I owed my allergist ~$100 from office visits not covered by my insurance. They asked if I could set up a plan to pay monthly. I have in writing that our agreement is they are to bill my credit card for $20 on the 13th of each month. They have instead been billing my credit card on the 30th of each month. In June my credit card had not much available credit remaining and so they paid the allergist and I incurred an over the limit fee of $18.

I went to the office today and neither the office manager nor the person who does the billing was there. I explained my situation to the receptionist and she said if you are going to have $20 billed on the 13th why wouldn't you still have that money available on the 30th. I tried to explain that I have multiple people who I allow automatic deductions to my card because it is easier than mailing checks. I don't go back to see if all the deductions are charged, I just look at available balance to see how much I have left that I can spend. If I am going to have to check the deductions from the car insurance, the allergist, the hospital bill, my loan repayment, et cetera I may as well mail checks. I expect them to follow the agreement and part of that agreement is which day of the month they can charge my card.

I think the allergist's office should reimburse me for the $18 because they did not follow our written agreement. I am sure if I wrote a check that did not clear because of insufficient funds they would charge a penalty. It works both ways, I think.

Somebody is supposed to call me from the office later this week. Do you think I have a reasonable expectation that they cover the penalty or no?