Delaying Your Credit-Card Payments: Expect Frustration
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Here's your money briefing for Wednesday, May 13th. I'm J.R. Whelan for The Wall Street Journal. Many Americans are hoping to get a break on their credit card payments during the pandemic. But when they call up their credit card company or lender to try and work something out, a lot of them are just running up against a wall.
I don't think I've had conversations in my career as a reporter dating back to the last downturn in which I've heard people more stressed out than I have with this story. Just sort of, I think, a sign of the extreme pressure that people are under where their income has dropped to zero and they're trying to figure out, like, how do I get into deferment and having these various glitches and issues happening with their banks?
That's Wall Street Journal reporter Anna Maria Andriotis. Coming up, she'll explain why automated customer assistance hasn't solved the issue either and why some consumers aren't allowed to defer payments at all.
Millions of Americans are asking their credit card company or lender for a break on their debt payments as they deal with the financial pain of the pandemic.
Why are so many Americans asking to delay credit-card payments right now?
But instead of relief, many are finding only confusion, frustration and late fees. Wall Street Journal reporter Anna Maria Andriotis joins us to explain why. So, Anna Maria, it seems like the credit card companies and other lenders were really caught off guard by the onslaught of consumers seeking relief.
Since the middle of March, credit card lenders and other lenders in general, auto lenders, personal loan lenders, they have been inundated with phone calls and requests from their borrowers who have been seeking some type of relief because their finances have been impacted by the pandemic. So, I mean, there have been millions of people that have been reaching out and seeking deferment plans recently. And by many measures, what's going on right now for lenders is unprecedented. Number one, the sudden sort of impact that the pandemic has had on people's ability to pay their debts. And the lenders have been trying to service them while at the same time rolling out and even tweaking deferment programs.
You have customer service agents who are being trained, who are learning about these programs at the same time that they are handling calls, and errors are being made unintentionally because customer service agents aren't fully versed on how the programs work or the programs aren't changing.
How widespread is the surge in relief requests to lenders since March?
The banks are tweaking them and Maybe the agents aren't up to date on those changes. So you have a host of technical issues that include long wait times, some people talking about being on hold for hours on end. You have people who are being told they're being enrolled in programs, but then are getting conflicting messages after that, emails that are telling them uh you're behind on payments and the consumers are like well wait a minute how am i behind on payments a week or two ago was on the phone with my lender and my lender said they were putting me in a deferment program so it really comes down to lenders being inundated and consumer confusion being quite high around this And sort of in the balance essentially is consumers asking, wait, am I okay in terms of my standing with my status with my account?
Am I in deferment? Am I being counted as late? Where do I stand?
And the automated systems haven't helped any?
It seems like even some of the big banks have not updated their email alert systems. They haven't updated when people log into their accounts to reflect that they are in deferment. So again, this causes a lot of confusion for the consumer because If you've been told that you have been enrolled in deferment and therefore payment isn't required for this month or next month, and then a few days later you're getting an email from your lender saying you're late, I mean, it's only natural that you're going to be as a consumer confused and having a bit of an anxiety moment. Right. Where do I stand? And then and then other questions come up. If I'm behind on my payments, truly, how's the lender handling this?
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:05–1:13
2
Why are so many Americans asking to delay credit-card payments right now?
1:13–2:40
3
How widespread is the surge in relief requests to lenders since March?
2:40–4:26
4
What technical problems and customer-service failures are causing confusion?
4:26–7:18
5
Why haven't automated systems and account alerts reflected deferment status?
7:18–9:39
6
Can deferred payments lead to lump-sum repayment or higher minimums later?
9:39–9:48
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from WSJ Your Money Briefing
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