Ally new interest charges?

[pbtxlady]

I always pay my Ally acct in full. But when I got my statement last month (12/3), it showed a balance of $1.50 because they added a fee. Had to read the fine print to discover it was a "minimum interest fee." This is new. This month, I again paid in full, checked the night before statement cut to be sure. Still, there was an interest charge/statement balance of $1.52. Apparently they are now charging interest on any purchase from the day of the transaction, with a minimum amount. 

If you use the card even once during the cycle, and since they don't allow any advance payments that create a credit balance, it is no longer possible to have a statement with a $0 balance. They have a promo interest rate of 9% until July, and I guess they thought that'd make up for it, but I don't usually pay interest.  So much for AZEO. I'm disappointed--this has been a great card for my rebuild. 

Anyone else getting this? 

[Patient957]

I have 2 Ally cards, Platinum and the Everyday Cash Back.  Neither has changed for me, at least not yet.

They were both great cards during my rebuild, so I agree with you about that.  Both no AF, so unless they get nerfed like yours, I'm planning to keep them both indefinitely.

Did they send you a letter or email telling you they were ending the grace period?  

That's a huge nerf.  For me it would be intolerable. I would close the account if they won't change it back.

[zerofire]

The minimum interest fee is charged when you have lost your grace period and are racking up interest. It is only charged if the interest amount is too small aka under $1.50 on that cards statement. For example if you had only a few pennies of interest they get to charge $1.50 instead. I would seriously look into this card and see what you can do to bring it to absolute zero to reset the grace period. Also you can consider looking into why the computer did not count your payment in full to see what is going on. If you have to you can call Ally to see if they can help sort it out.

[pbtxlady]

Hmmm. I guess I don't know what "lost your grace period" means. Nor do I know why I'd lose it. Like I said, this acct has been paid in full most of the 3 years I've had it (it was an Ollo card). No late payments ever.

I rarely hear from them. The only thing I've gotten from them recently is one email "reminding me" that I had a promo interest rate of 9% until July. Ignored it since I don't carry a balance. There was another email telling me I could now add an AU, but that's all it said. Haven't gotten anything else. 

Since I haven't done anything differently, I don't know how I can bring it to absolute zero. I paid the full balance in Nov, but the minimum fee still appeared. Did the same in Dec, and checked it again the night before statement cut to be sure, only to see an interest charge the next day. I will certainly call them, though, if this isn't happening to everyone. Thanks for the info.

[Anonymous]

Generally it will take two pay-in-full periods to reset the grace period, and it sounds like you have done that now.  But probably shouldn't wait until Jan statement to see if that fixed the issue!   If you really have paid in full for several of the last statements, there should be no interest and you need to call.    

[AndySoCal]

The only time I have seen the minimum interest charge was on a US Bank credit card. The problem  was mine the statement balance was  142.00 and entered 124.00 into bill pay. Some banks offer ebills  to be setup in bill pay. Bill pay gives you the option to pay in fill or choose another amount.  Not ball banks offer this option. I know Ally and Discover do there may be more than those 2.

[Anonymous]

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@AndySoCal wrote:

The only time I have seen the minimum interest charge was on a US Bank credit card. The problem  was mine the statement balance was  142.00 and entered 124.00 into bill pay. Some banks offer ebills  to be setup in bill pay. Bill pay gives you the option to pay in fill or choose another amount.  Not ball banks offer this option. I know Ally and Discover do there may be more than those 2.

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I think every card I have has a minimum interest charge in the agreement.   It basically states that IF interest is charged, it will not be less than $X.   It doesn't mean we will always charge at least $X, even if no interest is due!

[AndySoCal]

@AnonymousIn the example given there would be 18.00 on which interest would charged. Hence the reason for the minimum interest charge.

[Bigmacwalker]

Yes. Same thing with me. Charged  $1.50 for 2 months now because of the lower apr spending promo. Always have paid this card off quickly right after I get my statement notification. There's no reason I should have received a min interest fee!!! That's $3 dollars they took!

What happened in your situation? Did they refund the charges?

[pbtxlady]

No, I didn't ever call them, so didn't ask for a refund. I let a statement cycle go by with no new charges, and my new statement shows a $0 balance, as it should. 

I re-read the terms on this card, and it states very clearly that there should be no interest charge if the balance is PIF by the payment date. There's some additional mumbo-jumbo about how they will reverse charges and re-enter them if they are pending when the statement cuts. I noticed that two small charges had shown up and then been reversed, and I wondered why. They've never done that before. But I was looking at the activity, not the statement, and it was not clear the charges weren't included in the balance. It looks like they re-posted between payment due date and statement cut and got their fee that way. That's all I can think of. And still don't know how they could do it for two months. 

Since this card has been sold off, it's probably going to be sock-drawered anyway. I hate that they did that. It's my oldest card so I don't want to close it, but.