Would you spend 10 minutes on the phone for $81.24?  Imagine my shock when I received my American Express statement last month and saw an interest charge of $81.24 for February on a $1,000 balance?  Upon calling AmEx customer service, I was told about a little-publicized fact that seems to be the case with all American Express credit cards that allow you to carry a balance - if you don’t pay off the entire balance, you’re charged interest on the ENTIRE balance, not just your statement balance minus the payment you made.

One good thing about the credit card companies is that you can often get a concession from them on fees and/or interest if you have a good account history with them.  All it took was a ten minute phone call to find out the policy on this and to request a “courtesy credit” from them for the amount.

Whether it be a bank charge, a credit card charge or some other fee that you are charged, a lot of times all it takes is a phone call and request to remove it from your account.  Did this work for any recent fees you’ve had?  Let me know in the comments!