Consumer complaint received 2024-02-17
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Fees or interest — Problem with fees
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO. (NY)

In XXXX, I accepted a Chase credit card balance transfer offer. This resulted in unexpected charges that no reasonable person could have foreseen, that are not reflect in advance on Chases own billing statements, that two Chase employees told me I could avoid by making a payment I did, and that a Chase representative told me are common because of the unclear way the company provides disclosures. 

Here is the sequence of events : The XXXX balance transfer went through on XXXX XXXX. I am not to be charged any interest on this balance until XXXX XXXX, XXXX. 

I typically pay off this credit card in full every month to avoid any interest charges. 

After I received my XX/XX/2024 credit card statement in XXXX ( the XXXX statement ), I realized it was unclear what I owed to avoid any new interest charges. 

In XXXX XXXX, I visited the Chase bank location at XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, NY XXXX. 

A banker there called another Chase employee and spent 15-30 minutes on the phone trying to figure out what I would need to pay by XXXX XXXX to avoid any interest charges. 

Ultimately, I was told if I paid {$3800.00} by XXXX XXXX I would not be charged any interest. I have my own contemporaneous notes from this meeting available for review. 

On XXXX XXXX, I paid Chase {$4400.00}, more than the amount I was told I had to pay to avoid any interest charges. 

On or about XXXX XXXX, I received my next statement ( my XXXX statement ). It said I was going to be charged {$120.00} in interest. 

On XXXX XXXX, I called Chase and, over the course of two phone calls, spoke with four different representatives to determine why the information I received in XXXX from Chase was inaccurate and misleading. 

I relied on a figure given to me by multiple Chase employees during my XXXX visit to the XXXX XXXX XXXX location. 

It was explained to me that when I accepted the balance transfer offer, I was agreeing to change the way interest was charged and that, in effect, new purchases were immediately carrying interest, whereas before the balance transfer, there was no interest as long as the balance was paid by the due date. This was obviously unclear to me from the balance transfer agreement I signed, from the two billing statements I received after the balance transfer was processed and from my conversation in XXXX at the XXXX XXXX XXXX location. I believe Chases material is misleading so misleading that other customers have come away with the same misunderstanding and so complicated that even its own employees can not explain how it works ( hence the misleading interaction I had in XXXX that I relied on ). 

To be clear : There is no indication on either my XXXX statement or my XXXX statement that interest would be charged this way. To the contrary, both statements explicitly say, How To Avoid Paying Interest on Purchases : Your due date will be a minimum of 21 days after the close of each billing cycle.If you pay your account ( or Interest Saving Balance ) in full each billing period by the date and time due, no interest is charged on new purchases from month to month. 

The first Chase representative I spoke to by phone on XXXX XXXX ( in a call initiated at XXXX XXXX  EST ) appeared to immediately realize why I did not understand what was going on and said something to the effect of that I must have missed fine print. It was clear from this interaction that this is a common confusion Chase has created, yet has done nothing to fix. 

I explained to her and to the second person I spoke with XXXX XXXX that I had relied on the bills themselves and the XXXX representations of Chase employees at the XXXX XXXX XXXX location. 

About the bills themselves, the XXXX statement explicitly says in the Interest Charges section that none of my balances are subject to interest charges, except for {$2700.00} being subject to 0 %. In other words, it was impossible to know anything was being charged interest. 

The fourth Chase employee I spoke with on XXXX XXXX ( in a call initiated at XXXX XXXX  EST ) said this misunderstanding of how interest is accrued is common mistake that people make after receiving a balance transfer offer because of the way Chases disclosures appear in print/online and are given over the phone. 

Clearly, Chase is at fault here and I should not be charged interest and, in addition, Chase needs to correct this language so other people do not fall into the same trap.