Consumer complaint received 2021-03-02
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.
State: TX
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Advertising and marketing, including promotional offers
Sub-issue: Didn't receive advertised or promotional terms

Complaint:
XXXX XXXX XXXX by Chase : I made an XXXX purchase for {$540.00} in XX/XX/XXXX, taking advantage of the advertised Chase XXXX XXXX flexible financing option of making interest free payments for 12 months. I made the XXXX XXXX XXXX payments each month, as required. By the end of XXXX, my remaining XXXX XXXX XXXX balance was {$530.00}. On February XX/XX/122021, I made two purchases from XXXX XXXX, XXXX {$340.00} and another for {$350.00}. I also made an XXXX purchase on XX/XX/XXXX of {$10.00}. Not one of the items was purchased under promotion financing terms and the total of the three purchases was {$710.00}. In short order, I returned the {$340.00} purchase to XXXX XXXX, which was credited to my Chase XXXX XXXX XXXX account on XX/XX/XXXX, leaving a non-promotional balance of {$360.00}. I accepted and expected that my Interest Saving Balance would then be approximately {$400.00} for XXXX. However, on my XXXX statement, my Flexible Financing Offers balance shrank from the XXXX {$530.00} to {$160.00}, a difference of {$370.00}, and my Interest Saving Balance skyrocketed to {$710.00}. For the previous two months, my Interest Saving Balance had remained $ XXXX. As it was clear to me that the XXXX XXXX return credit had been applied to my XXXX XXXX balance rather than the non-promotional statement balance, I contacted customer care for a resolution. The customer care representative expressed complete understanding of the situation before rendering the following explanation : Chase applies any credit on the account, whether payment from the customer or credit from another business, as a payment, which is applied to the oldest balance on the account. 

That means Chase took the credit from the XXXX XXXX return and applied it to the balance of a XXXX promotional purchase, after only 2 months into the promotional period, and retained the total non-promotional purchase of {$710.00} as the Interest Saving Balance, plus {$1.00} from somewhere I haven't been able to identify. The consequences of failing to pay the {$710.00} Interest Saving Balance, of course, is being charged interest, despite the fact that I was promised 12 months to repay the initial XXXX purchase, and despite the fact that almost {$400.00} of that Interest Saving Balance accounted for a credit from XXXX XXXX. I requested a supervisor and was promptly given the same explanation that any credit is treated as a payment and applied to the oldest balance. When pressed on whether the supervisor thought it reasonable that in the XXXX century, a bank like Chase could not keep promotional purchases separate from non-promotional purchases, if that made any kind of accounting sense, she responded that she does not disclose her personal opinions in these matters. I've worked in a call center, I never want to be THAT customer, but I was incensed. This credit card company has placed me in the position to have to pay {$300.00} more than I should be paying or accept the cost of the interest, which is clearly going to their benefit. I get screwed and they win either way. To some, a {$300.00} difference may not seem much, but it's significant to me and my family, and to others whose purchases/returns equal much more, the burden may be that much greater. This reeks of nefarious, unethical business, intentionally allocating funds to give the greatest possible chance of the customer being forced to pay interest, a convenient little loophole in their policy to make someone like me have to pay a full amount 10 months early or start paying interest. Again, that little bit of interest doesn't sound much, but I can't imagine I'm alone in this happening. Add up several thousand, or more, customers paying interest because a return credit was applied to their promotional balance and suddenly, you have tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, more dollars rolling in. I paid the balance, as I am fortunate to be able to so, and will close this account. They could keep me as a customer with a credit to my account and an apology, but I want hold my breath. In the meantime, I wanted to file this complaint for the benefit of anyone considering a Chase XXXX XXXX XXXX, and for any other good it might do. I've had plenty of promotional balances with various banks that have not been impacted by credits or payments on other non-promotional balances. This is shady business by Chase, in a business that has been characterized by shady practices. For Chase to be so shameless and blatant stands out a bright, red flag in a sea of red flags. We are at the mercy of banks and corporations, but this is particularly egregious in my experience. Choose another card and another bank, if you can.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation