BMW Accessories

my blog about BMW RC Drift Cars