How does Care Credit handle payments when you have no promotional and promotional charges?

[delaney1]

I have a 0% promotional balance of $300 expiring in a few months and may add a non-promotional charge of a couple of hundred dollars. If I make a payment will payment be applied to lowest apr first up to minimum payment then the highest apr balance?

[CreditInspired]

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@delaney1 wrote:
I have a 0% promotional balance of $300 expiring in a few months and may add a non-promotional charge of a couple of hundred dollars. If I make a payment will payment be applied to lowest apr first up to minimum payment then the highest apr balance?

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I think it goes like this:

The minimum payment will go toward the 0% promotion, and anything over the minumum payment is applied to the the larger interest purchase, if any.

A concern though. If you do not pay the balance of the 0% promotion balance ($300) off before the expiration date, you might be charged interest on the total amount charged from the date of the purchase. Can you verify whether this promotion is deferred interest or not? So, hopefully, you will be paying this off before promotion expires.

Also, IMHO, I suggest not adding a non-promotional purchase until the promotion balance is paid in full.

Just my 2cents.

[UncleB]

Care Credit payments can be tricky when there's a promo balance and new charges are added.

With most cards any payment over the minimum goes to the highest APR, but I think with Care Credit a promo balance has priority (since if it expires with a balance you will owe retro interest).

I recall reading where others would have to call in after their payment posted to have it reallocated to the proper balances.  It's definitely not a perfect solution, but it appears they do give you the ability to put the payment on the balance you want if you call.

My advice is to give them a call to see if this is still the case or if it has changed... better safe than sorry.

[delaney1]

Thank you! I’ll probably just use another card as I don’t want to run into any headaches with my 0% promotion.

[Gollum]

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@delaney1 wrote:
I have a 0% promotional balance of $300 expiring in a few months and may add a non-promotional charge of a couple of hundred dollars. If I make a payment will payment be applied to lowest apr first up to minimum payment then the highest apr balance?

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According to the Terms & Conditions (April 2019) for a new CareCredit card, they apply the minimum payment using any method they choose, for excess payments the highest APR will be paid first, and/but "Applicable law may require or permit us to apply excess payments in a different manner in certain situations, such as when your account has a certain type of special promotion." https://www.carecredit.com/YourTerms/April2019.pdf (Section III: Standard Provisions -> How and When to Make Payments -> Payment Allocation)

The CareCredit website has a form to fill out for existing customers to get their Terms & Conditions. You could/should try calling CareCredit for the answer if your specific Terms & Conditions don't provide that answer.

Don't forget/overlook that if you don't pay off the entire promotional balance by the time the promotional period is over, it doesn't matter if you've paid that balance down: interest is due for the entire amount of the promotional balance, and that interest rate is 26.99%.