Consumer complaint received 2023-10-05
Company: GOLDMAN SACHS BANK USA
State: NY
Product: Credit card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Fees or interest
Sub-issue: Charged too much interest

Complaint:
Apple Card by Goldman Sachs : ***The 1-sentence summary : *** Goldman Sachs charges 30 days of interest when credit card balalnce is paid 1 day late, and this secret interest charge is usury and completely absurd ( especially since their own representatives are unable to explain the exact calculations ). 

***The 5-sentence summary : *** The automatic payment of my credit card bill from Goldman Sachs was scheduled for Saturday, XX/XX/XXXX ( default payment date when enabling automatic payments ). Goldman Sachs emailed me on Tuesday, XX/XX/XXXX that the automatic payment had failed. I then manually paid my credit card bill -- in full -- within 5 hours after receiving this email notification. However, I was charged interest fees for 30 days instead of what should be a minimal charge ( either 5 hours of interest since I paid 5 hours after Goldman Sachs sent the email on Tuesday, or at most, 3 days of interest since the automatic payment was scheduled for the previous Saturday ). This secret interest charge ( approximately {$150.00} ) by Goldman Sachs is usury and completely absurd ( especially since their own representatives are unable to explain the exact calculations ). 


***The details : *** I have automatic payments set up with Goldman Sachs for the Apple Card . When setting up automatic payments through the Apple Card app, the default option for " Payment Amount '' is " Monthly Balance - stop or avoid new interest charges '' and the default option for " Payment Date '' is " Due Date - On the last day of every month. '' I chose the above default options when enabling automatic payments ( to be debited from my bank account ). In other words, 100 % payment of full monthly balance on the last day of the month. 

I have had an Apple Card for 4 years, when the product was first introduced by Apple / Goldman Sachs in XXXX. I have had the default payment options selected since that time. 

I have paid 100 % of the monthly balance for 4 years ( via automatic payments ), and have never incurred any interest charges or penalties. 

The credit card balance for XXXX ( XX/XX/XXXX - XX/XX/XXXX ) was {$7400.00}. 

The automatic payment of 100 % of the monthly balance ( default payment amount ) was scheduled for XX/XX/XXXX ( default payment date ). Goldman Sachs attempted to automatically withdraw {$7200.00} from my bank account on XX/XX/XXXX. I believe the difference between {$7400.00} and {$7200.00} is due to returns, credits, etc. 

Please note that this was a Saturday. 

On Tuesday, XX/XX/XXXX ( at XXXX ET ), I received an email from " Apple Card Support '' stating that " your recent payment was unsuccessful. Your recent payment did not go through because of insufficient funds. The payment that was applied to your account has been reversed. As always, Apple Card will not charge you a fee. However, the bank used to make a payment may charge a fee. Payment Date : XX/XX/XXXX. Payment Amount : {$7200.00}. Bank account ending in : *** [ I have redacted this bank account information. ] I read the above email notification at XXXX ET that same day and immediately called Goldman Sachs to resolve the issue. At XXXX ET ( on XX/XX/XXXX ), I had manually paid the full balance ( {$7200.00} ). The Apple Card app shows that the *automatic* payment was declined on Tuesday, but then immediately shows that the *manual* payment was successfully paid that same day. 

However, I was charged {$140.00} in interest! I asked the Goldman Sachs representative on XX/XX/XXXX to explain the interest charge, and at first, he didn't even realize that I was being charged interest. I had to repeatedly tell him that I was, indeed, charged an interest fee. Then, when he finally realized I was charged the interest fee, he was unable to explain why it was so high or how it was calculated. He submitted a request to have that interest fee reversed. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, Goldman Sachs emailed me that the charge would not be reverse. 

I then called Goldman Sachs again on XX/XX/XXXX, and I spoke to a supervisor ( XXXX ). He was unable to explain how the {$140.00} interest was precisely calculated, other than to give me high-level, generalized comments about APR and DPR. 

However, he did tell me that even if I make a payment only *ONE* day late, I will be charged 30 days of interest. Specifically, he stated that the credit card charges for the month of XXXX were scheduled to be automatically paid on XX/XX/XXXX ( the default payment date when setting up automatic payments, as I described above ). If the payment is delayed by even 24 hours, I will get charged interest for the entire 30 days of XXXX! 

This secret interest charge by Goldman Sachs is usury and completely absurd ( especially since their own representatives are unable to explain the exact calculations ).

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief