topic Re: Residual Interest in Credit Cards

Residual Interest

Anonymous — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 21:31:43 GMT

Hi,

I've had a Bank of America Signature World Points Visa for 8 years. In 8 years, I've carried balances of up to $13,000, always paying the balances off. In 8 years I never missed a payment, once. I never made a late payment, not once. In October, I paid off a $7800 balance completely. I paid the entire statement balance off. The online balance read $0.00. In November, they charged me $24 in residual interest. I thought the card was paid off, so I wasn't logging into my account, and I didn't notice until last night that this balance existed. I immediately called them. It took me directly to collections. I explained the situation, paid the $24, etc. The agent informed me that they closed my account 10 days ago and reported "account closure due to delinquency" to the credit bureau. I insisted to speak with a manager. However, they won't even talk to me because I no longer have an account. I tried to explain that in 8 years I never missed a payment and that I felt that I was at least owed a phone call or letter before closing the account and they disagreed. I also explained that I have over 28,000 points on the card worth $250, so technically, I wasn't in debt to them at all and in fact, they owe me money. Again, they said "no"--because the account was closed due to non-payment, they will not distribute my points or my money.

I am wondering: (1) which department I should attempt to call to see if anything can be done, (2) if there are other avenues I can pursue to address this.

Any ideas or thoughts you have are appreciated.

Re: Residual Interest

Anonymous — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 21:37:40 GMT

I would also try posting this in the rebuilding section of this forum.

Have you tried talking with a branch near by? If you have been one of their loyal customers and they see you fairly often, they may fight on your side. Even if you don't have a checking account with them, I think it would be worth talking to somebody in person. See if the bank manager can give them a call.

Re: Residual Interest

nada9188 — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 21:42:06 GMT

Wow..

The residual interest is valid, however it is a bank fee, not a purchase. Most CCC's will not report a balance delinquent or enforce AA if it is only from their fees. That being said, I suppose since the interest is valid, they are in the right, if their terms are written as such.

If you feel you were never contacted, let them know you stopped receiving statements and would like a reinstatement.

I am sure others will chime in here on who to get in touch with otherwise.

Re: Residual Interest

Anonymous — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 21:45:35 GMT

@nada9188 wrote:
Wow..

The residual interest is valid, however it is a bank fee, not a purchase. Most CCC's will not report a balance delinquent or enforce AA if it is only from their fees. That being said, I suppose since the interest is valid, they are in the right, if their terms are written as such.

If you feel you were never contacted, let them know you stopped receiving statements and would like a reinstatement.

I am sure others will chime in here on who to get in touch with otherwise.

I would keep calling every number you can find until you got someone to help you, if you're story is accurate you should be able to get someone to help you. do you have a branch nearby? if so going to the branch manager might help!

Re: Residual Interest

pastnow123 — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 21:59:19 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Hi,

I've had a Bank of America Signature World Points Visa for 8 years. In 8 years, I've carried balances of up to $13,000, always paying the balances off. In 8 years I never missed a payment, once. I never made a late payment, not once. In October, I paid off a $7800 balance completely. I paid the entire statement balance off. The online balance read $0.00. In November, they charged me $24 in residual interest. I thought the card was paid off, so I wasn't logging into my account, and I didn't notice until last night that this balance existed. I immediately called them. It took me directly to collections. I explained the situation, paid the $24, etc. The agent informed me that they closed my account 10 days ago and reported "account closure due to delinquency" to the credit bureau. I insisted to speak with a manager. However, they won't even talk to me because I no longer have an account. I tried to explain that in 8 years I never missed a payment and that I felt that I was at least owed a phone call or letter before closing the account and they disagreed. I also explained that I have over 28,000 points on the card worth $250, so technically, I wasn't in debt to them at all and in fact, they owe me money. Again, they said "no"--because the account was closed due to non-payment, they will not distribute my points or my money.

I am wondering: (1) which department I should attempt to call to see if anything can be done, (2) if there are other avenues I can pursue to address this.

Any ideas or thoughts you have are appreciated.

If calling won't resolve the issue, I strongly suggest writing complaining letter to their executives.It won't hurt you anyway and most of time it does lead to good result.

Re: Residual Interest

Anonymous — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 23:15:23 GMT

Wow, I am sorry to hear about this.
You definitely need to keep calling until they resolve this for you. As much as they can try to justify this, I think it's unreasonable to screw over a paying customer of 2+ years over a mere $24.

Definitely drop by a branch and ask to talk to a banker or manager. Don't blow up on them though, since you will need them to help u call the relevant departments to appeal your case.

Do you have a checking or savings account with them? If u do, mention it as well in your calls and appeals. It will help greatly.

If you cant be bothered with jumping past all kinds of hoops, i would just tell them to remove all that delinquent notices and negative reports they did, pay the $24 and whatever associated late fees and be done with it. Hopefully they can at least budge on that.

Re: Residual Interest

honky — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 23:22:46 GMT

This happened to me from a Cap1 account 2006. The 120 late is still on my cr for a couple months. I didnt know much about credit at that time and thought when I paid my balance to $0.00 that I didnt have to look at the bills any longer. I mistakenly felt helpless and just ignored it.

I am sure you will be able to get this taken care of with Chase--I would definitely email the executive offices. I read many success stories going that route. Dont ever give up on this like I did!

Re: Residual Interest

linux007969 — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 23:29:53 GMT

What kind of crap is this? If you pay off your card to zero and dont charge anymore they can't all of a sudden charge you interest and then shutdown your account, there's gotta be more to your post cuz that's just illegal otherwise.

Re: Residual Interest

Anonymous — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 23:40:12 GMT

When u pay in full, depending what day into the cycle when you paid, there's still a few days to few weeks worth of interests for that cycle. I'm guessing the fee is from that.

It is legal. I learned about this from Macy's a few years ago when I was surprised I saw them charging me interests when I paid in full. They told me since I paid on the last day of cycle, I had to pay a few weeks worth of interests. Not a lot of fees, but still considered as money owed to bank.

As a result of that, Macy's reported a 30 day late payment onto my credit report for 92 cents owed. They refused to remove the late no matter what so I have been living with it.

Re: Residual Interest

Anonymous — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 23:41:05 GMT

@linux007969 wrote:
What kind of crap is this? If you pay off your card to zero and dont charge anymore they can't all of a sudden charge you interest and then shutdown your account, there's gotta be more to your post cuz that's just illegal otherwise.

if you have been carrying a balance, even though you payoff your statement balance you are going to owe them for the interest you accrued between the statement you paid off and you're next statement. it's call residual interest

Re: Residual Interest

linux007969 — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 23:45:38 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@linux007969 wrote:
What kind of crap is this? If you pay off your card to zero and dont charge anymore they can't all of a sudden charge you interest and then shutdown your account, there's gotta be more to your post cuz that's just illegal otherwise.
if you have been carrying a balance, even though you payoff your statement balance you are going to owe them for the interest you accrued between the statement you paid off and you're next statement. it's call residual interest

If you pay it off they shouldn't be able to get away with this, and then if they do what happens the following cycle, i mean are they allowed to charge you interest on the interest? I would fight this all the way to the executive office and blast their facebook till they fix it and remove the illegal charge in my opinion.

Re: Residual Interest

Anonymous — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 23:52:22 GMT

They are allowed to charge u interests, late fees and all kinds of dumb fees on interests. Works this way for every bank loan.

Makes no sense, but this is how banks work to screw people over.

Re: Residual Interest

linux007969 — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 23:55:54 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
They are allowed to charge u interests, late fees and all kinds of dumb fees on interests. Works this way for every bank loan.

Makes no sense, but this is how banks work to screw people over.

I know they can charge you interest but what they can't do it charge you after you paid in full and stopped using your card for a few days or more.

Re: Residual Interest

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 00:04:54 GMT

What they charged him for right now, is interests for the time period between his statement date, and the time he paid.

Technically it's like u been carrying a balance from the money borrowed that due in 30 days but u paid on the 29th day. Technically u owe interests on those 29 days.

If it were your friend who loaned u the money, Common human decency would tell him not to charge u interests for those 29 days. But banks aren't exactly your BFF so they charge u interests.

I got screwed the same way by Macy's, though its not as extreme as op.

Re: Residual Interest

linux007969 — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 00:29:00 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
What they charged him for right now, is interests for the time period between his statement date, and the time he paid.

Technically it's like u been carrying a balance from the money borrowed that due in 30 days but u paid on the 29th day. Technically u owe interests on those 29 days.

If it were your friend who loaned u the money, Common human decency would tell him not to charge u interests for those 29 days. But banks aren't exactly your BFF so they charge u interests.

I got screwed the same way by Macy's, though its not as extreme as op.

Ok I think i get it, but ya they should have no reason to close the account just cuz ya owe them another interest charge, i mean if you owe them money and intend to pay by the due date they shouldnt shut you down like that or did op not pay by the due date?

Re: Residual Interest

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 00:36:25 GMT

He probably wasn't expecting anymore charges from boa, didn't get any statements or disregarded them since he was expecting a zero balance. However, it was not at zero balance, so he had to make at least minimum payment which he didn't. Eventually it became 30, then 60, then 90 day late and went into collections as it remains unpaid. There's probably a crapload of late fees, interest fee on that interests he owed, ca fees and all that crap that got bundled into the total sum CAs are trying to collect from him now. It's ugly, but hopefully BofA is going to be accommodating to him since he's been a customer for 2 years. He even had the signature visa too.

Re: Residual Interest

youngandcreditwrthy — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 18:40:43 GMT

Isn't there a 25-30 day grace period in which no interest charge? "Float" if you will?

Check your cardmember agreement op!!

Re: Residual Interest

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 19:16:38 GMT

As others have said, this is almost universal on bank loans, and, contrary to opinions here, really makes sense.

This is the hidden danger of carrying a balance (or cash advance for that matter). What you need to understand is that the statement is merely a snapshot of what you owe at that moment. If you are just making purchases, and PIF before the due date, it is also a complete statement of what you owe, because of the grace periods. But in any other circumstances, it isn't!

Re: Residual Interest

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 19:51:08 GMT

@youngandcreditwrthy wrote:
Isn't there a 25-30 day grace period in which no interest charge? "Float" if you will?

Check your cardmember agreement op!!

NO, if you don't pay your balance in FULL the grace period goes away. the OP stated he had been carrying a balance.

For example if you had been carrying a balance for say 6 months, you're statement cuts on the 15th and you PIF on the 25th. You still owe them for the interest on your balance between the 15th and the 25th. that interest charge will be on your next statement

Re: Residual Interest

Simply827 — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 20:02:47 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@youngandcreditwrthy wrote:
Isn't there a 25-30 day grace period in which no interest charge? "Float" if you will?

Check your cardmember agreement op!!
NO, if you don't pay your balance in FULL the grace period goes away. the OP stated he had been carrying a balance.

For example if you had been carrying a balance for say 6 months, you're statement cuts on the 15th and you PIF on the 25th. You still owe them for the interest on your balance between the 15th and the 25th. that interest charge will be on your next statement

Why wouldn't the charge for that interest show up in the "Current Balance" Line? Do they not formally charge it until the next statement cuts?

I'm glad I'm learning about this. I'll be sure to check my accounts even after I PIF.