Consumer complaint received 2016-09-13
Company: UNITED SERVICES AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION
State: MO
Product: Credit card
Issue: Cash advance fee

Complaint:
My complaint is about what happens when a credit card cash advance is made. I do not take cash advances on my credit card, so I was not aware of how the credit card companies handle repayment of cash advances and corresponding interest charged until a few weeks ago. ( Overdraft protection for My USAA checking account is my USAA credit card. USAA. By mistake, USAA invoked my overdraft protection for a charge to a checking account that was supposed to be closed. It is what happened when the cash advance was made that triggered my frustrating experience. My frustration is due to how the cash advance affected interest charges to my credit card account -- and that is probably not USAA 's process but either XXXX 's or XXXX 's. Since USAA also switched from XXXX to XXXX during this time -- I can not determine which company is at fault -- but they probably handle cash advances the same way. 
What I want to happen is for the Consumer Financial Protection Agency to make industry-wide changes for all credit card issuers. 

Usually, I pay off my credit card balance in full, and no interest is charged. 

But when a cash advance is made, if I pay the statement balance in full, I will also incur an interest charge on my next statement for that cash advance, if I charged purchases after the first CC statement date. [ YES, this is confusing ] So, the only way to stop interest from continually accruing each month after a cash advance has been made, is to CALL my bank, find out the total account balance on the day I call, and pay it all off immediately, so the account balance is XXXX. If I do not do this and pay the statement balance in full each month - I will get an interest charge on every future statement for the cash advance I took months before. 

I am sure most people are not aware of this. It is unethical. If the credit card company is going to treat regular purchases differently from cash advances, the customer should be able to pay them separately. AND YOUR DEPARTMENT SHOULD SEE THAT THEY CAN. 
I can think of several ways to address this interest scam - but I 'm sure you can think of better solutions. The point is there are solutions that are fair to the customer and the company making cash advances ; solutions that are not ripping off customers. For example : 1. When cash advances are made, the credit card statement should separately list regular charges and interest accrued, and cash advance totals and interest accrued for that month. 

2. Customers should be able to pay off regular charges & their interest, and cash advances and their interest SEPARATELY. 

3. Customers should be notified IN LARGE PRINT, on any statement with cash advance charges/interest, that the only way to pay off cash advances and corresponding interest charges completely is to call the company, get the current cash advance balance ( including interest ), and pay while on the phone. 

4. Customers should be able to indicate with their statement payments that all interest and cash advances should be paid off first, and the remainder of their payment should go to regular charges.

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation