Complaint Review: Circuit City - Chase JP Morgan - Nationwide

This isn't unique to Chase. Many credit card companies will charge an extra 'finance' charge or 'interest' fee after 'paying the balance'. You have to insist on a 'payoff' balance. If you don't speak up, you could pay a balance off every month -- and still have another finance charge the next. Two choices. 1. Pay off balances in excess -- pay more that what is owed - so that there's no chance of another finance fee popping up. 2.(best choice). Be agressive. Yell at the customer rep "How do I keep these charges from reappearing. Note: Chase Bank / Circuit City is unfortunate. Their website provides the option to "pay the balance in full". Even if you choose this option, they will still follow up with another finance charge the following month. Worse: They don't always honor the "no interest for 6 month" promotionals that are offered by Circuit City. Chase is doing a poor job of representing Circuit City.

Most store and credit cards that I've had or read the agreement for, will waive the interest charged for a month if the account is paid in full. Apparently you found one that doesn't do that. Interest not accruing on interest? Please. Once the amount is added to the account, it's no longer an interest charge, it's part of the balance. Next month, guess what? Interest accrues. That's where the word "compound" comes from in compound interest. I'd walk into the store, ask to pay the balance in full, get a receipt that says so, cancel your card, and cut it up right there. Sprinkling the pieces over the counter is optional.

Most store and credit cards that I've had or read the agreement for, will waive the interest charged for a month if the account is paid in full. Apparently you found one that doesn't do that. Interest not accruing on interest? Please. Once the amount is added to the account, it's no longer an interest charge, it's part of the balance. Next month, guess what? Interest accrues. That's where the word "compound" comes from in compound interest. I'd walk into the store, ask to pay the balance in full, get a receipt that says so, cancel your card, and cut it up right there. Sprinkling the pieces over the counter is optional.

Most store and credit cards that I've had or read the agreement for, will waive the interest charged for a month if the account is paid in full. Apparently you found one that doesn't do that. Interest not accruing on interest? Please. Once the amount is added to the account, it's no longer an interest charge, it's part of the balance. Next month, guess what? Interest accrues. That's where the word "compound" comes from in compound interest. I'd walk into the store, ask to pay the balance in full, get a receipt that says so, cancel your card, and cut it up right there. Sprinkling the pieces over the counter is optional.

I think that would work just fine for me, and for you... but what about all the idiots out there who would assume that they didn't owe anything charged between the statement and the payment? Try to imagine being Customer Service and trying to explain to them what a projected payoff means. I think it's just self defense.

I still do not understand why it is such a big deal to just say x amount is due by x date-if it is paid early, you carry a credit on your account, if you close the account and they owe you money because it is paid early, they send you a check for the difference. IMO, what is being done is at the very least deceptive and is dishonest-if someone sends you a 'statement', it should reflect, at the due date, the FULL amount owed, otherwise I think it is fair to say it is a fraudulant document.

Look at it this way, if they were to give you an exact payoff, it would have to be something like "your balance is $1052, and must be paid exactly on 3/20, no earlier, and no later". All that any lender can do is say that your balance is $xxx, as of the statement date, and that your next payment is due on xxx. Interest always accrues daily, on almost any type of loan, anywhere. Methods for calculating interest are regulated by the government. If you wanted to call them (and who would?) you could ask them to project a payoff as of a certain date, and that figure would hold, but the figure on a statement will be out of date by the time you receive the statement. One other option you have which would avoid this, is to receive the statement electronically, and pay it as soon as you recieve it. This would minimize the accrued interest, but wouldn't be worth the trouble IMHO. All the credit card companies offer electronic statements. One more tip: if you pay any bill electronically, pay it from your bank or credit union's web site, NOT the credit card company's site. Your payment will go through faster, you will (likely) not be charged, and the payment is guarenteed. Best of all, you aren't giving out your banking information. Remember, once you give them that information, you can't ever stop them from using it again without your knowledge or consent.

...x amount of dollars by a certain date, and I pay that amount in full, I think it is deception at the very least to find out after the fact that it's not 'really' what I owe-that is not honest, it is wrong. How credit card companies are allowed to get away with this is unbelieveable. Personally, if I were to send a client a bill, and they paid it in full, and I were to send another, saying they owed me 'interest' for the time they owed me the balance (it wasn't in the original bill), I would think that amounts to mail fraud-using the US mail to do something that was illegal (hidden charges). If I owed $1052 dollars on March 20th, why do they say I owe $1000 on March 20th??? What they sent to me was not accurate, period, I don't believe you can see it any other way-it's a typical bank trick, and it s#%ks!

i don't work for circuit city, never have, but basically all credit cards do this you accrue interest every day you have a balance. the charge you paid was the interest that accrued between the date the statement was printed and the day that you paid it off. the statement is accurate. if it included interest for the period in which you receive the statement, that would be like billing you in advance. it can only have interest on it for the past period, the one shown on the statement. and no, interest does not accrue on interest, pay the 52 bucks and you'll be done. you seem very angry about this. calm down, pay the charge cause it's legitimate, and move on.

The amount full balance on the 20th of the month (what the statement said I owed in total) was the amount I paid IN FULL on the 19th-no where on the statement does it say that there were charges owed in addition to what the TOTAL was on the statement, not included in this so-called 'balance'. I guess I just wanted to clear that up, I do appreciate your response, but you don't seem to understand my point-If the statement says I owe a total of '$1000', due on the 20th of the month, and I pay that amount, I should not owe anything else-if I owed '$1052' (phantom interest added), THAT'S WHAT IT SHOULD SAY!-that is my point, pure and simple-I don't deal with others like that, do you? If somebody owes me money (I have a business, 20+ years) and I invoice them, they owe me THAT AMOUNT! If they pay me that amount (in full), I do not resort to some sort of deception by 'billing' them for an additional amount after the fact-that is b*#ls^!t, and you know it.

The explanation from Chase is absolutely correct. Since you were not paying your balance in full, you no longer had a grace period. And since you know longer had a grace period, interest justs keeps accruing. So, the amount you actually owed increases on a daily basis. The bill you had was only current for a moment. Keep in mind, that next time you have this situation, call in advance and get the payoff for the card for a certain day. For example, your balance is $1000 as of April 1. You receive the bill on April 3, and you plan to pay it off on April 5, the balance may be $1003. However, if you paid the bill off every month, then you would have a grace period of whatever and pay just $1000