The Laughing Wolf

Discover/Novus

I have been a customer of Discover for several years, but recently had the chance to pay off and cancel my Discover card. Actually, I did this for another card and some other things, and did so without problem, fuss, or muss on those. I cannot say the same for Discover, and am extremely displeased with the lack of service and what appears to be deliberate efforts to make the process as difficult as possible.

When I contacted them about paying and closing, I was told that my bill currently was X, but that they did their finance charge daily -- and had no way to know what that amount was or when it would be posted. So, I paid off the full amount, used my cashback bonus award to pay into the account so that it had a credit balance that would more than take care of any finance charge. Throughout this process, I was told that unlike every other card I've dealt with, that they did not know the finance charge and could not find out what it was. I waited a period of time, called back yet again, and was told that since nothing had posted there must not be a charge, so I was sent the credit balance and I was told that the account was closed (but could be re-opened with no penalty or application anytime in the next Y months; heard this repeatedly).

Imagine my surprise when I got a statement from them this week, with a charge. Yep, that finance charge that they could not determine or tell me, and that I had been told wasn't going to happen was there. It was a small amount, but I was less than happy over the principle of the thing. After going through the voice mail system, I ended up with a (young sounding) female who proceeded to inform me that I had not done things right, had been quoted the full payoff price, inferred strongly that I could never have been told that they did not know the finance charge, and that too bad so sad nothing could be done. When I requested to talk to a supervisor, she informed me that she was just as empowered as the supervisor who could do nothing more than what she had done and had she not answered all my questions and what else needed to be said. This dragged on, and when I pressed her about her refusal to put me through, she denied that this was the case that she was merely providing assistance. I hung up. I then called back, got through after a 5-10 minute wait to a supervisor, and explained what had happened from the start and my extreme dissatisfaction with Discover/Novus. Funny, for someone who could do nothing different than the first person I talked to, this supervisor was able to review the case, remove the finance charge, initiate a refusal on the check I had sent them in between the two calls, and apologize.

Too bad, so sad. I informed the supervisor that she should sit on the check (neglecting despite temptation to recommend folding into sharp angles and corners) because I had no faith or confidence that any of this would happen. I still don't, and rather suspect that at lot of this is aimed at preventing customer loss by dragging out the process well past the point of ridiculous. I rather suspect that all of it, from the mysterious inability to determine the finance charge to the entire process is to get people to give up and keep the account open, thus raising numbers and profits.

Given all that I have gone through in trying to close the account, I will believe that it is closed and I truly have a zero balance not when I get the latest promised letter and zero-balance statement, but a year from now when that is still the case.

My advice: the card is of limited utility and the customer service is rotten/non-existent. If you are considering getting a Discover card or doing business with Discover/Novus, don't. If you already are, look at changing -- but be prepared for a long battle to do so.

LW