Consumer complaint received 2022-03-16
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.
State: OH
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Debt settlement
Issue: Confusing or misleading advertising or marketing

Complaint:
Between the dates of XXXX XXXX XXXX I received a letter communication related to 0 % Promo APR Balance transfer for 12 months for my Marriott XXXX Credit Card by Chase. Please refer to the attached. As a due diligence on my side, I read the whole communication and convinced about the offer and fast forward, I requested a balance transfer of XXXX. XXXX} of XXXX} is the balance transfer transaction fee resulting a cash on hand of {XXXX}. On XX/XX/2022, I received a statement balance of {XXXX} with a due date of XX/XX/2022. 

Breakdown of the statement balance includes : XXXX of XXXX was related to balance transfer. 
XXXX  of XXXX  was for the purchases I made before and after the balance transfer was completed. 

To make good use of the 0 % Promo APR for Balance Transfer for 12 months and to avoid paying interest for purchases, I wanted to make sure that the amount that I will be paying by XX/XX/2022 was for the purchases that was not included in the balance transfer which in my calculation should be {$320.00}. 

On XX/XX/2022, I contacted customer service via phone but I cant get past the automated answering machine. Therefore, I reached out via XXXX. I was told that ; 1. ) I have two balance transfer request when I was only aware of one. They corrected themselves and apologized. 
2. ) To use the 0 % Promo Balance transfer for 12 months, I will need to avoid making purchases while a balance transfer is on the balance. Otherwise, the full statement balance of {$9800.00} ( balance transfer and purchases ) needs to be paid by XX/XX/2022. If not, interest will be charged. 

The letter communication and the customer representative provided two different contexts on balance transfer and purchases with the 0 % promotional APR offer. I based my balance transfer decision from the letter communication which did not clearly state the consequences if there are purchases made on the card. The letter communication is vague and difficult to understand by a regular consumer. 

My conversation with the customer representative led me to return the balance transfer of {XXXX} on XX/XX/2022. Since I can not use the 0 % Promo Balance transfer for 12 months due to the purchases in the card, I requested to waive the XXXX balance transfer transaction fee. However, the customer representative said that my account is not eligible for the fee refund. I have been using this card for quite some time and loved the services and offer. This was my first time requesting to get a fee waived but was unsuccessful. 

While the letter communication is deceptive, it is also unfair that the transaction fee can not be waived since I can not use the balance transfer and 0 % promotional offer. This is a UDAAP violation since a normal consumer like myself was deceived by the letter communication leading up to requesting a balance transfer when in reality, there are restrictions that was not clearly stated in the letter.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief