We had a US Bank credit card account that had been open since XXXX. It was a card we seldom used and kept it for a back up card and the tenure to improve our credit score. Sometime around XXXX XXXX the annual fee became due. We did not receive a billing notice and was unaware it was due. US Bank maintains we were notified. Around XXXX XXXX I did receive an e-mail with the notification about the past due amount. I called the number to clear it up and was told the account was up to approximately {$120.00} after US Bank added late charges for three months. Thinking this was just a misunderstanding I offered to pay the annual fee plus XXXX late charge. They told me the account had been closed and could not be re-opened. At this point I refused to pay for a closed account and a fee I did n't know about. The representative put me on hold to discuss with a supervisor and returned to report that the fees had been reversed and I no longer owed the amount. In XXXX XXXX we refinanced our mortgage. In the process of that we were informed about an entry for non-payment on our credit record. We had been reported for non-payment by US Bank for an annual fee we knew nothing about until it was too late. Fortunately, this was the only adverse record on our credit report because we have always paid everything in full and on time ( or ahead ). It caused our score to dip about XXXX % so we had a good score rather than excellent. We have sent two letters to US Bank to ask them to reconsider, what we feel, is a completely wrong way of doing business. Their responses have been to rely on the true fact that we did n't pay the account. First, we would have paid it had we known about it. We would have liked to keep the account. We have paid the annual fee every year since XXXX. Second, US Bank 's cardholder agreements say that the account fee is to maintain and service the account for the following year. If the annual fee does n't get paid it should follow that US Bank does n't have to keep the account open to service it. Therefore, an annual fee is in a different class of charges from an actual purchase. Non-payment of an annual fee should not have the severe consequence of an adverse credit report. Third, as a corollary to the last point, if a customer does n't pay the annual fee it may be that they no longer want a seldom used account with a zero balance. We would like them to remove their adverse entry in our credit record. 
