Consumer complaint received 2019-02-28
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: FL
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Other features, terms, or problems
Sub-issue: Other problem

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX I transferred a {$11000.00} balance on to my credit card as part of a promotional 15 month 0 % APR balance transfer offer. On XX/XX/XXXX I transferred a separate {$5800.00} balance on to the same card under a separate promotional offer of 15 month 0 % APR. Since the first transfer and throughout the entire period since, I have made timely payments of at least my monthly minimum amount. 

Beginning with the statement for the period ending XX/XX/XXXX and through the statement for the period ending XX/XX/XXXX, these two balances were listed on page 2 of the statement under the " Type of Balance '' section of the Interest Charge Calculation with two separate " promotional rate expires '' dates assigned. The larger balance stated XX/XX/XXXX and the smaller balance XX/XX/XXXX. A copy of these two statements are attached. 

Sometime during the final weeks of XX/XX/XXXX, I contacted WellsFargo customer service for my credit card account, to inquire about the process for paying off my upcoming promotional balance transfer offer set to expire in XXXX. I spoke to a representative named XXXX. I explained to him that I wanted to pay off my balance for the amount due to expire on XX/XX/XXXX prior to its expiration to avoid finance charges. I had noticed that all of the payments I had made prior to this had been divided between the two separate balances and I wanted to know how to make the payment I made go completely to the balance expiring first. After a brief hold, XXXX informed me that I was able to do this by making two separate payments in XXXX. The first one should be for my minimum amount due. He told me that after XX/XX/XXXX, preferably on XX/XX/XXXX, I should then make a separate payment for the outstanding balance on the promotional amount expiring on XX/XX/XXXX. He said by doing this, the entire amount of my second payment would be allocated to that balance which had the 0 % APR expire on XX/XX/XXXX, therefore now being calculated at a higher rate. This would avoid having any go towards the second promotional balance still being charged 0 %. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I called customer service again just to verify the information that XXXX had given me prior to making my payment. I spoke to a different representative, I do not recall her name, and explained to her my desire to pay off the amount expiring on XX/XX/XXXX. She told me the same information that XXXX had told me, only stating that I did not have to make two payments. She stated that whatever I paid over the minimum amount requested, would be allocated to the balance with the higher interest rate. If I made the payment after XX/XX/XXXX that amount would be the promotional balance which had expired on XX/XX/XXXX. Satisfied that I had received the same information from two separate representatives, I followed their instructions and made a payment on XX/XX/XXXX for {$8500.00}. This would cover the {$260.00} minimum payment and the {$8200.00} balance listed on my statement as expiring of XX/XX/XXXX. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I received my statement for the period ending on XX/XX/XXXX online. I checked to see if the payment had been credited correctly, it was on XX/XX/XXXX, and was relieved to find no fees, or interest charges displayed on my statement. I was confused however to find that now on page 2 under " Type of Balance '' there was a {$2800.00} promotional balance listed with an expiration of XX/XX/XXXX listed next to it. This was the first time seeing a balance with that date on my statement and I could not understand what this meant. I attempted to contact customer service to question this matter but was unable to reach anyone after repeated attempts and lengthy delays on hold. I continued calling the next day but was unsuccessful and gave up trying until Monday. 

On Monday, XX/XX/XXXX, I was able to speak to a representative named XXXX. I explained to her why I was confused as to the new promotional balance information on my statement, going through what had transpired with the phone conversations with the two other representatives. She looked at the statement information and also looked at the notes listed on my account and could not understand what had happened either. 
She attempted to contact a supervisor, as she stated she could not remedy the situation on her end, but due to the high volume of calls at the time was not able to. She did forward my concerns to be further researched and initiated a complaint inquiry for me, which she said would generate a call back within 2 to 3 days from someone in the corporate complaint department. 

On Thursday XX/XX/XXXX, I called customer service again. I spoke to a representative named  XXXX. I tried to get her to put me through to a supervisor directly, since I had already been told that customer service could not resolve this issue but she stated that if I could explain the issue she could better serve me. I went through the entire episode again, explaining about all of the previous calls and after looking at my account info, she too could not understand why there was now a different date on the statement. She was able to connect me with a supervisor, XXXX, and I explained everything again to him. He could not resolve the issue and connected me with someone who he stated was a corporate customer service representative. I do not recall this gentleman 's name, but he too was unable to explain to me what was going on. He did state that the new promotional expiration date had been created to be more in line with my statement ending date, but could not explain why there was even a balance assigned to that amount. 

As my frustration with getting an answer grew, this representative offered to assign my case to the complaint department so that someone could look into it and give me some answers. I explained that XXXX had already done this on Monday, and no one had contacted me yet. He then connected me with someone at the complaint department, since I already had a case assigned to me. The person I spoke to next had me once again explain exactly what my complaint was. His answer was limited, only stating that balance transfers do not have a grace period, and reemphasizing that the promotional date listed on my statement was adjusted to better coincide with my statement date. That made no sense to me and he refused to explain himself stating only that the representative assigned to the case would explain everything to me when he contacted me. He also stated that the representative had tried to contact me, which I told him was not possible since I had no missed calls or voicemails on my phone from their offices. I verified my contact information with him and he assured me someone would contact me to follow up. As of today 's date, I have not received a call, message, letter or email concerning this matter.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief