I wonder if they will have this same type of problem while integrating the WaMu operations.

Same crap happened with me with my 0% offer on my BofA Visa. Closed the balance out with the last payment and surprise! They tacked on a few hundred dollars for a service fee. Weird thing is that the statement even showed the payoff transaction happening on time.

Called them up and they "waived" the fee no problem. This is getting to be like "opt out" of BS finance charges.

There seems to be a trend of accidental over charges. Not just in the credit card industry. More places seem to be conveniently losing payments, moving due dates or sliding in fees hoping people just pay them.

I really hope these skeezy business tactics backfire on the companies doing it.

Chase is currently pulling a crappy stunt with my husband and I right now. Somehow THEIR mistake is "not their problem." I mean, who are these people? I miss WaMu.

They did that to me 2 years ago. Except it was deliberate. They were changing the due dates, the CSR admitted they were changing the due dates, and not giving me any sort of notice. They did this two months in a row, so I cancelled the card. (Oldest on my report or not, I didn't give a shit.)

The first month...I was about 90% sure I hadn't gotten any notification. The second, I knew for certain I hadn't gotten any mail or messages from them about anything. They just lied about it.

Banks in general are not to be trusted, but Chase is to be actively distrusted.

I've had nothing but good luck with Chase in the 2 years that I've been using an Amazon Visa card exclusively. I should probably go find some wood to knock on now.

This was completely my fault, but I paid a day late on a promotional balance and they slapped me with a late fee and raised interest rate. In the past something like this would have been no problem for me, I have great credit and always pay on time so I've gotten a late fee waved the couple of times this has happened in my life - and definitely no interest rate changes. So while this was absolutely my fault, I thought it was a pretty good indication of what a crappy state they must be in that they were not budging on the fee and rate change when I called. I'm still kicking myself.

I used a 12 month 0% interest HSBC credit card and paid it off in month 11 just in case they tried to pull some crap like this on me. Better safe than sorry.

Inexcusable?

That's going a little far - they have an ongoing problem, the charge was easily reversed by a friendly, helpful person, and the problem is solved.

Inexcusable would be pre-charging cuz they anticipate you screwing up, refusing to reverse the charge while you get yelled at for not paying it off sooner, and then having the EECB fail because they wipe their butt with it.

yeah chase did the switcheroo on pa@TechnoDestructo: yes. chase did that to me twice. switching the due dates with no notice. when I called them up and asked why they were doing switching dates without notification their CSR told me that they can't notify me every time they do something minor like that and that it was my responsibility to pay them on time (although as I said the dates moved around at their whim), and that I needed to check their website regularly if I wanted to know about these things (even though the website had a tendency to randomly lock me out close to the due date and required various forms of identity checks and computer verifications every time I tried to log in).

I wish that people would remember that just because it's an online payment does NOT mean that it is instant! Read your Bank's terms related to it's online bill pay before you cry about it... You were just late on paying your promotional period!

The person you talked to probably just saw the auth for payment and not the actual posting date..

Also your payment was only 1 day early! the 31st was a Saturday and not a Business Day!!

I'm a little confused. Was the charge of 40 dollars the total interest accrued over the promotional period? Or was it the interest accrued over the 2 days between the last payment and the next statement?

I ask because I'm currently taking advantage of a promotional rate and wonder what would happen if I don't pay off the balance before the promotion ends. Would I get stuck paying the interest over the promotional period or just the interest from the promotion's end date to next statement date?

Though I agree that the OP being billed for finance charges was wrong, I disagree with the point about the end date on the promotion not coinciding with his due date. The promotion clearly stated it ran through January so the end date being January 31st shouldn't have been a surprise. I would imagine everyone with a Office Depot branded Visa isn't on the same billing cycle.

@misterfuss: good god i hope not. wamu's take over of my providian card went smoothly so i really hope the same happens when chase takes it over.

still have plan b just in case

@Mike8813: i have had the chase amazon visa for the last 10 months also. i had one issue where they charged me an overlimit fee retroactively 60 days or so after i was overlimit - and the overlimit happened when they processed the finance charges and it pushed me $8 over my limit. i saw it immediately online and paid it the same day, but it was still a legitimate charge even if they waited ages to process the fee.

but other than that, it's been decent. they don't get weird if i make two or three payments a month [because i earn points toward purchases, i tend to use it for a large purchase, wait until the charge shows up and then pay it immediately]
but the latest thing that makes me ok with this card is that in november they lowered my interest rate, without being asked or contacted, by 1% and then in january another 0.75%
it's not a lot, but i appreciate the fact that i didn't have to ask. i'm still planning to call when i reach my one year anniversary on the card and asking for another percent or so for paying early every month!

There are all sorts of 0% interest scams where mailed check would be sat on for weeks so the final payment would fall outside the promotional period and hundreds of dollars of interest charges would be tacked on. Checks sent in any other time would be cashed immediately. (Hi, Best Buy!)

I make it a habit to pay off such things on the second to last bill because it would be a real stretch for them to hold on to a check for 7-8 weeks.

@cookmefud:

Chase are scum.

It's not just limited to Chase. I've had this issue with Sear's (cancelled their card over the matter) and when I purchased a Mattress on a no-interest no-payment deal through Wells Fargo.

In the end you really just have to watch out for yourself.

First off, it's probably the guy's bank and not the CC. Just because you make a payment on a date doesn't mean your bank pays it then, even if you're using your bank CC or it's debit card. My experience is that you should always compensate for card payments by making a payment at least 5 or 6 days prior to the due date. Your bank usually debits your account THAT day, but the receiving bank doesn't get their's until the holding period expires. CHASE probably wasn't the bad guy here with just 2 or 3 days before you made the payment before it was due.

Granted, CHASE and most banks do suck in this respect, just check your own bank's TOS before you complain. I speak from experience with payments made to condo associations and others.

I work for a large bank whose name rhymes with 'base'. Seeing as their integration with the infrastructure from another large bank I'll call MuWa has really put their systems in a tizzy. Much head scratching ensued leading to many long nights for tired engineers.

Upper management inexplicably realized that this might affect customers who actually still pay their bills, and agreed to be extra nice to them, but only if they explicitly ask. No need to give away the house mind you.

Therefore, if you have a good payment history, and are really nice but just a bit assertive, you will probably get what you ask for.

I had similar problems with Chase a few years ago. It got to the "Close all my accounts" level.

And Chase decided that "close all my accounts" really meant "close all my accounts except for this one for which we will no longer send statements and since there's a zero balance we'll start charging fees, and now that there's a negative balance we'll have to charge more fees for that."

If I didn't get my credit report annually I'd probably still have that account and a few years worth of fees owed.

@faiyazahmed: It depends on the terms of the promotion, but you can probably assume that if you don't pay the balance you pay interest over the promotional period on the whole balance.

And possibly some fees as well.

Bitch, Bitch, Bitch, Bitch, Bitch..... is all I hear. Stop being ignorant hillbillies and taking out credit cards your low life ass can afford to pay off, and rationalizing it by saying "it has 12 months no interest." Go home get a job and learn simple math, Rednecks. If you can't pay for it by the end of the month, you can't afford it anyway.I'm seriously sick of hearing people bitch about getting ripped off, you know when apply for the card what your getting yourself into, and you know hidden fees are there. So next time, before you decide to get on the internet and bitch about how you screwed up by taking the card, and how chase rapes and kills a kitten every time you use it. Remember credit cards are not for hillbillies like you.

I logged in to my account just last Friday, and wanted to pay my Chase Freedom bill. I told it to pay the full amount and it told me it would post on Feb 28th, a Saturday. It didn't post until Monday. I had never had an issue paying my bill, but this explains why it may have been delayed. Luckily I another week before it was due, otherwise I would have been in the same situation.

@teapartys_over: This might not be your fault. Mine was a "day late" too even though I've NEVER been a day late before -- at least a week buffer on a same-day electronic payment.

Sounds fishy.

Funny thing is, I like my Chase Freedom card infinity times better than my AT&T Universal Card. Never had a problem with Chase's Freedom, and I get Home Depot gift cards from buying gas.

Citi bought the Universal Card several years ago and they started a little thing where they closed the statement on some date in the month, around the 15th, but kept mailing the actual bill later and later and later so that it was coming a few days before it was due. They offered to change the bill closing date in the month, but that wasn't the problem, it was them mailing the bill weeks after it closed. Then they offered to sign me up so they had total access to my account and could take all the money they wanted any time they wanted. No thanks! I switched to Chase and never looked back.

I had been a Universal Card member since it started in 1993, too. Very, very happy until Citi took over.

I guess Chase has the dubious honor of not being as bad as Citi.

@cookmefud: That just leaves me speechless. WTH?

I had similar problem with a (non Office Depot) Chase card; I had paid off my balance before what I thought was the due date, but the billing cycle had somehow changed and I had a $0.60 finance charge... since I thought the balance was zero I didn't check the card for a while, until I started getting calls that I was months late on my payment and would be referred to a collection agency, for a balance that was now like $1.50. Luckily with some long phone call sessions they got the penalties removed and I just had to pay the original balance without it affecting my credit.

@Danica Grannon:
Dude chill the f-out. What is wrong with taking advantage of a promotion, obviously he had the ability to pay off the balance in full. Spreading out a payment with no interest over a year is actually beneficial, because technically the money you're paying in the future is worth less than it's present value due to inflation.

only to discover that they got socked with a large interest charge because the "promotion" ended 2 days before they paid their bill

But what were they supposed to do? Give everybody whose bill due date is in early February a couple of extra days on the promotion, while taking days off the promotion for people whose bills are due in the middle or towards the end of January?

Seems to me that picking a fixed date of January 31 for expiration of the promotion for everybody was a fair thing to do for all who took advantage of it.

I still think it was sleazy of them to hit him with a finance charge anyway even though he paid on the 29th. That to me sounds like they were trying to sneak something by. I have my Chase card set up to send me an email notification when they process my payment so I have something from them proving that I paid it before the deadline. Has come in handy once or twice.

I canned my Chase card a long time ago. They raised rates because of a mistake they made. They waived the fees resulting from the mistake, but they refused to lower the rate back down. Card Canceled.

I need to kill everything we have in WaMu, I don't want to deal with these idiots.

@misterfuss:
I completely paid off both cards because I KNEW Chase wouldn't honor the rest of my 'introductory 0%' offer I had with Wamu, and several times now I've had them 'complimentary' reverse interest charges after I've paid a balance in full before the due date. I'll see if I can combine the two credit lines once the transfer is complete, if not, I'll do my best not to use either because Chase keeps charging me insane interest for no reason whatsoever.

@faiyazahmed: NSV is correct. Virtually ALL promotions for "no interest for X days/months" will charge interest from the day of purchase. And that usually adds up to a very tidy sum.
Best advice: Pay cash whenever possible. If you must use these promotions, make sure you pay the balance IN FULL at least 30 days PRIOR to the end of the term, then close the account.

@Danica Grannon: I fear you have some residual hate... was it Bank of America? Did they do this to you?? (((shakes with anger)))

I'll kill them.

@loueloui: "...but only if they explicitly ask."

i found as strange penalty on my Citi Mastercard, a ocuple of months ago. when i called to see what it was, they told me it was due to a late payment. i was surprised, but after checking the date on the cleared check, it turns out they were right - i was late. oh well.

the woman on the phone then asked me "what would you like me to do about this, Sir ?"

i was taken off-guard and mumbled something like "well, whatever you can do would be fine".

she repeated the question, "what would you like me to do about this, Sir ?"

"i don't know. what CAN you do?"

more emphatically, "what would you like me to DO about this, SIR ?"

i finally figured out that she was trying to get me to ask her to reverse the charge - to say the Magic Words. but that just made me mad - if you can reverse it, just reverse it. let's not play this stupid f'ing game.

so i just repeated myself "whatever you CAN do will be fine."

finally she sighed and reversed the charge.

@Trencher93: "Citi bought the Universal Card several years ago and they started a little thing where they closed the statement on some date in the month, around the 15th, but kept mailing the actual bill later and later and later so that it was coming a few days before it was due."

Citi has caught me with this a few times. i've been able to get the charges reversed each time, but it's annoying to have to go begging them to do it.

good to know it's not just me.

@Danica Grannon: So you think it's all right for credit card companies to have hidden fees and for them to screw you? Make sure you call me when someone invariably screws *you* over. I'll be sure to show up and laugh at your stupid ass.

@cc82: Exactly In a perfect world and with perfect use it is actually smart financially to take advantage of as many interest free promotions as possible, assuming you already have the cash, as you can earn a year or more of interest on the money while enjoying the product and paying the same price.

Unfortunately crap like this makes it a trickier maneuver. And this wasn't a "hidden fee" it was a complete fabrication/ error.

@cookmefud:
>randomly lock me out close to the due date

I'm really happy it's not just me. I was convinced I was just being paranoid. I almost always pay all of my bills on the day I get my paycheck. Generally when I do it that way there's no problems. Strangely, if I need to delay a bit and wait until two or three days prior to my due date their website will "mysteriously" having trouble in logging me in.

Weird how that works.

@Mike8813: I've had no problems with the Amazon card either. Have used it to pay all my bills and have racked up quite a few gift certificates.
But they are starting to worry me. I was previously an MBNA BoA customer. Their website became difficult to access, which I am sure is partly SOX, but suspect that there is also profit to be made by keeping people from managing their accounts.

Hopefully I don't have any of these types of problems with my car loan that is going through Chase...if I can ever get my account set up online without getting an error message about the service being temporarily unavailable.

@Danica Grannon: There's nothing "wrong" with taking advantage of a promotion, but also there is nothing "right" about it either. I was a little over kill this morning, but I just really get tired of this "apply and cancel" society. I actually have worked with citi, BoA, and HSBC...(please don't kill me...lol) I just don't understand these people i would talk to on the phone and in person, that wonder why their credit score has dropped, but continue to apply for a credit card from best buy, target, or other stores just because they get a "3 month zero apr on balance transfers". Then call and say "Well, I cancelled it because it had hidden fees." What then hell people...actually read the shit. If you don't know the terms or conditions or what they mean, then you should either find out what they mean before deiciding on the card , or don't take it. period. Credit cards are pushed to the poor and stupid. Taking a card at a store just so you get that 0% or that 5% discount at the register is just plain stupid.

@rworne: I send in the check early and post-date it to the very due date. Just to be difficult. No issues so far though that may very well change soon.

@Danica Grannon: Sounds like a typical response from some carpet-baggin Yankee *me pulls out my corncob pipe*

@dougp26364: I had this problem with Sears and their card was managed by citibank. I actually had them reverse late fees 4 months in a row because they weren't doing what they said they would. I remember talking to a normal sounding CSR while she pulled up my account and heard her say, "wow, that's something new, I've never seen them reverse that many late fees in a row like that!"

When I paid it off I closed it immediately and have yet to do anything with citibank since.

Although my mortgage is with chase so I'm hoping these sly business practices don't head my way.

@Danica Grannon: There is something "right" about taking advantage of promotions. Like it was said before, if you buy something and spread the payments out over a year, you can collect interest on the money being spent if you put all of the money aside in a bank account ahead of time. I have a Wal-Mart card that I use for the promotions. I only ever use it if I have something more than $250 that I am buying at Wal-Mart so I can get 1 year interest free. Even though whatever I buy is something that I can afford to pay for in cash, there is no reason to not spread the payment out over a period of time rather than paying it all up front. Sure, signing up for credit cards and then canceling them isn't good, but using promotions is.

Here is my best suggestion, pay cash for everything.

If you cannot afford to pay cash; you probably don't need it in the first place.

If you are trying to build or repair your credit, start with a card and a $250 or $500 limit so you don't get yourself in trouble. Credit problems are created by the user, not the card itself, but the credit card companies will charge your soul to the Devil if they can get away with it. If they could get cards in the hands of pre-schoolers, they would do it.

I was faced with this same dilemma from several credit card companies.

Never was late or missed a payment, only to have them jack my rate sky high. When I called them they gave me jibberish or offered to lower it for a 6-month period or some other crap. What did I do? I played the shell game and transferred to another card with 0% interest for 18 months. I said bye-bye and transferred the balance the next day.

There is a balance transfer fee usually of 1-3% of the balance being trsnferred but it comes out less than what you would pay for the bump in your interest rate. Great because you are not doing business with the shysters anymore, which is worth its weight in gold to me.

If the new card is giving you 0% interest for 18 months, try to pay off the balance before the end of the introductory terms.

I will never use Citi, Chase, AMEX or Discover again. I don't need them. I didn't close the accounts and after not using them for a period of time you will get a letter stating they will close the account due to inactivity (because they are no longer gouging you and making money on you). Oh well! The funny part is after they close my accounts due to inactivity, they send a twice-weekly mailer, sometimes daily, telling me I'm pre-approved or begging me to come back. Fat chance asswipes!

My credit score is sufficient enough to where I don't have to worry about the credit hit. They are all in bed together, credit card companies, banks and credit bureaus, so what can you do? Interesting, that a person who pays cash for everything is punished by the three reporting agencies, banks, credit card companies, etc., when they try to buy a car, house or whatever. If you miss a car payment or are late on the mortgage, they justify that as a reason for jacking your rate.

The best thing to do is go "green" i.e. cash and get rid of the twats; this being the only true way to fight back.

This happened to me to! It was around 1999. I paid of the card early and they slapped with with a 40$+ fine. I don't remember exactly how much. I called and then had to escalate to a manager. The manager was even reluctant. I told them to kiss my a** that I would not pay it because they had no legal leg to stand on. Then the manager gave in and zeroed my balance. I swore I would never use Chase again. Now my bank Wamu is Chase. I have all my auto bill pays setup and really don't want to mess with moving my account but I really think I am going to just out of principle. Chase is a bad company.

Does anyone know how Chase credits payments when you have taken a cash advance? While traveling internationally, the airport must have charged the exit fee as a cash advance, because that's how it showed up on my card. I was surprised, but I had no way to find out if that was correct, and accepted the extra $10 (plus $1 in interest) that it cost on the fee of $22.89. I have automatic payment set up with Chase so that I pay the full amount of the bill each month. Imagine my surprise when I saw an interest charge for the cash advance the next month--after I had paid the full amount of the previous month's bill. And when I called, I was told there was still .72 balance on the cash advance after the second month that I had paid the full amount on the statement.

Does anyone know (because the rep sure didn't) how Chase credits payments when there is a cash advance? And if paying the bill in full isn't adequate to pay off the cash advance, what is one supposed to do?

Admittedly, I'm talking about a buck a month, but that's exactly what they want customers to think . . . it's only a dollar, it's not worth bothering with. But these kind of games spread over millions of customers, 12 months a year, equal millions of dollars for the credit card company.