gejone

I didn't find a thread about this issue, so I'll my recent experience. In Dec. 2015 I received a 0% cash advance offer with a one time 2% fee, good for about 18 months. I called customer service and was advised I could continue to use my card for new purchases and if they were paid off each month there would be no additional interest. WRONG. There is a small monthly payment required on the 0% portion and I paid that in February, that's OK. I then charged about $6,000 in purchases and paid the same amount within February. I was just billed $56.45 for interest on the new charges. After a long conversation, to include the supervisor, I found out there is no way to avoid interest on the new charges. If I make a charge and pay the same amount the same day, the payment goes to the 0% balance as the charge would not have posted to the account. There is no grace period since I have the 0% advance. So they made about $150 on merchant fees plus another $56 on my fee. No more. That card goes into the desk until the 0% balance is paid off. Hopefully this will help others understand what the fine print really means.

jeanie

To my knowledge, it has been that way for decades. The only way to get 0% on the card is not to put any new charges on it at all after the initial transfer.

Happy

There is no issue other than the unfortunate fact that you do not understand how a Grace Period works (all in the fine print at the back of your statement or a document online) before you take out a 0% balance transfer.

Right. OP simply did not understand how the mechanism works, and most importantly how the Grace Period works.

People dont realize the purchases put on a card ALWAYS immediately start to Accrue interest charges the day you swipe the card. The Accrued Interest is Waived if you pay the balance of the statement in full by the due date . You LOSE that grace period as soon you take out a balance transfer - by default, you no longer have 0 balance on the card from last statement (I know it is not technically defined so but it is easier for the laymen to understand).

Also how the payment

The only way one could loosely call it a "rip off" is, how the grace period works is in the Fine Print (and it is nothing to do with whether you take out a balance transfer or not), the banks "hope" you would fall into the "trap" like OP has done because many dont bother to read the fine print nor understand how things work.

Then OTOH, Banks disclose all these - it is up to the consumers to also take responsibilities to read the fine print. So one really cannot call this a "rip off" as the banks have told you all upfront albeit not in an easy to understand way.

devnull

I agree with you. Regardless, this doesn't absolve Chase of the following:

If, in fact, a Chase CSR made this representation after being informed by OP of all of the pertinent facts (e.g. the specific account and BT/CA promotion this was regarding), and it was inaccurate, Chase should refund the interest charges. This is the angle I would pursue if this were my situation.

Tanic

You will also get whacked with interest whenever the annual fee is charged. As long as there is a balance for the 0% loan, you cannot pay off the annual fee.

Oreto

I feel for the OP. In my younger days, I took it in the mouth with a high interest rate card advance although the actual rate for the advance was 0%. Like a fool, I kept charging. Once the first statement arrived, I saw the impact of helping my girlfriend out of a messy situation. Back in those days, they would apply your payment to the lowest % debt first. In essence, I paid off the 0% while my other charges kept accruing and all the while I paid 23.95% on those charges until I was able to retire the 0% balance and work on the higher % charges. Good times!

With the new CARD act changes, after the minimum is met, I believe that the highest APR related to balance is paid first but, as previously mentioned, the grace period is not applicable and you'll pay interest on those charges so your payment has to be at least what you charged during the statement cycle. I can't say for sure if this applies only once the statement cuts or if it can be done mid-cycle. From what I have read here, it appears that it is not that way. One exception that I've seen is Citi, they have advertised to me the 0% for 12 months as well as new charges also at 0% for the same period. They seem to be hoping that I'll rack up huge charges and not be able to pay in full once the teaser period ends.

Did the bank say that if you waited until the charges posted to your account and left pending status that any payment made subsequent to that would be applied to those charges first?

trouble747

Is that the case?

I thought how this generally works is that the amount designated as the "minimum payment" goes towards the lowest interest balances and any amount above the minimum payment goes towards the highest interest balances.

miadukes

I don't know maybe with Chase but on my Barclays card, I did a BT and have used my card during the month. I usually pay off the amount that I charged a few days later and then do my typical minimum payment that I would normally have done had I not charged. I have yet to be charged interest. I also do this on my BOA. I just recently did BT on both of those cards and pay as I mentioned. I pay the charge BEFORE the statement closes so when the statement closes its just the BT amount on there.

Does Chase apply different? I may have misunderstood OP but it seems like this is what they are doing?