Consumer complaint received 2023-12-30
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem when making payments — Problem during payment process
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO. (UT)

On XX/XX/XXXX, I completed a balance transfer from my XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX to my Chase World of Hyatt Visa card in the amount of {$7700.00}. The offer for the balance transfer was for 0 % interest if paid by XX/XX/XXXX. There was a 5 % fee for the balance transfer, totaling {$380.00}. Upon reviewing my statement dated XX/XX/XXXX, it appeared that the payments I had made in the statement period had been applied incorrectly. 

According to the statement, I had an existing balance of {$10000.00} prior to the beginning of the statement period. During the month, I completed the {$7700.00} balance transfer, {$1400.00} in purchases, and made {$4500.00} in payments, leaving me with a total balance of {$15000.00}. The statement shows a {$9800.00} balance subject to a 28.24 % APR and {$6400.00} subject to a 0 % APR The minimum payment for the period was {$400.00}. I was charged the {$380.00} balance transfer fee and {$220.00} in interest. 

The statement states, under the section How to Avoid Paying Interest on Balances : " Because we apply payments in excess of your minimum payment first to higher rate balances, you may not be able to avoid interest charges on new purchases if you have another balance at a higher rate unless you pay your balance ( or Interest Saving Balance ) in full each month. '' Likewise, 1026.53, states that except on the two statements immediately preceding the expiration of the promotional rate or at the request of the consumer, " when a consumer makes a payment in excess of the required minimum periodic payment for a credit card account under an open-end ( not home-secured ) consumer credit plan, the card issuer must allocate the excess amount first to the balance with the highest annual percentage rate and any remaining portion to the other balances in descending order based on the applicable annual percentage rate. '' If Chase had followed both their policy and 1026.53, at most {$400.00} of the payments made should have applied to the promotional. More likely, less than that amount should have applied as part of that minimum would have been for the standard APR balance ; however, Chase does not show on the statement which part of the minimum payment was for which balance, so we will give them the benefit of the doubt and apply th entirety of the {$400.00} to the promotional balance. If they had done that, the promotional balance would have been {$7300.00}, and the standard APR balance would have been {$8900.00} ; the interest charged would have been {$210.00}, {$17.00} less than I was actually charged. If they had applied the minimum payment proportionally, only {$180.00} would have gone to the promotional balance, leading to a promotional balance of {$7500.00}, a standard balance of {$8700.00} and an interest charge of {$200.00}, {$22.00} less than I was charged. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I contacted Chase to ask about the issue. I was initially told by the customer service agent that I was correct and that the statement was simply showing the incorrect amount for the promotional balance. When she gave me what she calculated as the purchase balance, however, it was still incorrect, so she transferred me to a supervisor. When I explained the situation to the supervisor, I was told that, in contradiction to the policy listed in the statement and 1026.53, in fact payments were allocated first to purchases made during the statement period, and all payments after that would go toward the promotional balance. When I told her that was incorrect and in violation of 1026.53, she told me she was ending the conversation and hung up. 

Obviously, what she told me is still wrong, as that would have meant the promotional balance would be {$5100.00} as {$1400.00} would have gone toward the purchases, {$400.00} would have been the minimum, and the remaining {$2600.00} would have been applied to the promotional balance. It appears that maybe they applied the rest of the payment proportionally to the two total balances, but that still is in contradiction to both their own stated policy and 1026.53.