Chase Sapphire Credit Card Issue

Anonymous · ‎03-19-2019

Hi all,

I'm trying to figure out if this is legit....I paid one personal loan payment with my Chase card back in Feb 2018. The amount was $590.79. Chase put it through as a cash advance on my March statement. I called to find out why and they said that because I hadn't actually purchased something, it was considered a cash advance. I figured that I just didn't read the agreement well enough and I learned a lesson never to pay the loan with it again.

Forward to yesterday...I looked at my statement and I'm still getting hit with interest on this cash advance which is now up to $820.65 between the payment and interest. I called to ask why my "cash advance" amount keeps going up and asked how my payments are being applied every month. I was told that only amounts over the minimum due gets applied to cash advances. I asked where to see that in writing because it is not on my statement. She acknowledged that it is in fact not listed anywhere.

I asked again why the loan payment was put through as a cash advance and I was told that the loan company sent it as a cash transaction. I asked how a cash transaction could happen when the credit card was clearly used for the payment... She had no answer.

As of yesterday, my CL decreased from $6000 to $2800

So I guess my questions are:

A. Do I have any leg to stand on to dispute this since it is a year old now.

B. Has this happened to anyone else?

C. Any advice on what to do?

Remedios · ‎03-19-2019

@Anonymous wrote:
Hi all,
I'm trying to figure out if this is legit....I paid one personal loan payment with my Chase card back in Feb 2018. The amount was $590.79. Chase put it through as a cash advance on my March statement. I called to find out why and they said that because I hadn't actually purchased something, it was considered a cash advance. I figured that I just didn't read the agreement well enough and I learned a lesson never to pay the loan with it again.

Forward to yesterday...I looked at my statement and I'm still getting hit with interest on this cash advance which is now up to $820.65 between the payment and interest. I called to ask why my "cash advance" amount keeps going up and asked how my payments are being applied every month. I was told that only amounts over the minimum due gets applied to cash advances. I asked where to see that in writing because it is not on my statement. She acknowledged that it is in fact not listed anywhere.

I asked again why the loan payment was put through as a cash advance and I was told that the loan company sent it as a cash transaction. I asked how a cash transaction could happen when the credit card was clearly used for the payment... She had no answer.

As of yesterday, my CL decreased from $6000 to $2800

So I guess my questions are:
A. Do I have any leg to stand on to dispute this since it is a year old now.
B. Has this happened to anyone else?
C. Any advice on what to do?

I dont know why CSR told you that because that's a common practice and it's included in card memeber agreement

https://www.chase.com/content/feed/public/creditcards/cma/Chase/COL00057.pdf

Anonymous · ‎03-19-2019

Yes, I did pull up the agreement before and now I understand how the payments are applied. I have no issue making more than minimum now but I really don't think this should have been considered a cash advance in the first place.

I will be going over to a Chase branch shortly to go over the issue.

Anonymous · ‎03-19-2019

Forget what may or may not be on your monthly statement.

The credit card agreement you assented to when you were approved for the card is what is legally binding. Here's a link to a Sapphire card agreement. Most of your questions appear to be addressed on Page 5 of the agreement.

A cash advance will usually have a higher APR. It appears you were making only minimum or just above minimum payments which were being applied to your Purchases balance, so the Cash advance balance continued to accumulate interest. That would also explain why you experienced adverse action with your credit limit decreased to $2,800.

I'm also curious how you managed to make a payment on a personal loan with a credit card.

Anonymous · ‎03-19-2019

Thank you for the info on the payment applications....I did read it before so that cleared up one of my questions. My real concern is the cash advance. After reading the agreement regarding cash advances, my transaction clearly was not one. I'm going to a Chase branch now to sit down with someone who can look into it.

Anonymous · ‎03-19-2019

It depends on how the loan company coded the transaction; some will code it as a purchase but in most instances it will be coded as a cash advance. You can find an approximation of which financial institutions code credit card payments as cash transactions here: https://www.doctorofcredit.com/does-funding-a-bank-account-with-a-credit-card-count-as-a-purchase-or...

Anonymous · ‎03-19-2019

I'm not sure why your're still paying on $590.79 purchase to begin with, let alone it being a CA. While it does suck that this happened, it has been discussed in several threads that these types of payment wills code as a CA. I would have researched it prior to making the payement.

Google is your friend.

Your best course would to have PIF back when the statemet posted, and you first learned of it. Your second best course would to PIF now, before anymore interest is added. Not to mention possibly more AA.

If you are unable to PIF, I suggest doing a short term BT to another card to rid yourself of this situation.

best of luck to you.

Anonymous · ‎03-19-2019

You used your card like it was cash to pay another debt. I don’t understand how you think this isn’t the definition of a cash advance transaction?

Anonymous · ‎03-19-2019

Interesting scenarios here. Never heard of this — new to me, as well!

Isn’t that what all payments are on a credit card? Using a credit card to pay another debt?

Utilities, streaming services — all amounts due, therefore a debt that must be paid. Is it because it’s not a recurring monthly charge that it’s coded as a cash advance?

Anonymous · ‎03-19-2019

Just take it as a lesson learned. Just put your regular spend on other cards for now. In the meantime, just try to pay off the chase card. Don’t forget you may have trailing interest after you pay it off. It will show up on the following statement after being paid off (or you can estimate and overpay from your bank’s bill pay system).