I just sent a query to my credit card company via their Web site asking about their surcharges on transactions made in foreign countries (I'll be going on vacation this spring.) I've used this method before. When an agent answers my question, I get a notification to log into my account and view the response.

It used to annoy me that so many telecom and financial services companies no longer make their phone numbers easy to find. But after years of hearing one thing from an agent, only to find later that it's not true but have no recourse to prove what I heard initially (it becomes a case of "I said, they said"), I've discovered I like this method. The responses are usually speedy, AND I have the respone in writing. Should the agent inform me there is no fee but I later find one posted to my account, I've got it in writing that a representative of the credit card company promised me there was no fee. In the days of old, my recourse was, "Well, an agent...I don't remember his name...told me there are no fees...I don't remember what date it was. No, I don't remember what number I called."

Accountability works both ways!

TES