Consumer complaint received 2022-06-17
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.
State: WA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Fees or interest
Sub-issue: Charged too much interest

Complaint:
I have an Amazon Prime Visa card ( financed by Chase Bank ), and they have a feature where they break down what your " interest saving balance '' is each month. The statement explains : " Pay the Interest Saving Balance every month by your due date to avoid interest on new purchases and avoid prematurely paying off your flexible financing offer balances. This amount includes your current statement new balance, minus your total balance for flexible financing offers, plus your monthly payment due for all flexible financing offers. '' And also " By paying your Interest Saving Balance each billing period by your due date, you will avoid interest on purchases appearing on your next statement. '' On my statement issued on XX/XX/22, the Interest Saving Balance listed was {$1000.00}. I also redeemed some credit card rewards for a statement credit worth {$6.00} on XX/XX/22. Subsequently, on the payment page for this credit card, I was then shown an Interest Saving Balance of {$1000.00} ( which is {$1000.00} minus the {$6.00} statement credit ). So I paid the remaining amount of {$1000.00} on XX/XX/22, which was one day prior to my payment due date of XX/XX/22. On my next statement issued on XX/XX/22, I was charged {$16.00} in interest. 

I contacted Chase to get an explanation and was told by the first person that I didn't pay the {$1000.00} by the due date. I replied and explained that I had redeemed a statement credit and in fact did have credits and payments totaling {$1000.00} that were credited to my account prior to the due date, but the next 2 customer service representatives who responded did not address this discrepancy, and instead told me I had to " pay the full statement balance '' to avoid paying interest. 

I feel like this is deceptive and I would gladly have paid the extra {$6.00} with my payment vs redeeming a statement credit if I had known I would just be charged {$16.00} in interest. On this next statement cycle, I verified that this is occurring after redeeming another statement credit - my Interest Saving Balance shown to me on the payment page was decreased by exactly the amount I redeemed for a credit to my account. Chase does NOT indicate in any of the fine print that statement credits do not count towards payment of this Interest Savings Balance, and nobody with their customer service has attempted to address this issue. I plan to pay off my card completely and not use Chase for any credit card needs in the future, but I hope others are not needlessly paying interest due to their deceptive and false descriptions of this " feature '' with this credit card. 

I do not have any copies or screen shots from this initial incident that I am reporting, but I do have screen shots that I will include of my current statement ( Interest Saving Balance listed as {$270.00} ) and the change in the Interest Saving Balance displayed on the payment page ( reduced to {$260.00} ) after redeeming {$12.00} in rewards as a statement credit.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief