topic Re: Care Credit cautionary tale in Credit Cards

Care Credit cautionary tale

dlister70 — Fri, 20 Sep 2024 11:55:50 GMT

I'm really glad that I went back and checked on my promotional balance that is soon to expire. I made a payment that SHOULD have paid it off, but the way that Care Credit applied the payment made it so that I still had some promotional balance left. I took screenshots when I made the payment, because this isn't the first time that something shady has happened with Care Credit.

I thought that this was actually illegal for them to do. I realized what had happened when I was looking up the credit card act.

The Credit CARD Act of 2009 stipulates that any excess payments you make (amounts higher than your minimum payment) should be credited towards the balance with the highest APR. If there is any amount leftover, this will be applied to the balance with the second highest rate of interest.

I had a balance of $303.54 left. I paid $353.54 a couple of days ago. So I thought that should have paid off the $303.54 and then had $50 extra to go towards the next promotional balance. Instead they put $80 towards the next one, and left $30 on the one that is expiring in 12 days! The picture shows the balances on the 18th when I made the payment, and the balances this morning once the payment was applied.

Then I realized that my minimum payment was $80. So they had applied my minimum payment to the second balance ( just because they could I guess), and only put the excess payment on the first balance that is coming up due in 12 days. Since I went back and caught it this morning, I paid another $30, and will check again in a couple days. In order to pay it off, I would have had to make a payment of $80 + promotional balance.

If I hadn't checked up on it, I would have owed another $248.97 in deferred interest on October 3rd, even though I made a payment that was more than the balance due. It wasn't "more enough".

Re: Care Credit cautionary tale

MySunrise271 — Fri, 20 Sep 2024 13:21:43 GMT

@dlister70 wrote:
I'm really glad that I went back and checked on my promotional balance that is soon to expire. I made a payment that SHOULD have paid it off, but the way that Care Credit applied the payment made it so that I still had some promotional balance left. I took screenshots when I made the payment, because this isn't the first time that something shady has happened with Care Credit.

I thought that this was actually illegal for them to do. I realized what had happened when I was looking up the credit card act.

The Credit CARD Act of 2009 stipulates that any excess payments you make (amounts higher than your minimum payment) should be credited towards the balance with the highest APR. If there is any amount leftover, this will be applied to the balance with the second highest rate of interest.

I had a balance of $303.54 left. I paid $353.54 a couple of days ago. So I thought that should have paid off the $303.54 and then had $50 extra to go towards the next promotional balance. Instead they put $80 towards the next one, and left $30 on the one that is expiring in 12 days! The picture shows the balances on the 18th when I made the payment, and the balances this morning once the payment was applied.

Then I realized that my minimum payment was $80. So they had applied my minimum payment to the second balance ( just because they could I guess), and only put the excess payment on the first balance that is coming up due in 12 days. Since I went back and caught it this morning, I paid another $30, and will check again in a couple days. In order to pay it off, I would have had to make a payment of $80 + promotional balance.

I would have owed it if I hadn't checked up on it. I also received another $248.97 in deferred interest on October 3rd, even though I made a payment that was more than the balance due. It wasn't "more enough".

Whenever I have run 2 promotional offers on my Lowes credit card, I make the dual payment and once I see it has posted I've called to ask them to spilt the payment as I wish. There is a feature on the Synchrony website to enable this up but I think its a set amount to split between promotional balances. When I call and ask for my preference of how I want each dollar amount allocated, it is usually updated in 2 days.

Re: Care Credit cautionary tale

TrapLine — Fri, 20 Sep 2024 19:38:54 GMT

Sure makes me wonder if this is all about catching you and slapping on the full interest over the life of the promotion?

Sucks!