A couple of weeks ago I decided to transfer most of the balance of one of my Juniper credit cards to a Capital One card with a much lower APR, and I paid off the remaining balance on that Juniper card to bring it down to zero. (Side note: they immediately lowered the APR on the card I paid off from 27.99% to 15.24%.) However, I made a math error when figuring the transfer fee and finance charges on the transferred amount, because I went $12 over the limit on my Capital One card and got popped with a $39 overlimit fee. DOH!! This story has an okay ending, however ... after paying the amount I was over the limit by, I called Capital One and they waived the fee. Yay!!

I also have a second Juniper card, and when I paid it last time I somehow paid $51 instead of the $53 minimum payment (still can't figure out how I did this, and I am sooo MAD at myself!). Even though I made the payment 3 days before the due date there was still $2 due, which they considered late. Yep, you guessed it, I got popped with a $39 late fee ... AND they raised my APR from 27.99% to 29.99%! ARGH!! I called and asked them to waive the $39 fee since I have not made a late payment or gone over my limit in almost TWO YEARS, and they took off HALF of it. OK, half is better than none ... so I went on to ask about the APR being raised. I pointed out how the APR on my other Juniper card is almost half of the APR on this one, and she told me that once I establish a better payment history they will lower it. Seriously? I screwed up by $2, for pete's sake!! I asked to speak to her supervisor, and she put me on hold for a minute, then came back on and told me her supervisor was busy taking "regular calls" and that she could call me back in the next 24-48 hrs. I was so mad by that time I told her "never mind" and hung up on her. I know, that was the wrong thing to do ... but I can't believe that a $2 mistake totally derailed all the progress I made on that card over the past year and a half!!

It's seriously cutthroat with credit card companies right now. No slack AT ALL.