Persistence pays off in battling credit card fees

If you can’t resolve the matter with the manager on the phone, get their name and address, send them a letter briefly describing what you want done and ask for a reply within 10 days. Then take your letter and the response (if you get one) to the consumer affairs department of your state attorney general’s office and file a formal complaint.

In some states, these cases are handled by the state Banking Department. You can click on our interactive map for contacts in your state.

We’ve found that sometimes just letting them know that you’ve found the right agency for your complaint helps loosen them up a little.

A follow-up:

After calling the company for a third time, Kelly was almost ready to just pay the fee to avoid the bad mark on her credit report. But after contacting us she decided to give it one more shot and asked for a manager:

“I told them my name and told them why I was calling,” Kelly said in a recent e-mail. “They put me on hold and spoke with the manager and came back on and said they know why I was calling and they will make an exception and waive the fee at this time. but this would be the last time. 

“I guess they were so sick of me calling about this issue that they just wanted to get rid of me.  That is OK because I'm not planning on using their card again.”

Business bootstraps
I want to start up my own business. The only problem I have is that I have no means or capital to start from scratch. I really have to borrow or ask for a loan. Is there a way to start a small business from scratch if you have nothing to start with?
—Peter D., Mabank, Texas.

Some people borrow against their house or load up multiple credit cards. But that’s very risky.  Statistics vary widely, but one 2002 study by the Small Business Administration found that only half of all new businesses were still standing after four years. And the failure rates for some types of business are even higher. So if you fund your new business with personal borrowing, and things don’t work out, you’ll be left with a pile of debt.

Some small businesses don’t really start until they make the first sale. We know of one enterprising young pair who bought a few used computers, fixed them up and sold them on eBay — making a few hundred dollars each. They took that money, bought some more, and kept reinvesting the profits and finding new sources of used computers. Last we heard, they had generated over $100,000 in sales in their first year of operation.

A lot depends, of course, on what kind of business you’re trying to start. If you want to open a restaurant, you’ll need a chunk of money upfront to get started. But if you’ve never managed a restaurant — or at least gotten a good look at the books of a business like the one you hope to own — you risk making some major mistakes early on.

Raising capital is often a major hurdle for new businesses. But it’s not always a good first step. It’s usually more important to identify (1) what it is that you love to do — because you’re going to need to work extremely hard at it, especially at the beginning; (2) what you’re good at (not always the same as No. 1); and (3) whether this thing you like to do will produce a product or service that other people want or need.

Once you got that combination figured out, raising the money by convincing someone to back your idea is a lot easier.

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