Unable to Pay Off Deferred Promotional Balance First?

[Anonymous]

Hello,

A few months ago we needed to pay off our Federal Taxes and didn't have funds at the time.  Instead of coming to an agreement with the IRA, Discover was offering a 0% interest good through March of 2017 on our card.

Long story short, we had Discover transfer $3500 to our checking account and paid the taxes off.  This Discover card at the time had a Zero balance on a $5000 credit limit.  Since then we have charged another $1000.

Today we have the money to pay off the $3500 so we are not hit with accrued interest in March of next year but Discover will NOT allow us to pay off the promotional balace.

What we are being told is that only the minimum payment amount every month goes to paying down the 0% balance and that they are required by law the apply every dollar above and beyond minimum payment to the highest interest rate which is the extra $1000 we have charged.  They are insisting there is no legal way to pay this off without paying off the enitire balance in full.

Is this correct and/or should I even bother contacting the Corporate Response Team with my problem.  I know for a fact I have done this in the past.  Is this a new law or is Discover just making this up.  

Thanks for reading and in advance for any direction any of the kind members of the board can offer me.

Bill

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hello,

A few months ago we needed to pay off our Federal Taxes and didn't have funds at the time.  Instead of coming to an agreement with the IRA, Discover was offering a 0% interest good through March of 2017 on our card.

Long story short, we had Discover transfer $3500 to our checking account and paid the taxes off.  This Discover card at the time had a Zero balance on a $5000 credit limit.  Since then we have charged another $1000.

Today we have the money to pay off the $3500 so we are not hit with accrued interest in March of next year but Discover will NOT allow us to pay off the promotional balace.

What we are being told is that only the minimum payment amount every month goes to paying down the 0% balance and that they are required by law the apply every dollar above and beyond minimum payment to the highest interest rate which is the extra $1000 we have charged.  They are insisting there is no legal way to pay this off without paying off the enitire balance in full.

Is this correct and/or should I even bother contacting the Corporate Response Team with my problem.  I know for a fact I have done this in the past.  Is this a new law or is Discover just making this up.  

Thanks for reading and in advance for any direction any of the kind members of the board can offer me.

Bill

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IMHO you should just pay the $3500, and then find the $1k from somewhere else.

[dragontears]

1. Discover doesn't change deferred interest, when your promotional APR ends you will only pay interest on the balance you have left
2. It is normal for payments over the minimum to be applied to the highest interest balance

[Anonymous]

That annoyed me too. Especially when I was used to having to phone in care credit payments and allocate them to specific promos until they started doing it automatically.  Generally speaking its best for consumers.  Ask for an APR reduction.

Do you have another card that has no BT fees so you could shuffle the balance away from disco, then bring it back at 4.99% for 18 months no fee?

[Anonymous]

Thanks all for your replies.

I don't know why I thought there would be deferred interest but there is in fact none.  So it is actually to my benefit for my lump payment to go and pay off the $1000 that I am being charged 19.9% on then for the next few months first then just try and pay off the remaining balance at 0% before it goes up.  I am used to Dell promotions that if you don't pay off the balance by the end of the promo you get hit with accrued interest.  Thanks again!

[Aahz]

Glad you received the info you needed!  Also...

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@Anonymous wrote:

A few months ago we needed to pay off our Federal Taxes and didn't have funds at the time.  Instead of coming to an agreement with the IRA, Discover was offering a 0% interest good through March of 2017 on our card.

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...very glad you didn't need to enlist the Irish Repubican Army's help.  Those guys are brutal when it comes to collections

[Anonymous]

I saw that typo and thought why change it!  It was the best typo ever...  Happy we came to an agreement before the house was bombed!!!

[sarge12]

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@Aahz wrote:

Glad you received the info you needed!  Also...

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@Anonymous wrote:

A few months ago we needed to pay off our Federal Taxes and didn't have funds at the time.  Instead of coming to an agreement with the IRA, Discover was offering a 0% interest good through March of 2017 on our card.

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...very glad you didn't need to enlist the Irish Repubican Army's help.  Those guys are brutal when it comes to collections

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So is the IRS...not much difference between them IMO!!!!

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thanks all for your replies.

I don't know why I thought there would be deferred interest but there is in fact none.  So it is actually to my benefit for my lump payment to go and pay off the $1000 that I am being charged 19.9% on then for the next few months first then just try and pay off the remaining balance at 0% before it goes up.  I am used to Dell promotions that if you don't pay off the balance by the end of the promo you get hit with accrued interest.  Thanks again!

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Glad you got it worked out. As a side note to you and others who are actually in a deferred interest loan, I'm pretty positive that all payments made in the final two months (or two billing cycles)  have to be applied to the deferred interest portion of the balance so you'd have been able to beat it anyway.

[rlx01]

It would be illegal for them to allocate your payment to low interest balances before high interest ones.

Re the IRS: actually, they're quite friendly and you can make a payment arrangement online without talking to anyone for up to 50k. Since interest rates are so low their interest charge on payment arrangements is more reasonable than pretty much all CCs (except for 0% offers, but keep in mind that 3% up front can't be recouped while 6% over X can be if you pay faster than the arrangement was created for).