To Whom It May Concern

Late Charge? HAH!!!! YOU WISH!!

I have had a credit card since 1994. During that time, I cannot tell you how often I have been nailed with late fees because I wait till about 5 days before the payment is due to send the payment in. Then I get mad and call, and I get to listen to the nobody at the other end of the phone tell me how "the postal service can take up to 7 days to get your mail to us", which is a load of bullshit. I have never had a letter take more than 2 days to send to anyone in the United States. So that excuse is just that, a load of stinking bullshit.

Anyways, sure enough, it was December 30, and I realized that I needed to get my credit card payment in by January 5th... (okay, that's my excuse for procrastination). Anyways, I went into the post office, and was getting set to send in my payment, and I told the guy at the counter my sad story, about how MBNA (Master Card) always blames my payment getting there late on the US Postal Service, and he laughed and told me about a little something called "Delivery Confirmation".

Delivery Confirmation is an ingenious little service from the Postal Service, it costs about $3.50, and it allows you to use the internet or a toll free number to track your letter and find out exactly when the recipient receives it. Anywas, I went online to the MBNA web site on the 5th of this month, and sure enough, my payment did not show as posted. So, I called MBNA up and asked about that. Sure enough, got the old "can take up to 7 days" speech, and also the "we post payments within 24 hours of receiving them blah blah blah".

Unfortunately for them, I had checked my delivery confirmation, and waddaya know? It was delivered on January 2nd at 4:30 in the morning. When I told this to the MBNA rep on the phone, he said "uh, well, hmm, uhm, can I put you on hold for a moment?" I spent the next 5 minutes listening to a variety of wonderful elevator Christmas music before the rep came back to me.

"Sorry about the inconvenience, I'll make note on the account that your payment should be here, please check tomorrow to insure no late charges are incurred, and call back if there are any."

WOW, thank you United States Postal Service, talk about a friend to have on your side in that little battle. Before, they would basically tell me that they didn't have the payment, and I had no way to prove that they did. Now, I realize I could pay this bill earlier, especially considering that I normally always have the money to do so, but it sure is nice to know that I can use Delivery Confirmation to bust through a company's bullshit.

I would recommend anyone sending something of value, like a rebate offer or payment, to use this, if they are unsure about the reputation of the company especially. Of course, in my case, it is a credit card company, and there is no honor amongst thieves, which is basically what they are.