Consumer complaint received 2017-08-16
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: CA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Advertising and marketing, including promotional offers
Sub-issue: Confusing or misleading advertising about the credit card

Complaint:
In early to mid XXXX I called Wells Fargo to see if there were any available promotions able to be applied to my account. I was given 0 % interest on purchases for 6 months, and 0 % interest on balance transfers for 15 months with a 4 % of the total balance transfer fee upon transfer. I accepted the promotions to be applied to my account. A few days later I called WF again to set up the balance transfer, but before instigating the balance transfer I verbally confirmed with the representative 3 to 4 times that if I made an approximately {$500.00} purchase, and a {$4000.00} balance transfer, and then paid $ XXXX monthly, that the 6 month 0 % interest balance would be paid off before the 6 month promotion expired and I would subsequently be charged interest. The representative verbally confirmed that the 6 month balance would be paid off, multiple times, which I took to be a verbal contract between me and Wells Fargo Bank. I initiated the balance transfer of {$4000.00}, and was charged the 4 % fee of {$160.00}. I also made a {$490.00} purchase. These charges posted to my account XX/XX/XXXX. These two separate promotional balances were shown on my XX/XX/XXXX statement. I then made a {$400.00} payment which applied on XX/XX/XXXX. Upon reviewing my XX/XX/XXXX statement, I found that the 6 month promotional balance had been reduced by {$26.00} to {$470.00} and the 15 month promotional balance had been reduced by {$370.00} to {$3700.00}. 6.645 % of my {$400.00} payment was applied to my 6 month promotional balance, and 93.355 % of my {$400.00} payment was applied to my 15 month promotional balance. At this rate if I continue to make {$400.00} payments monthly I will not pay off the 6 month promotional balance before the promotion is over, and I will be charged interest. I called Wells Fargo today, XX/XX/XXXXand was escalated to a supervisor and then to XXXX at the Executive Office of Customer Care. I explained my situation to him and informed him that I felt that Wells Fargo was breaching a verbal contract made with me. XXXX informed me that there was nothing he could do, and that if I continued to make the $ XXXX monthly payments I would not pay off the balance and would be charged interest. I asked XXXX to provide me with an explanation of how Wells Fargo applies payments to different promotional balances on the same account, and he either could not or would not provide me with that information. In conclusion, I feel that Wells Fargo Bank is in breach of a verbal contract because I was assured that my 6 month promotional balance would be successfully paid off if I made {$400.00} payments per month, and now that I have reviewed my statement after making a {$400.00} payment I see that I will not be able to pay off the 6 month promotional balance in time to avoid being charged interest.

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 explanation