Lowe's is Synchrony and set up exactly the same as Amazon, which rmduhon listed. For the three options, it would work like this with a $1000 promotional balance, $500 in new purchases and $500 payment with $25 minimum payment due:
1.) (Default) $25 to promotional balance and $475 to new purchases (would carry over $25 with interest due next statement), unless last 2 months before expiration then $500 to the promotional balance.
2.) $500 to promotional balance and nothing on new purchases (would carry over $500 with interest due on next statement(.
3.) $500 to the new purchases and nothing on the promotional balance. If the payment were $1000 or more, then your promo balance would be paid in full if this is the final statement period for the promo.
You can change these at will and Synchrony will send you a letter in the mail reminding you that you have done so. With the typical high APRs, I can't really think of a scenario where #2 makes sense. In the above scenario, with a $1000 payment in the last month #2 and #3 are the same. A $500 payment in the last month means #2 and #3 would also be the same and result in you getting charged ALL of the interest that had accrued on the original balance (let's say $5000 for 0% at 24 months - at 20%, that's $2000 in interest!). I guess maybe it would make sense if you knew you could make two $500 payments the last 2 months, but then again that's the same as how #1 would work anyway. Am I missing something?
