Credit Cards Companies, Finding Ways To Deliver Evil More Efficiently

Tom found this little nugget in the comments of one of our favorite housing bubble blogs. (Emphasis mine, edited for length).

We have a Citibank credit card and pay it off at least once or twice a month, on-line. I paid it off completely mid-December, and when I checked the balance again on the Jan 5th so I could pay it off again, saw the due date was Jan 4th. The statement cycle started two days after I paid it off in Dec, so I was technically a day late. Called them up because the period between the statement date and the due date was less than three weeks. The call basically went like this:

CS rep: Yes, we see you pay it off multiple times a month, so our software recognizes this and shortens the time between the statement date and due date because of your payment pattern.

Me: Oh, you mean you guys are trying to trick us into paying late…

CS: Don’t worry, I’ll reset it, so your payment will not show up as a late payment, but the software will keep shortening your payment window as long as you pay as often as you do. You’ll have to call back in six months or so to reset it.

Software. Is there anything it can't do?