Consumer complaint received 2025-03-27 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Advertising and marketing, including promotional offers — Confusing or misleading advertising about the credit card
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.
State: CT

Complaint narrative:
My wife and I accepted a balance transfer offer from Chase last year to help pay for our wedding expenses. We had previously filed a complaint with the XXXX  and the CFPB because we were provided incorrect information and accepted this balance transfer offer under false pretenses. 

The reference number for the previous case is : XXXX As a resolution to that case, Chase admitted that their agent had provided us with incorrect information and they refunded the {$750.00} balance transfer fee. That case was filed because we were told that we effectively lost the grace period to pay our account balance in full before the statement close date. Chase said we would accrue interest on new purchases even if we paid the balance of our new purchases at the statement closing date. As we understood it, that meant that we would just need to pay for the new purchases as we made them, instead of waiting for the closing date. Part of the resolution to that previous case, was that Chase offered a 2 month pause on interest accruing on the account. 

Today, Chase is now trying to charge us about {$200.00} per month in interest fees even though we've paid our new purchases in full. When we called and asked for help on this, we were told that a case was opened for us and we'd be called back. Instead, we received a letter in the mail that says " payments will be applied to the lowest APR balance first ''. Which would be fine if that had been properly communicated when the terms of the offer were accepted, it wasn't. The rep told us that we could pay our promotional offer separately, and we were also told that the offer wouldn't affect our new purchases. 

The problem is that Chase hasn't actually consistently allocated our payments toward the lowest APR balance ( the 0 % APR for 10 months promotional offer ). We made a payment on XX/XX/XXXX for {$4800.00} for our XXXX statement. Chase applied {$380.00} of this payment toward our credit card statement, and applied the remaining {$4500.00} toward our new balance transfer offer, which we hadn't even received yet. I'd like to know why my payment is going to the promotional balance before I even received the money? We made another payment on XX/XX/XXXX of {$4500.00}. On the XX/XX/XXXX statement, Chase said our remaining promotional balance was {$6000.00}. We made a payment of {$5000.00} on XX/XX/XXXX. After filing a complaint to XXXX  and CFPB and Chase telling us we no longer have a grace period, we made a payment for {$11000.00}. If Chase had been consistent, nearly {$10000.00} of this payment should have gone toward new purchases and the card balance. Additional payments have also been made, {$1000.00} on XX/XX/XXXX, {$1000.00} on XX/XX/XXXX, {$500.00} on XX/XX/XXXX. 

When we received our XXXX statement, after Chase 's " 2 months of no interest '' resolution, our statement shows {$4500.00} on the promotional balance. We made a payment of {$1000.00} on XX/XX/XXXX. Upon receiving the XXXX statement, the promotional balance now shows {$4300.00}. 

When we made the payment of {$11000.00} on XX/XX/XXXX, we were paying off our entire new purchase balance. Chase says that payments will be allocated to the lowest APR balance first. Even if that were true, that payment should have paid off the promotional balance in full, even though that's not what we wanted to do- we wanted that money to go toward our monthly card statement.

Chase swindled my wife and I to accept this offer because we were told that our purchasing and interest calculation would not change. It was recorded, well-documented, and Chase has already admitted fault in that matter.

But their mistake has resulted in a {$15000.00} promotional balance in the way before we could pay off our new purchases. Under the misleading advertising of 0 % APR, Chase authorized this offer, has not properly allocated our payments, and is now trying to profit off our " new purchases '' balance which contains significant wedding & honeymoon expenses. We paid those amounts IN FULL, but even more alarming is that Chase isn't consistently allocating the payments according to how we were told that they would be allocated or even their own policies.

This has been unethical behavior from start to finish, with a number of Chase employees lacking the proper training to be authorizing this promotional offer and communicating how it works.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation