topic Re: Amex charged an entire year's worth of interest in 1 month on BT fee? in Credit Cards

Amex charged an entire year's worth of interest in 1 month on BT fee?

urbex — Tue, 31 Oct 2017 06:28:25 GMT

Recently was approved for an AMEX Blue Cash Everyday card with the 14 month 0% deal, and did a $6,000 balance transfer on it on 10/01/17. That is the only thing on that card, no other purchases or activity. I see the statement cut on 10/25/17, and with it was the balance transfer fee of $180, which I expected (3% of the $6,000). But there is also a purchase interest charge of $38.57, tied to a $3129.24 balance.

I called AMEX, and the representative claimed it was interest on balance transfer fee, and at first she said it would be a 1 time thing, but then after further questioning, she said it would continue to accrue unless I paid the minimum payment plus the $180 BT fee, plus the $38.57 interest this month. I questioned the $3129.24 "purchase balance", and she said this is all because AMEX doesn't have a specific category for interest on BT fees.

Ok, I get that interest normally starts accruing immediately on BTs, but as this was supposed to be 0% APR on BTs, I'm not really sure where this is coming from, and especially not a $38 interest charge. According to my statement, interest on BTs outside of the intro period would be 17.99%, which to me would mean roughly a $2.70 interest charge. I looked over the user agreement again, and didn't see anything related to interest on BT fees during a 0% promo period, nor did I see anything that would justify that much interest on the $180 fee. Even if I assumed they were charging interest on the entire balance, the math doesn't work on that either, as the interest would be around $92 that way.

Am I missing something here, or should I be calling back tomorrow morning and escalating this issue? It's not a huge amount, and it's still far less interest than I would have been paying on the card I transferred from, but I still don't like not having a full understanding of what's going on here.

EDIT: I also got the Everyday card, and did a BT of around $4000 on that one (yeah, I was a dumb butt, and racked up WAY too much credit card debt). Statement has cut on that one too, and there are zero interest charges on that card, despite having made a couple small actual purchases on that card. I really think something goofy is going on with the BCE card...

Re: Amex charged an entire year's worth of interest in 1 month on BT fee?

Loquat — Tue, 31 Oct 2017 11:30:46 GMT

@urbex wrote:
Recently was approved for an AMEX Blue Cash Everyday card with the 14 month 0% deal, and did a $6,000 balance transfer on it on 10/01/17. That is the only thing on that card, no other purchases or activity. I see the statement cut on 10/25/17, and with it was the balance transfer fee of $180, which I expected (3% of the $6,000). But there is also a purchase interest charge of $38.57, tied to a $3129.24 balance.

I called AMEX, and the representative claimed it was interest on balance transfer fee, and at first she said it would be a 1 time thing, but then after further questioning, she said it would continue to accrue unless I paid the minimum payment plus the $180 BT fee, plus the $38.57 interest this month. I questioned the $3129.24 "purchase balance", and she said this is all because AMEX doesn't have a specific category for interest on BT fees.

Ok, I get that interest normally starts accruing immediately on BTs, but as this was supposed to be 0% APR on BTs, I'm not really sure where this is coming from, and especially not a $38 interest charge. According to my statement, interest on BTs outside of the intro period would be 17.99%, which to me would mean roughly a $2.70 interest charge. I looked over the user agreement again, and didn't see anything related to interest on BT fees during a 0% promo period, nor did I see anything that would justify that much interest on the $180 fee. Even if I assumed they were charging interest on the entire balance, the math doesn't work on that either, as the interest would be around $92 that way.

Am I missing something here, or should I be calling back tomorrow morning and escalating this issue? It's not a huge amount, and it's still far less interest than I would have been paying on the card I transferred from, but I still don't like not having a full understanding of what's going on here.

EDIT: I also got the Everyday card, and did a BT of around $4000 on that one (yeah, I was a dumb butt, and racked up WAY too much credit card debt). Statement has cut on that one too, and there are zero interest charges on that card, despite having made a couple small actual purchases on that card. I really think something goofy is going on with the BCE card...

I have to say that this is a first for me. I really do hope someone can chime in and offer you some advice as I've never experienced this. I thought with BT promo's you paid whatever the transfer fee was (if there was one) up front and then interest didn't start until after the promo period. I know that isn't the same with some store card that will charge interest back to the date of purchase if you don't pay the entire promo balance off by the time the offer expires.

I will be following this thread because this has truly peaked by interest and I certainly want to see how others weigh in on this. Nonetheless, I hope you get this taken care of or at least a better understanding of what's going on. Good luck!

Re: Amex charged an entire year's worth of interest in 1 month on BT fee?

Anonymous — Tue, 31 Oct 2017 11:45:10 GMT

I dont think that is correct.

I'd call back and push for a supervisor. The issue (in my experience) with the Blue products is that CSRs seem to be ESL, and are hard to communicate with. This could make the process of explaining the issue even more tough.

I recently did a BT with Amex and my expereince is what you expected. I see only principal charges on my statement, and the interest disclosure shows the BT rate of 0% and the date frame for it.

Re: Amex charged an entire year's worth of interest in 1 month on BT fee?

MrDisco99 — Tue, 31 Oct 2017 11:48:31 GMT

Yeah they screwed something up. You need to call them back and have them fix it.

Re: Amex charged an entire year's worth of interest in 1 month on BT fee?

Anonymous — Tue, 31 Oct 2017 17:45:58 GMT

Something is not adding up. Did you have a balance on that card before you did the BT? If so, and that balance was the $3k something you mention, they are adding the interest on that balance you previously had. Say you had a balance of $17k, statement closes on 10/31 and pay it to $0 balance on 10/28, the account will be $0, but once the statement closes on 10/31, you will incur the interest accumulated from 10/1 through 10/28. If you didn't have a balance before the BT or any other charges whatsoever, then yes, talk to a sup.

Re: Amex charged an entire year's worth of interest in 1 month on BT fee?

Anonymous — Tue, 31 Oct 2017 19:06:43 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Something is not adding up. Did you have a balance on that card before you did the BT? If so, and that balance was the $3k something you mention, they are adding the interest on that balance you previously had. Say you had a balance of $17k, statement closes on 10/31 and pay it to $0 balance on 10/28, the account will be $0, but once the statement closes on 10/31, you will incur the interest accumulated from 10/1 through 10/28. If you didn't have a balance before the BT or any other charges whatsoever, then yes, talk to a sup.

Even in that scenario, there would not be any interest if I am reading it correctly. If he had a balance of 17k and paid it off to a $0 balance 3 days before the next statement cut, then there would not be any interest accrued. He would have only accrued interest if he did not pay off the full previous statement balance (which I am assuming is 17k in your scenario).

If he paid 15k on 10/28 with a 17k statement balance, then I could see interest being added because he did not pay the full statement balance.

Am I missing something...? Not trying to call anybody out, just making sure that I am understanding the above example correctly for myself.

Re: Amex charged an entire year's worth of interest in 1 month on BT fee?

HeavenOhio — Tue, 31 Oct 2017 19:27:55 GMT

I think the OP is in the intro period that has 0% interest on both purchases and balance transfers. If that's the case, there shouldn't be interest at all, no matter what the payment pattern is.

Re: Amex charged an entire year's worth of interest in 1 month on BT fee?

Starting_Over2013 — Tue, 31 Oct 2017 21:57:57 GMT

Definitely incorrect. Since you said that you have nothing else on the card, aside from the bt, there should be no interest at this point. Absolutely contact card services again and emphasize the 0% intro rate!

Re: Amex charged an entire year's worth of interest in 1 month on BT fee?

urbex — Wed, 01 Nov 2017 00:40:14 GMT

For reference, I just got this card last month, and there has been zero use of the BCE card outside of this BT. I may have confused the details when I said I used the Everyday card for a couple small purchases, as opposed to the Blue Cash Everyday card that I have this oddball interest charge on, and both cards were applied/approved same day in September of this year.

Everyday card - 1bt, 2 purchases

Blue Cash Everyday - 1 BT, 0 purchases.

I just got off the phone with Amex again, and this time around the CSR immediately agreed that this was an issue, and there shouldn't be any interest as the 0% promo period applied to both purchases and balance transfers. She gave me a credit for the amount of the interest, and said that she is also submitting a ticket to escalate the issue to determine why it happened in the first place. I also mentioned to her the $3000 and change number that's listed as purchases subject to interest which shouldn't be there, along with only $93 and change showing up as a balance transfer subject to interest at the end of the promo period. I'll make sure to watch the account closely this month and next to ensure that it was properly taken care of.

Thanks for all the responses, and agreeing that I haven't (completely) lost my marbles yet, lol

Re: Amex charged an entire year's worth of interest in 1 month on BT fee?

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Nov 2017 01:17:48 GMT

Please call customer service and escalate this to an account supervisor. The BT was not coded correctly and the back-office will need to transfer the balance from Standard APR to Balance Transfer. This can happen on rare occasion but is fixable and the improperly-charged interest will be reversed.

Re: Amex charged an entire year's worth of interest in 1 month on BT fee?

noobody — Wed, 01 Nov 2017 12:34:27 GMT

@urbex wrote:

I called AMEX, and the representative claimed it was interest on balance transfer fee, and at first she said it would be a 1 time thing, but then after further questioning, she said it would continue to accrue unless I paid the minimum payment plus the $180 BT fee, plus the $38.57 interest this month. I questioned the $3129.24 "purchase balance", and she said this is all because AMEX doesn't have a specific category for interest on BT fees.

It amazing how CSR can just make up a story like that.

That's make me wonder how JD power can rank Amex #1 or #2 of best credit card issuer every year!

Re: Amex charged an entire year's worth of interest in 1 month on BT fee?

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Nov 2017 18:11:42 GMT

Did you get this resolve OP

Re: Amex charged an entire year's worth of interest in 1 month on BT fee?

urbex — Wed, 01 Nov 2017 18:25:17 GMT

Logged in today, and see that the current balance does show that interest amount as having been removed, and it appears that there's an open dispute, though I can't see the details of it.

I'd imagine it will be resolved in a day or two, and my payment isn't due until mid month. I suppose what will really be interesting is whether my minimum payment will be affected by this (as in it should go down), but it will just be academic at that point as I already have quite a bit more than the minimum scheduled to be paid on it.

Re: Amex charged an entire year's worth of interest in 1 month on BT fee?

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Nov 2017 18:27:59 GMT

It will likely take more than a day or two to be honest. The good news though is that the balance is in suspense while it's being worked on, so it will not be counted into your minimum due or accrue interest while being worked on. Interest will only be waived after everything is resolved as to do it in as few transactions as possible. Apologies for the inconveniences you're experiencing.

Re: Amex charged an entire year's worth of interest in 1 month on BT fee?

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Nov 2017 19:02:17 GMT

Hopefully good news when all of this is over!!

Re: Amex charged an entire year's worth of interest in 1 month on BT fee?

urbex — Wed, 01 Nov 2017 19:08:00 GMT

I knew it would take a bit. CSR said 24-72 hours, I was just replying to c00mtg as to whether or not it was resolved yet. I did notice though that my minimum payment is still set at $100, when I was thinking it should have been $62 once that interest was taken out. Perhaps it will change once the dispute is over and the interest is removed from the account altogether.

Re: Amex charged an entire year's worth of interest in 1 month on BT fee?

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Nov 2017 19:22:07 GMT

Yes, hopefully.

If they started the dispute (not you), they most likely see something is not right, and if you caught it, you must know what you're talking about

Re: Amex charged an entire year's worth of interest in 1 month on BT fee?

urbex — Wed, 01 Nov 2017 19:28:30 GMT

Honestly, the only reason I caught it was that I was looking over the statement to see if they listed the date that the promotional period expired so I could make calendar reminders to review the balances at that point. That's when I noticed that there was a balance subject to interest, and looked deeper. I did initially think the minimum payment was a bit on the high side, but knowing not every creditor has the same percentage as a minimum, I just assumed AMEX was higher than most other cards, or had something like $100 or X%, whichever is greater. It wasn't until I looked at the Everyday card statement that I realized something was goofy there too.

EDIT: I should rephrase that. I saw that the minimum on the Everyday card was 1% of the balance, thus that made me question the $100 minimum on the Blue Cash card, as that wasn't 1% of the balance on the BCE card.

Re: Amex charged an entire year's worth of interest in 1 month on BT fee?

Anonymous — Wed, 01 Nov 2017 21:41:30 GMT

Got cha!