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Fully paid of Discover, Still no grace period

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anonyman
Established Member

Fully paid of Discover, Still no grace period

Hello Everyone

 

I haven't been really active for the past few years but do come and check these forums from time to time for answers. I have an issue and was wondering if anyone knew what was going on.

 

1. I fully paid of Discover before the due date hoping to get the grace period. 

2. As soon as the statement changes, I see a balance of $20 from my previous billing cycle.

 

This means that I have to pay $20 on Apr-20 instead of $0 and don't have any grace even after fully paying off my statement balance. I did this earlier this month with Mercury Card and that worked perfectly. I paid it off in full, next statement balance is $0 and I have grace. With Discover, this is not the case.

 

What just happened here and did they just throw something in there to prevent me from getting my grace? 

Message 1 of 12
11 REPLIES 11
Adkins
Legendary Contributor

Re: Fully paid of Discover, Still no grace period


@anonyman wrote:

Hello Everyone

 

I haven't been really active for the past few years but do come and check these forums from time to time for answers. I have an issue and was wondering if anyone knew what was going on.

 

1. I fully paid of Discover before the due date hoping to get the grace period. 

2. As soon as the statement changes, I see a balance of $20 from my previous billing cycle.

 

This means that I have to pay $20 on Apr-20 instead of $0 and don't have any grace even after fully paying off my statement balance. I did this earlier this month with Mercury Card and that worked perfectly. I paid it off in full, next statement balance is $0 and I have grace. With Discover, this is not the case.

 

What just happened here and did they just throw something in there to prevent me from getting my grace? 


If you carried a balance on the previous statement then it's probably trailing interest. You'll need to call them and ask what the total amount due is, plus the interest, then pay that in full. Your grace period should return the following month. 


Last HP 08-07-2023



Message 2 of 12
anonyman
Established Member

Re: Fully paid of Discover, Still no grace period

Hello

I have been carrying balance but did not make any purchases on that card for a few months. 

 

From my statement

Paying Interest. Your due date is at least 25 days after the close of each billing period
(at least 23 days for billing periods that begin in February). We will not charge you any
interest on Purchases if you pay your entire balance by the due date each month. We
will begin charging interest on Cash Advances and Balance Transfers as of the later of
the TransactionDate or the first day of the billing period in which the transaction
posted to your Account.

 

From my understanding, if the Discover does not charge any interest if the balance is paid off by the due date, which I did.

 

Furthermore, I tried to pay $40 extra, I owed $1459 and tried to pay an even $1500 but the system would not accept any payment over the statement balance.

 

Message 3 of 12
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Fully paid of Discover, Still no grace period


@anonyman wrote:

Hello

I have been carrying balance but did not make any purchases on that card for a few months. 

 

From my statement

Paying Interest. Your due date is at least 25 days after the close of each billing period
(at least 23 days for billing periods that begin in February). We will not charge you any
interest on Purchases if you pay your entire balance by the due date each month. We
will begin charging interest on Cash Advances and Balance Transfers as of the later of
the TransactionDate or the first day of the billing period in which the transaction
posted to your Account.

 

From my understanding, if the Discover does not charge any interest if the balance is paid off by the due date, which I did.

 

Furthermore, I tried to pay $40 extra, I owed $1459 and tried to pay an even $1500 but the system would not accept any payment over the statement balance.

 


You stated you carried a balance for months.  That's why you're getting charged interest.  What you're quoting (which is pretty basic terms), as far as I'm aware, is in regards to if you started the month with a $0 balance, charged $X and then paid $X before your statement cuts - which isn't what you did.  Per your logic (text can be a mofo, not trying to be rude), one could carry a $10000+ balance for months, PIF and not expect to pay a cent of interest that month on it because all of a sudden they PIF before that statement cut.  Doesn't work that way.

As for over paying them, the only way you can do it (and pretty much anyone else that I'm aware of) is by calling them, which Discover will do 10% over what is owed.  You can push payment from your bank and/or do a balance transfer as well for over what is owed.  


EDIT:  Also wanted to add since I did read something on this recently, but memory is garbage and sure someone else can correct me.  But most banks require a statement or something of $0 before the grace period is re-enabled after interest has been charged.  Again, not 100% sure on this.  Recall reading something about this recently.

Message 4 of 12
anonyman
Established Member

Re: Fully paid of Discover, Still no grace period

Hello

 

You stated you carried a balance for months.  That's why you're getting charged interest.

Understood, but doesn't Discover's terms waive trailing interest or residual interest when paid off. I just looked and found an update to my terms and conditions in my account effective Feb-01-20. 

 

How to Avoid Paying Interest on Purchases ("Grace Period"). If you pay the New Balance on
your current billing statement by the Payment Due Date shown on that billing statement, we will
not impose interest charges on New Purchases. New Purchases are Purchases that first appear on
Page 3 of 4
the next billing statement. Interest will continue to accrue each day on Purchases that appeared
on previous billing statements until you pay the New Balance in full and will be billed in the next
billing cycle.

 

So then technically to get the grace for Discover, you are saying that one would need to CALL DISCOVER and get the actual payoff for that current day, then use some other sort of method to pay them besides their site payment? WOW. 

 

I'm waiting for my statement to generate and will call them in the morning. 

 

I never knew this about Discover.

 

 

On a second note, I paid off MercuryCards also and had a balance before that and the statement showed a $0 balance as it should after paying that off.

 

From MercuryCards statement

How to Avoid Paying Interest on Purchases: Your due date is at least 23 days after the close of each Billing Period. You will not be charged
interest on Purchases in a Billing Period in which you pay the New Balance in full by the Payment Due Date. If you don't pay your New Balance in full
by the Payment Due Date in a Billing Period, you'll pay interest on existing Purchases, and new Purchases in that billing period, from the date they post
to your Account, subject to applicable law. You will pay interest on Balance Transfers and Cash Advances from the date these Transactions post to
your Account

 

 

 

Message 5 of 12
NRB525
Super Contributor

Re: Fully paid of Discover, Still no grace period

Nearly all banks will do this. If Mercury does not, they are in the minority. Capital One also does not charge the Trailing Interest on the last statement when you pay off an interest-generating balance. 

The solution is to pay the full balance, $20 right now, if it shows as a balance on line. With Discover, that should be enough to reset the grace period. Don't wait. Pay it now. You should be able to use your card next week with no further interest charges. 

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Message 6 of 12
anonyman
Established Member

Re: Fully paid of Discover, Still no grace period


@NRB525 wrote:

Nearly all banks will do this. If Mercury does not, they are in the minority. Capital One also does not charge the Trailing Interest on the last statement when you pay off an interest-generating balance. 

The solution is to pay the full balance, $20 right now, if it shows as a balance on line. With Discover, that should be enough to reset the grace period. Don't wait. Pay it now. You should be able to use your card next week with no further interest charges. 


 

Hello

 

Thanks. They might, but Discover is turning around and putting those charges on the SAME BILLING CYCLE. Do you understand what I mean.  

 

My Feb-25-20 statement had a balance of $1459 to be paid by Mar-20-20 which I paid around Mar-15-20 in FULL. Then on the last day of the billing cycle, Discover comes around and smacks $20 interest right before this statement closes. And I am thinking that I am paid in full because I FULLY PAID the statement amount. This $20 interest could have been charged today resulting in a $0 balance on the statment which closed on Mar-25-20.  

 

Do you see what is going on here? 

 

They have made it extemely hard to pay it off in full as a few hours before your statement closes, they will slap on interest charges.

 

I will call them in a few hours. 

Message 7 of 12
anonyman
Established Member

Re: Fully paid of Discover, Still no grace period

I talked to a representative. Super customer service.

 

She waived the interest.

 

Yes, I have the Grace Period!

 

 

Message 8 of 12
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Fully paid of Discover, Still no grace period


@anonyman wrote:

@NRB525 wrote:

Nearly all banks will do this. If Mercury does not, they are in the minority. Capital One also does not charge the Trailing Interest on the last statement when you pay off an interest-generating balance. 

The solution is to pay the full balance, $20 right now, if it shows as a balance on line. With Discover, that should be enough to reset the grace period. Don't wait. Pay it now. You should be able to use your card next week with no further interest charges. 


 

Hello

 

Thanks. They might, but Discover is turning around and putting those charges on the SAME BILLING CYCLE. Do you understand what I mean.  

 

My Feb-25-20 statement had a balance of $1459 to be paid by Mar-20-20 which I paid around Mar-15-20 in FULL. Then on the last day of the billing cycle, Discover comes around and smacks $20 interest right before this statement closes. And I am thinking that I am paid in full because I FULLY PAID the statement amount. This $20 interest could have been charged today resulting in a $0 balance on the statment which closed on Mar-25-20.  

 

Do you see what is going on here? 

 

They have made it extemely hard to pay it off in full as a few hours before your statement closes, they will slap on interest charges.

 

I will call them in a few hours. 


It's great that they waived it, but does seem like you still don't understand what's going on.  Once you start accruing interest, it's on a daily basis up until it's been paid back.  You PIF 03.15 when it's due on 03.20 and your statement cut on 03.25.  You were still getting charged interest and rightfully so for the days you were carrying your previously carried balance of a couple months from 02.25 to 03.15.  

And no, they haven't made it hard to PIF to get a $0 statement in scenarios like yours.  You call in and request to pay more to cover the accrued interest to make sure of it.  Again, just like pretty much any other company.  Because again, every other automated system will not take more than what you owe.  There are a couple that you can fool into doing it, NFCU and I believe PenFed are examples.  By you submit a payment for less than what is owed and before it processes, submit another to go over.  But if you try to pay in a single payment $1500 when you owe $1400, it'll say no way Jose!

Message 9 of 12
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Fully paid of Discover, Still no grace period


@anonyman wrote:

 

How to Avoid Paying Interest on Purchases ("Grace Period"). If you pay the New Balance on
your current billing statement by the Payment Due Date shown on that billing statement, we will
not impose interest charges on New Purchases. New Purchases are Purchases that first appear on
Page 3 of 4
the next billing statement. Interest will continue to accrue each day on Purchases that appeared
on previous billing statements until you pay the New Balance in full and will be billed in the next
billing cycle.

 

You even posted the information yourself.

You don't get charged interest on NEW PURCHASES with the grace period.  

You CONTINUE to accrue interest on previous purchases that were on your PREVIOUS statement until it's PAID IN FULL and said interest will be billed on your next cycle.   It doesn't get forgiven (at least, not typically - but you got them to Robot LOL) because you PIF before your next statement cut.


Hope that helps a bit with understanding.


EDIT:  I see what you're saying and getting confused about.  Once your statement cut, this is your new cycle so the interest shows up as your current balance and is what gets reported.  They don't say that they add that interest to your next statement, but to your next cycle.

Message 10 of 12
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