Consumer complaint received 2024-08-07 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Advertising and marketing, including promotional offers — Didn't receive advertised or promotional terms
Company: Credit Karma, LLC
State: NY

Complaint narrative:
Hi there, This complaint involves XXXX parties that are both refusing accountability and directing me to the opposite party for resolution. 

This complaint will be copied and resubmitted - one for Credit Karma, XXXX for XXXX. This complaint will be submitted against Credit Karma. 

I logged into creditkarma.com and received a promotional offer to transfer the balance of my high-interest XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX 29.9 % interest ) to a lower interest card ( see screenshot ). 

The card recommended by Credit Karma was another XXXX card. I clicked the referral link Credit Karma provided and went through the application process at chase.com. 

During the application process at chase.com, XXXX requested the account number of the card I intended to to transfer the balance from, as well as the amount I wanted to transfer. 

I entered the account number of the XXXX XXXX XXXX card, as well as the amount ( {$5000.00} ). 

I entered that information, clicked " continue '' and was then notified that my application was accepted and I was enrolled in a new card with a credit limit of {$1500.00} ( I was expecting {$5000.00} and there was no " confirm '' button to accept enrollment with this credit limit - it simply enrolled me immediately ). 

After I was enrolled in the card, I reached out to XXXX about this, and they informed me that my balance transfer was ineligible, as XXXX does not allow the transfer of balances between cards that they administer. As the original card was a XXXX XXXX XXXX card, and my new card was a XXXX card, the new card was essentially useless to me. Furthermore, there would be hard-pulls on my credit profiles that would not be rescinded. Neither XXXX nor Credit Karma agreed to provided supplemental documentation for my appeal to the credit bureaus. 

I asked for more information, and XXXX indicated that this policy is quite common across lending institution- to prohibit customers from openeing new cards at the same bank and transferring balances between them. 

When I mentioned that the application process included inputting the original high-interest card account number ( XXXX XXXX XXXX card ) and a balance transfer amount, and the application under the auspices of a balance transfer was accepted, despite XXXX explicitly requesting the information that it should have used to inform the consumer of balance transfer ineligibility, XXXX indicated that the policy regarding balance transfers is in their terms and conditions. XXXX told me to take it up with Credit Karma, as the promotional offer should never have been suggested. 

I reached out to credit karma over email, instant messaging, and phone, carefully detailing the situation as a means to prevent this from happening to other customers, and to request supporting documentation for when I submit an appeal to the credit bureaus have the hard pull removed from my profiles. Their reply to all these requests has been unchanging : " XXXX XXXX, I understand you do not feel that the offer was represented properly on our site. 

The offers you see are provided and vetted by the lender / credit card company. The terms and conditions of those cards are managed by the credit card companies and not by Credit Karma. 

Unfortunately, the terms and conditions set forth by the lender and are subject to change at the lenders discretion. 

Regards, Credit Karma Member Support '' So here we are - XXXX is blaming Credit Karma, Credit Karma is blaming chase, and they are both making money off this abusive process that results in material harm to the consumer ( negative marks on the credit profile ). 

In closing Credit Karma should not be promoting offers for balance transfers that are ineligible - whether it is simple negligence or bad-faith, they have a responsibility to adhere to industry-wide standards. 

XXXX should not be allowing a consumer to complete a new card XXXX  balance transfer bundled application ( in this case presented to the consumer as a singular product ), especially after requesting the account number of the source high-interest card, and then NOT using that to inform the consumer of ineligibility before enrolling the consumer in the card. 

This submission will be used for Credit Karma, I will submit another one against XXXX after completeing this one.

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief