Consumer complaint received 2024-06-14 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem when making payments — Problem during payment process
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.
State: MI

Complaint narrative:
I opened a Chase Freedom credit card in early XXXX. The credit card came with a 0 % APR offer that ended in XX/XX/XXXX. I set up auto pay for the statement balance like I do for all of my credit cards and was not initially planning to take advantage of the 0 % XXXX offer. 

I had a large expense charged to the credit card in XX/XX/XXXX. I was advertised a My Chase Plan that would divide the charges payments over any time frame I requested and if the plan was complete by the time my 0 % XXXX offer was over, I incurred no fees, so I decided to do it. My first issue is that in doing so, Chase changed my auto pay to the " Interest Savings Balance '' which is basically just the lesser of my minimum payment or my chase plan amount and the rest of the card doesn't get paid off. After realizing what happened, I decided to take advantage of the 0 % APR and allowed Chase to pay the near-minimum payments until the intro APR ended. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I received a statement with a XXXX balance and a message that said, " Your next AutoPayment for {$19000.00} will be deducted from your account and credited on your due date ( previous day if your due date falls on a Saturday ). Any payment or other credit posted to your account prior to your AutoPay payment being processed will be deducted from the AutoPaymenXXXX amount identified above. '' I called to confirm that my next auto payment would pay the full balance and a representative confirmed. The due date was XX/XX/XXXX. 

I moved the money required from a high yield savings account to the Chase checking account that is linked to my autopay a week ahead of time. Instead of the full statement balance, Chase 's autopay paid a different amount ( {$190.00} ), which was slightly higher than the minimum, with no explanation. 

On XX/XX/XXXX after seeing what had happened, I called Chase again to try to understand. They told me that since my intro APR had not expired until XX/XX/XXXX, the interest saving balance paid the minimum even though that is not what the statement said. They also said if I didn't immediately pay the full XX/XX/XXXX statement balance that had been generated after my XX/XX/XXXX payment, I would be charged interest on the new full balance. I tried to explain that that makes no sense as I've never heard of a credit card charging interest on a balance before a bill is due. 

My main complaint is that Chase 's My Chase Plan and the way they handle auto-payments is predatory and makes it so that even a person like me who has called several times and had autopay turned on to avoid interest charges will ultimately pay them. In addition, their statements contains messaging that is plainly false. The bank has no customer service ability to deal with these issues since most of the people I spoke with don't understand how credit card interest works and gave me conflicting information about what would or would not result in interest charges.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation