I PIF’d and Chase charged me a $59 finance charge

[Phoenix-rising]

My June 7 statement had a CREDIT balance of $20 as in: I owed LESS than zero and was NOT carrying a balance.  My July 7 statement posted with a balance of $3,860.  The due date was 8/1 with a minimum payment of $77.  As I have done in the past, I made sure to pay $100 before the due date.  Then on 8/5 I paid the remaining balance plus an extra $200 to cover a $200 charge I made that month.  I expected my statement to post with a ZERO balance.  I was shocked when I checked the statement and the balance was $59.25.  Apparently they charged me a finance charge of $59.25 that month.

I called customer service to ask why they charged finance charges when I PIF’d, and the first excuse was that I had been carrying a balance from the previous month – NOT TRUE lady.  The month before my balance was -$20.  Her second excuse was that I didn’t pay the entire balance before the due date.  OK, that’s true, BUT whenever I did that in the past, I wasn’t charged finance charges.  Of course she reversed the finance charges, but she asked me for an example of a recent statement where there was a similar scenario where I had paid the minimum by the due date and the balance between the due date and the statement date without being charged finance charges.  I couldn’t find any recent statements on that account and decided to end the phone call and do some research.

I remember reading on myFICO that even people who PIF would be charged finance charges.  I guess this is what they were talking about.

I just used the card yesterday to buy some furniture and had planned to take about 3 months to pay it off.  I asked what the purchase APR was as I don’t normally check the APR’s since I PIF most of my cards every month.  My APR on that account is 19.24%!  It was 15.99% in February when I checked my old statements.  It jumped to 19.24% on the March statement.  There was nothing she could do to lower the APR.  I’ve had that card for over 17 years.  I have NEVER had a late payment and there are no negative marks on my CR.

If this is what Chase does to its “good” customers, people with a less than perfect track record don’t stand a chance.

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As I was typing this out it occurred to me that in the past year most of my CCs were posting with a zero balance because I was trying to see how high I could get my credit score.  I only recently started letting them post with a balance and PIF’ing.  I guess this is a lesson for me that I need to keep in mind that if I let the statement post with a balance I need to PIF BEFORE the due date.  Lesson learned.

So hopefully if I PIF before the due date I won’t have to worry about finance charges again.  Does that make sense?

Message Edited by Phoenix-rising on 08-09-2009 12:53 PM

[Jazzzy]

I have to say that I understand why you got the finance charge. You did not pay the full amount by the due date. Thus, interest was charged on the remaining balance.

PIF before the due date and that shouldn't happen again.

[Anonymous]

+1 Lyn

You must pay the full balance by the due date to avoid a finance charge, not by the statement date. 

Your grace period is the time from statement cut till due date.  After that your grace period is gone and you will be charged finance.

Message Edited by txjohn on 08-09-2009 11:01 AM

[Anonymous]

not just the remaining  but the whole DAB  for the cycle.

maybe the other times the balance and APR hadn't  come out with enough interst to bother with.

 Injan 08 I did a bt on my chase account to get a cellphone

the day I paid the balance off I called chase to find out if I could start using my card for purchase before the next statment , the said yes, so I was shocked on the statement I saw a $1 intest credited back to my acount, since my balance was larger than $1 because I had used the card. 

[Anonymous]

Based on what you posted, you went over your grace period and that is why you were hit with the finance charge,

"""My July 7 statement posted with a balance of $3,860,,, As I have done in the past, I made sure to pay $100 before the due date.  Then on 8/5 I paid the remaining balance"""

Let's see, that's 23-days in July plus 5 in August so you carried a $3,800 balance for 28-days,,  Even if you paid in full  on August 5,,  You went over your 25-day grace period, and as rb posted, you'll incure a finance charge on your average daily balance at that point, which was roughly $3800,

You said your apr is 19.24%,,  Dividing  that by 365  and times-ing that by 31-days in the billing cycle shows the accrued interest for the month was roughly $60,  

The whole billing process is just an algorithm, it doesn't have any common sense, just input and output,,

Congrats on getting them to credit the interest back to you, now watch that grace period!! ,,

[Phoenix-rising]

You are all correct.  I had gotten accustomed to having the statements post with a zero balance and the due date didn't really matter, since the beginning balance was normally zero.  I was always focused on paying everything by the statement date so the account would post with a zero balance.

Now that I'm letting the cards post with a balance, I need to retrain myself to keep my eye on the due date instead of the statement date.  That should keep me out of trouble from now on.

Thanks.

[creditwherecreditisdue]

You only need to have one account post a balance and it can always be the same one if that makes it any easier.