Macy's

So maybe you've heard of the American department store Macy's. Kind of like the Bay but a tad more upscale. So we were in Seattle last month checking out the downtown are, and we came across a Macy's.

Carrie had been looking to buy a watch for some time since her previous one gave up the ghost, but there are very few styles she likes. She'd sourced a few in Canada but they were a little expensive. So when we saw the right style at Macy's, and since such things are cheaper across the border, we decided to buy it. There was a 10% off sale that day, which was nice. Then as a greater incentive, one could get another 15% off if one got a Macy's department store credit card. I didn't like the sound of that but 15% off is 15% off so we did it anyway. Fine, great watch, great deal.

A couple of weeks later I decided to see how I might pay the Macy's bill that should be arriving soon. I didn't like what my research dug up:
- to pay online, it must be from a US chequing account;
- paying by mail must be done with a money order in US funds;
- one can always pay in-store... if one can get to a store;
- last resort: get a friend who lives in the States doing the paying for you.

These were not great options. Even worse was reading about Canadians who didn't get their bill in the mail soon enough to send out a payment before the due date. And there are late fees. On top of the robbery that is the 24% annual fee (for those who for some reason carry a balance), there's a finance charge of $2 if you're late. I guess that's a processing fee of sorts. The real late fees are from $15 to $39 (depending on the balance outstanding) and are charged up to twice per monthly billing cycle! Who even gets away with that?!

Oh, and the finance charge apparently appears on bills regardless of whether you've failed to pay on time or not; officially you don't have to pay the charge unless you're paying after the due date. Of course that's not made clear, and people will likely opt to pay it first and ask questions later. This gimmick probably adds a couple million dollars to the company's cash flow. Not cool.

Anyway, after learning all this I jumped on it. We took the only feasible route and paid $6 for a money order and mailed it out, while also phoning them to let them know it was on the way. A bit of a hassle, but in the end we paid on time and now have a nice watch at a considerable discount. Plus $6.

And we cancelled the evil card.