For credit cards, why is it harder to get over-limit penalty waived, compared to getting the late fee waived?

Question

I have been a customer of a credit card company for many years. I have had a clean record, so the company normally waived a rare late-fee if I ever accidentally delayed my monthly payment.

Last month I got hit by an over-limit penalty because I went a couple of dollars over the credit limit. I called the company and asked for a waiver. This time it was much much harder to get the fee waived -- I had to almost cancel my credit card.

I am wondering why the difference between these two types of penalties?

Answer 1

i don't know for sure why, but wouldn't you think over-limit is more serious than late payment?  late payment involves absent-mindedness which we all have every now and then.  over-limit involves irresponsibility.  a prudent person knows the credit limit of their credit card.  over-spending is an act of recklessness and is often a deliberate act.  hands down it's a way bigger mistake than being forgetful once in a while.  

Answer 2

One of two possibilities:

1.  They keep track of the number of fee waivers you have received, and the last fee waiver you received was your last one.

2.  The company gives its representatives discretion, and in this case the individual you happened to have reached this time (out of hundreds, if not thousands) wasn't among the company's most sympathetic.

Over ten years ago I used to work for Bank One, then the country's largest Visa issuer.  When I worked there, each employee had a very, very large degree of discretion.  But, sometime after I left, and appearently after way to many fee reversals, the bank took the discretion away.  According to some friends that stayed behind, fee reversals would be determined based on how profitable your were to the bank.  The bank used a sophisticated algorithim to figure this out, and each account would have a "fee waiver" color code.  Green meant that fees could be reversed.  Still, there were even limits on the amount of fees "green" accounts could get reversed.  What made things awkward for the representative was that the color was account specific, not customer specific.  Friends would complain when they had to deal with clients who wanted fees on more than one account waived but only one was green.  (They would use on account alot, therefore it was a profitable account, while the others were underused).  Bank One is now Chase, and I do not know if things still work out this way.