@beautifulblaquepearl wrote:
@newhis wrote:I had a cash rewards (now travel) and they charge $1.50 minimum. Maybe your card is older? DW's new BBR also say the minimum interest charge will be $1.50. Other companies don't have this 'minimum charge'
To really know what happened, you need to provide:
- BT 0% end date
- amount paid (last month) and date
- date of $12 charge
My guess is that the system took the $12 charge and still saw the BT open. Interest start at that point on the $12 charge. If the statement closed without the full payment ($12 plus interest), then the next statement started with interest each day until you paid the charge, you may end with interest charge the next statement too.
For example:
- BT promo, charge $X 5 days before statement close (last 5 days interest), a new statement start, you see the $X and $1.50 fee and you pay that 5 days into the new statment. You could get another $1.50 fee for the interest (first 5 days).
I hope this makes sense. Anyway, you could chat or talk with a CSR that may refund the fee. Good luck.
EDIT: the solution (change statement date) is not a real one. If your BBR doesn't have a BT and you just charge $12 a month, it doesn't matter when they charge it. Please don't use BofA cards for BT and regular purchases.
If you have an open balance transfer on a BoA credit card and then use it for purchases, you will be charged interest no matter how much you pay.
Not in my experience, if you pay it soon enough 
I've had 0% BT offers going on Bank of America cards, and just for fun, did some small spending on it. I then paid slightly more than that charge to offset the spend items. I also have autopayment for more than the minimum payment, and to pay down the BT amount. On the month end statement, there is no interest on the spend items.
If one spends on the card and leaves those charges for the statement print, then yes, you will see interest cost on those spend items, apart from the BT offer at 0%.
@galahad15 wrote:I may have to recheck the BBR statement details and then give BoA another call for more details, since they had mentioned that the $1.50 minimum finance charge fee would occur again this month, until the billing date change is effective as of my May 2017 statement -- also since I'm not quite sure what is occurring here myself. Will try to give everyone an update as soon as I have a chance to talk again with BoA.
In response to the question/point about my BoA Cash Rewards WMC: yes I first got it in 2007 as a Platinum Plus MC, which I believe in 2014 was changed to a Cash Rewards WMC by BoA as part of an upgrade promotion. So far as I am aware after reviewing my statements for it, it never had a $1.50 minimum finance charge fee though? So it could indeed be that since it started out as an older product, they are not charging the fee as carryover from the initial Platinum Plus card?
It should not be necessary to call BofA. On your statement, there will be an Interest Charge Calculation section. This separates out how Bank of America arrived at the interest cost for that statement. This separates Purchases from however many Promotional APR offers you have going on, along with specific end dates when that promotional APR ended.
As newhis detailed, what happened is that your 0% Promotional APR expired during the timeperiod of this statement, and you had not paid all the balance down, whether that's the last payment or the $12 charge. That results in the $1.50 minimum.
Your long term solution is to go into your BBR account and schedule a payment to pay it to zero now. Then when your statement cuts, that will reset the interest to zero. Going forward, as long as there is no new BT or carried balance, you should see no interest cost.
@beautifulblaquepearl wrote:
If you have an open balance transfer on a BoA credit card and then use it for purchases, you will be charged interest no matter how much you pay.
^ This. If you have a BT, you are carrying a balance. Any purchases will begin to accrue daily interest.
@newhis wrote:
@rooeez wrote:
@beautifulblaquepearl wrote:If you have an open balance transfer on a BoA credit card and then use it for purchases, you will be charged interest no matter how much you pay.
^ This. If you have a BT, you are carrying a balance. Any purchases will begin to accrue daily interest.
Well, it depends. A) how fast you pay the purchase* and B) the lender.
A) after BofA charged me with a $1.50 min interest for a purchase I made, my wife did the same with her card, so I checked every day her card, and as soon as I saw the charge without 'pending/processing' she was able to pay the full purchase (not the full BT) and there was no interest.
B) Cap1 and Sallie Mae (now Commence), say that you can still use it for purchases and to not get interest you must pay the amount they say in the statement (not the minimum, but another amount they say you need to pay). DW used the Sallie Mae (February) and got a BT on it for 1% fee before the statement close in March. The amount she purchased was around $200. Her statement closed and it say that the min payment is $37 and there is a paragraph that say: "you can avoid paying interest on your Purchases by paying $ 200.00 (this amount includes any Minimum Payment Due required to avoid a late fee)"
*This was just with BofA, I don't know if all lenders do the same thing or they start calculating interest even if the purchase is 'pending'
Good to know. Obviously, people should check their term and conditions. My BBR card says that it will charge interest on purchases, not the BT. I know that I'm not going to track purchases that closely to not get charged interest, so I'd say it's good practice to not use a BT card for purchases if you have the option.
@beautifulblaquepearl wrote:
@rooeez wrote:
@beautifulblaquepearl wrote:
If you have an open balance transfer on a BoA credit card and then use it for purchases, you will be charged interest no matter how much you pay.
^ This. If you have a BT, you are carrying a balance. Any purchases will begin to accrue daily interest.
We are saying the same thing rooeez. I didn't think I needed to diffrentiate between the BT and purchases. I assumed folks would know I was talking about accruing interest on the purchases, not the BT.
Yes, I was agreeing with you and speaking to the OP.
@NRB525 wrote:
@beautifulblaquepearl wrote:
@newhis wrote:I had a cash rewards (now travel) and they charge $1.50 minimum. Maybe your card is older? DW's new BBR also say the minimum interest charge will be $1.50. Other companies don't have this 'minimum charge'
To really know what happened, you need to provide:
- BT 0% end date
- amount paid (last month) and date
- date of $12 charge
My guess is that the system took the $12 charge and still saw the BT open. Interest start at that point on the $12 charge. If the statement closed without the full payment ($12 plus interest), then the next statement started with interest each day until you paid the charge, you may end with interest charge the next statement too.
For example:
- BT promo, charge $X 5 days before statement close (last 5 days interest), a new statement start, you see the $X and $1.50 fee and you pay that 5 days into the new statment. You could get another $1.50 fee for the interest (first 5 days).
I hope this makes sense. Anyway, you could chat or talk with a CSR that may refund the fee. Good luck.
EDIT: the solution (change statement date) is not a real one. If your BBR doesn't have a BT and you just charge $12 a month, it doesn't matter when they charge it. Please don't use BofA cards for BT and regular purchases.
If you have an open balance transfer on a BoA credit card and then use it for purchases, you will be charged interest no matter how much you pay.
Not in my experience, if you pay it soon enough
I've had 0% BT offers going on Bank of America cards, and just for fun, did some small spending on it. I then paid slightly more than that charge to offset the spend items. I also have autopayment for more than the minimum payment, and to pay down the BT amount. On the month end statement, there is no interest on the spend items.
If one spends on the card and leaves those charges for the statement print, then yes, you will see interest cost on those spend items, apart from the BT offer at 0%.
I think we can agree that some myFICOers like to color outside the lines and push the envelope when it comes to creditor's policies. However the average person doesn't do that and is not checking their account daily to see when charges post so they can make a payment. Most people, not here, will read BoA's terms regarding BTs and purchases and opt to do one or the other, not both.
For those who aren't familiar with BoA's verbiage on BTs and purchases, I pasted it below.
"If you revolve your balance to take advantage of a Balance Transfer or Direct Deposit, all transactions and balances, including Purchases, will be charged interest."