More Fun With Credit Cards
Just when I think I’m getting the hang of the whole credit card thing…
Back in June, I got a Circuit City card (well, really it’s a Chase Card) for a promotional purchase (an HDTV). Knowing full well that most cards apply payments to promotional balances instead of interest-carrying balances, I wanted to do some checking before ever using the card on a “normal” purchase. If the repayment order stood, my plan was to never use the card again (at least until the promotional period ended in January of 2009). So, before making my first payment, I gave the Chase customer service a call.
The woman I spoke to said that while it was normal for the payment to go to the non-interest-carrying balance first, it would be no problem to switch it over and have payments go to the interest-carrying balance. I could use the card like a normal card, pay it off plus a little extra for the promos each month–all the while earning Circuit City Rewards points. Sweet, right? And also a complete and total lie.
I’ve been using my card like a normal credit card since then–making gas and restaurant purchases and then sending a monthly payment roughly equivalent to what I’ve been spending. I even put my bike on it a couple of weeks ago. After sending in payments of around $600 last month, I noticed something odd on my statement: my promotional balance was getting lower and I was being charged a finance fee.
Whaaaaat?
I called customer service back. It turns out that you can only have ONE (1) payment applied to a non-promotional balance per year. One. Not every payment like the first moronic customer service rep told me. Even after speaking with a manager, there was no way to get around this (though she’ll get a reprimand if she’s even still working there). Even though I called in SPECIFICALLY to prevent this, even though I did everything exactly right, I’m now stuck with an interest-carrying balance around $1500, sitting squarely behind my promo purchases of around $2500.
This is what I like to call extortion.
Until next July, when they’ll allow me to make another payment to the interest-only part (never mind the $1500 I’ve already sent them which they applied to the TV), I’ll be wracking up interest at 19.24% per month–around $300.
If the bike shop’s cool, they’ll issue me a refund and charge my debit card, so that’ll knock 1/3 of it off. But this is absolutely ridiculous. I know it’s not Circuit City’s fault, but if you get into bed with soulless, bloodsucking corporations like Chase, this is what you can expect. Until Circuit City or Chase makes this right (which will likely be never), I’ll be doing my electronics shopping at Best Buy.
