Credit cards ripped you off? Report them to the BBB

Credit card companies, especially certain ones like Chase, are notorious for playing games that cost you money and could affect your credit report. It seems some of these companies will go to extreme lengths to take your money. While the unfair practices of raising your interest rate for no reason are under scrutiny and the government is working to pass bills to prevent CC companies from doing this, they still find other ways to rip you off.
Of course, the best prevention is to not have a credit card at all. Second would be to have a card like American Express and pay the ENTIRE balance off every month. For those of us who have leftover debt from a leaner time in our lives, such as college or graduate school, we are stuck with what we have and have to pay the balance off as best we can.
When Chase bought out WAMU, I was one of the unfortunate consumers who had a WAMU account, which I was very happy with and steadily paying down the balance, who now has to deal with horrible Chase. Over the years, Chase has lied to me telling me there were bad marks on my credit report that caused them to increase my interest (pulled said credit report, not one bad mark), that they were trying to "control my spending" so they increased my interest (balance wasn't increasing, just only could pay minimums at that time), etc. This buyout had me nervous from the beginning. Turns out, my nerves were right. Chase did not notify me that they now held my account, did not send me a paper bill, did not send me an email, in no way notified me of anything. My bill was always due no earlier than the 9th of the month and usually on the 12th. Yes, I know credit cards have variable due dates, but they have a minimum number of days between closing periods so it was never due before the 9th when I had WAMU. Chase changed the due date to earlier without notifying me so when I went to pay the bill, it ended up late according to them because the due date was now the 5th. When they assessed a late fee of $39 the next month, I called customer service. The phone center people were very rude, told me they couldn't reverse the charge and that it was a legitimate charge, blah blah blah. Asking to speak to a supervisor got this response "I can let you talk to them but they'll tell you the same thing". I repeated my request and got "It won't do you any good". So then, I screamed and got a supervisor. Of course, the supervisor said they wouldn't reverse the charge so I asked to speak to someone higher than her and got the first person I talked with. They just sit there passing the phone back and forth I guess. So, I was told that I could not speak to anyone higher in the company by calling and would have to communicate via mail. I sent a certified letter requesting that the late fee be reversed. Letter response said, guess what, they were not reversing the charge. By this point, I was so angry that I contacted the Better Business Bureau. They forwarded the complaint and, just yesterday, the lady from Chase called and reversed the late fee and made certain that my account showed as paid as agreed and on time. I don't care about the stupid $39 so much as the principle of them jerking me around, being rude, and then marking my account that I paid late when it wasn't my fault.
My advice, and this goes for businesses other than credit cards, if you have done everything you can to resolve an issue without satisfaction, contact the Better Business Bureau and file a complaint. Most companies do not want bad marks on their BBB profiles so they will try to resolve the problem. You may have to compromise.