<prompt> Human: Hi Reddit, I just want to tell you a little story about how I thought I was being fiscally responsible but in fact was getting screwed by my credit card company. So I got this credit card when I graduated high school. Figured I would use it to buy gas then pay it off and it would be a good way to build my credit score. A couple years later I received an email saying that they had a new service, their Payment Protection Plan. What I thought this was: I would pay a small monthly fee and if I ever messed up and missed a payment, they would waive it. Months went by, I occasionally noticed a couple dollars pop up on my bill to that effect, never something I bothered to glance at twice. I graduated, I got a job, everything was going pretty well.I got another email, they had a new offer where I could write a check for a balance and either pay 0 interest for 12 months with a 3 initial fee, or for 18 months 4 interest and no fee. I was about to move, and needed some furniture. I also had a few student loans with interest rates around 7. I crunched the numbers and figured out that I could write myself a check for a few thousand dollars and as long as I payed it off within the 18 months I would effectively be saving money. Almost never take the fee up front, if you see this. A year later, same basic deal, and I was suddenly in between jobs. Figured Id do the same thing, make sure I could eat more than peanut butter for the next month or two until my new job started, use the rest to pay off my higher interest loans a bit quicker. At this point, I wasnt really using the card for anything. Just paying a few hundred dollars a month and not really looking at the itemized statements. Last month, I got really busy looking at apartments and jobs and forgot to make a payment by the due date. Today I finally looked at my statement a little closer. Not only did I get charged a 27 late fee, the payment protection plan fees were over 70 for the last couple months.So I called Discover to see what was going on. First, why was I charged a late fee if I was paying for a service to not be charged a late fee? As the guy on the phone explained it to me, the service that I was actually paying for was in case of some life event like loss of job, death in the family, etc where you might not be able to make payments, you can call in and defer payments for a few months. Not at all what I thought it was originally. But the real kicker, the fee isnt a flat fee you pay every month. For this service and I struggle to call it that since it literally did nothing for me the cost is based on your current balance, promotional transfers included. Since this is the first time Id ever carried any significant balance, I didnt notice that before, and they sure didnt make it clear when I signed up. The fees were more than 2.5x my interest charges. I complained. He told me that he could remove the 27 late fee and, if I cancel the service, this months fee as well. So all in all, I ended up paying over 300 for the privilege of calling in to complain and getting a 27 late fee removed from my account. I dont consider it a wise investment. Hopefully someone here can learn from my mistakes and keep a closer eye out for these sorts of services in the future.  <response>: I just want to tell you a little story about how I thought I was being fiscally responsible but in fact was getting screwed by my credit card company.I think what you mean is a story about how you made an assumption, didnt actually look up what it is, and got screwed by your own laziness. The credit card company didnt do anything wrong. You signed up for something without understanding what you were doing. You didnt look at your statements. This is 100 on you. 