So when you pay off your Capital One balance, they charge you interest but they can't explain why.

[graywarrior]

Mr. Graywarrior is on the phone right now squeezing some poor customer rep's heart and balls demanding that he explain why he was charged $2.62 after the entire bill was paid off on time. They are claiming the payment was late, but it was paid electronically two days before it was due.

The $2.62 does not add up to an interest charge based on any of the figures on the bill. Ha ha, I can hear Mr Gray through his office door turning, turning, turning the screw tighter and tighter. Oops, threats of letters to someone in congress, the BBB and the Attorney General over $2.62.

More later...

[Captain Hilts]

1. Say to them, 'you don't get paid enough to hear what I have to say,' may I speak to

a manager?

[Bill McBlueState]

2. additional interest?

Between the time the bill was printed and the time you paid it, an additional $2.62 of interest had accumulated. That's the best explanation I can come up with. But if it's that simple, I don't know why Capital One wouldn't just tell you that.

[Obamanaut]

4. You time faster than I do. nt

[TwilightZone]

8. More than likely, that's it - interest from the statement (or closing) date to the payment date.

[Blue Diadem]

9. That's what they always told us. n/t

[Statistical]

12. This is exactly it.

Sad Capital1 training is so bad their CSR don't know this.

If you have a balance from previous month the "interest clock is always on".

So if you get a statement date May 02 with balance of $5032.18

If you pay $5032.18 on May 02 you will accrue no more interest.
however if you pay $5032.18 on May 05 then you will accrue 3 days worth of interest.

It is similar to getting a payoff balance for mortgage.
It will same something like payoff amount for May 02 is $204,108.18
PER DIEM (per day) interest is $28.72. So if you send certified funds of May 02 the $204,108.18 is accurate. Each day after that the balance goes up $28.72

CC could make this easier by having a realtime balance "clock" but then that might scare the sheeple into seeing how fast the interest accrues.

[Obamanaut]

3. CItibank did that very same thing to me, for a similarly small

amount. Rep on the phone said words to the effect that it was the interest on the balance due amount on the statement between the time the statement was prepared and when that balance due amount was rec'd by them.

I asked exactly how much would they accept from me so that I would never ever hear from them again for any amount, and where did they want the pieces of the card sent after they closed the account.

The rep said to forget that small amount. I closed the account and sent them several of the pieces in one of their prepaid envelopes.

They send me offerings for cards from time to time still.

They are all weasels.

edited to change a word

[Statistical]

14. That is what made you mad?

The universal fact that interest accrues even after a statement is written.

Not the fact that CC are not needed.
Not the fact that CC are so easy to abuse.
Not the fact that CC routinely change the terms at will.
Not the fact that paying down $5000 @ 30% interest is virtually impossible.
Not the fact that CC companies treat you like scum first time you have a problem.

Not any of that. What made you "mad" is the fact that interest always accrues just like it does on your mortgage, or car note, or student loan, or signature loan. Just like is does in reverse on CD, or T-bills, or corp bonds, or munis.

Just like it does in every financial transaction everywhere in the world and has been for hundreds of years.

Did you tear up your mortgage also?

[Obamanaut]

18. Well gee, I'm not sure. But are you going to chastise the OP as

well? Or maybe it's a random thing.

FYI. No, I didn't tear up the mortgage. The house has been paid for since 2003. The car is paid for, as are the motorcycle and two recumbent bicycles.

Have a nice day.

Edited to add this: You missed a couple of other posters who said roughly the same thing I did. Go get 'em, big guy!

[graywarrior]

26. No, sugar lips, what made me mad was their inability to EXPLAIN their charges

in one easy to undertstand paragraph.

[Wednesdays]

47. ROFLMAO

"Sugar Lips."

:rofl:

[graywarrior]

52. I've become Sawyer, Sweet cheeks.

[graywarrior]

5. So after 10 minutes of not understanding the rep from India, Mr Gray

demanded to speak to someone else. Jody the Manager comes on the line and explains that the $2.62 is interest from LAST month's balance that was not paid off last month.

I cannot read their statements...they are impossible to figure out and try to calculate what you really owe. It's all based on dates you purchase, dates your bill is due, interest for prior months and calculated with complication percentages. This freaks me out because it looks like I may need surgery very soon and will need to use my charge card to pay for it.

[LWolf]

39. If you must,

get a different card. Don't deal with Capital One.

I got a small settlement from them last year when they crossed the line in an interest dispute. I didn't win the dispute about suddenly raising my interest rate from 6% to 30%, of course. When I took them to task about the extra interest, they called my senior citizen mother and threatened her property.

I'm still not sure how they got her information; probably because I have right of survivorship to her home. They broke the law.

They also scared an old lady, and left her worried for months until it was resolved.

[IntravenousDemilo]

6. Good for him. Capital One is probably banking (pardon the pun) on the fact that most of the millions

of customers who get dinged for, say, $2.62 will just let it slide because it's such a small amount. Well, those small amounts amount to a lot when they're added together. And somebody gets a new Rolls-Royce out of it.

[graywarrior]

7. Exactly

So he ends the call with "BTW, why do you outsource your customer rep business?" No response. None.

[OregonBlue]

10. I've read here that lots of people are now demanding that they be transferred to someone in the

United States. They are refusing to talk to India. Perhaps we all need to do exactly that.

[graywarrior]

20. That is what Mr Gray finally did

He told the first guy "you sound like a really nice person, but I cannot understand what you are saying and I really need an explanation" so they transferred him to an American supervisor.

[TWiley]

11. Sears does the same thing ..... they said this.

Sears charges you for a full years interest up front. The deal was 0% for two years, and their accounting made me late. Suddenly, I was paying 30% compounded on charged-in-advance interest.

I paid that credit card off .... cancelled it ..... requested a refund. Guess what? I don't get 30% interest on the $74 they owe me and should not have charged me anyway. I have to wait up to 6 months to get it.

Lousy fuckers. I will NEVER shop at sears again. It is where American gets fucked.

[onethatcares]

43. picture 1972 and I'm stationed in Alaska

fort richardson to be exact and I have a sears charge card. my wife is driving a 1963 ford station wagon and we needed to get 2 tires, seriously needed 2 new tires. we go to the sears there and they call the sears in reading, penna. the lady in the store in reading, penna, tell them that my mother in law is paying off our charge,(cause we send money to her every freaking month to handle our mortgage and the rest of the home bills), they deny my request for adding 150.00 to my account for tires. I have not set foot in a sears since that day.

[lunatica]

13. When I paid off my Chase account...

I logged online to see what the balance was and it was more than what the bill showed, so they do accumulate interest after they send out the bills. I paid what they showed online and didn't get another bill.

[lonestarnot]

15. No fucking way! Just don't pay! Tell them to kiss your ass!

[juno jones]

16. They did that to me when I paid off a card and tried to close the account.

It took three months of a few dollars here and there to finally get the balance right. I think they wound up owing me 4 cents or something.

Three months to close a freaking account.

At least the customer service was still in the states at the time.

Capitol One sucks.

Good luck with the surgery. :hug:

[ensho]

17. I'm close to paying mine off and wondered if they would charge me

a monthy fee even if I don't charge anything. thanks, now I know the answer to half of the question.

[shanti]

27. i can answer that

i have two cap one cards, both paid off, but they still charge me 4.99 a month each for the "privilege" of owning the damn things! in a few months, i'm planning to cut them up for good!

[alarimer]

19. Its the "fee for paying your bill fee".

I am waiting to see a "fee" fee. It's like Ticket Bastard charging you a fee to use YOUR OWN PRINTER.

[graywarrior]

21. It's the "who's on first" shit

[anigbrowl]

30. No it isn't. It's interest on the time between receiving your statement and paying the balance.

Pay the balance on the day your statement is issued - no interest.
Call the bank say you're paying off the balance, and what's the total - they'll work out the interest to the exact day, you pay that amount and you're done.

I learned this the hard way with one credit card I had last year. I got out of paying it because the first time I asked for what the money was, they gave me the wrong answer (due to stupidity). I sent the emails back and pointed out that I told them I was paying it off and closing the card, and that they had given me misleading information. eventually they caved and actually sent me a check for $1.32.

Next (and last) card I paid off, I called them up and asked them to calculate the exact interest before I made the final payment. They did, I paid that amount, end of story, no further bills, no extra charges.

[JVS]

40. That would be the "electronic convenience fee"

[konnichi wa]

22. Coincidence, I just opened up my Amazon CC statement for $0.00

New Balance $0.00
Past Due Balance $0.00
Minimum Payment $0.00
Payment Due Date 05/25/09

They included an envelope for me to mail in my check for $0.00

:eyes:
:shrug:

[Bolo Boffin]

23. When you send it in, postdate it. n/t

[graywarrior]

25. It's an electronic payment.

[pipi_k]

41. hee hee

I would also "forget" to sign it and see if they send it back for a signature


:7

[konnichi wa]

49. I would, but I'm scared shitless my bank will figure out some way to charge ME for it!

:scared: :silly: :shrug:

[graywarrior]

24. Ha ha ha.

We just got once of those from the phone company which we have not used for over 8 months.

[onethatcares]

42. what bank is holding the card?

I know that Amazon.com isn't a bank or financial institution, so, a bank somewhere is holding your piece of plastic in thier little hands. Probly, bofa out of delaware.

[konnichi wa]

50. Og, it's actually a Chase card that I took out to buy some stuff on Amazon.

They haven't ever given me any problems whatever, I just thought it was weird they send out statements with no money due...it seems like a big waste of money, time, paper and stamps. :-)

(I know DUers hate Chase but I have had my online acct with them for years - pay all my bills online and have yet to be charged one cent for anything.)
:shrug:

[SmileyRose]

57. A hospital turned us over to collections for a $00.00 balance

My husband has been in the hospital since August, came home several weeks ago. The ER visit bill for that first hospital before he was moved by the HMO to the Downtown Atlanta hospital was paid in full in October but the hospital's computer just keeps sending me $00.00 statements. I've called and written them no less than 30 times over this being assured each time it was just a glitch, don't worry about it. They sent me a nasty letter last month if I didn't pay my $00.00 balance within 10 days they are turning me over to collections. I talked to my local Wachovia branch who said they won't process a $00.00 electronic payment or a check either one -- it has to be at least 10 cents to process.

We got a letter from the collection agency earlier this week saying if I didn't pay my $00.00 balance plus $00.00 in finance charges plus $00.00 in collections fees within 30 days they will start proceedings to garnish my wages in the amount of $00.00. They already dinged my husband's credit report with this.

I have a friend that is a personal injury lawyer (don't laugh, not all of them are sleezoids amazingly enough) and we've decided we are going to file a lawsuit against the hospital and the collection agency. You know I used to have a good laugh at the stupidity of things like this, but this crap has caused us a reasonable amount of stress, caused embarrassment at my workplace when they send robocalls there up to 4 times a day demanding we pay our bills, and now they ding his credit report.

It isn't funny anymore and they are going to have to not only make this right but also change their damn system so they don't needlessly stress out more people who are already dealing with serious illness (already stressful enough).

I was too busy with my husband, but I realized I should have sent them $1.00 long time ago waited 30 days and then demand they cut a refund check for my dollar.

[anigbrowl]

28. It's called trailing interest, and actually makes sense. Here's how it works:

Let's say your payment is on the 1st of the every month and use round numbers for simplicity's sake. This is an example, don't complain about it not being exactly the same as your bill, OK?

So on January 1 you get your statement saying your balance is $100, your $10 minimum payment is due by February 1.

So you decide that paying interest is a waste of your money, and decide to pay it all off. You send them $100 on January 31.

You still owe $1 (or whatever - this is an idealized 12% APR) in interest for the month of January, because the the statement tells you what the state of your account is at the time the statement was issued.

It's not possible to calculate forward On January 1 and tell you what the interest will be on February 1, because the bank has no way of knowing what date you will make your payment or what amount you will chose to pay.

If you make minimum payment of $10, your new balance would be $91. But if you paid $50 on January 15, then the balance on February 1 would be $50.25. If they brought the $1 interest payment for January forward onto your statement (saying you owed $101), then they'd actually be overcharging you in the latter case. If you paid $100 on the day you received your statement (rather than at the end of the 30 day period) then you would not owe any trailing interest.

The way to deal with it is this: call the bank when you decide to pay off the card. You call them up and say you're going to pay it off, and ask how much you owe. If they say that's the same amount as on your statement, they just might be trying to screw you but in my experience it's more likely because the people who work int he call centers are generally not that bright.

so if necessary, say 'I don't want to pay any trailing interest, tell me exactly how much I should pay you because this is the last transaction I am going to make'. Then they'll calculate the exact amount up to and including the date of your call. You give them that amount and you're done forever.

I am not a fan of the banks, and I have paid off and cut up all my credit cards in the last year. But in this case the charge is fair. You always pay interest on your balance during the grace period. That's why it's called 'credit'. You do not get 30 days interest-free, even though most people (guilty) fall into the trap of assuming they do.

What is not fair is the bank failing to pre-emptively give you this information so you don't make a mistake - every statement should include a line saying 'if you want to pay off the whole balance, do it immediately or you'll still have to pay interest for this month'.

[Statistical]

29. You do get 30 (or 28, or 24, or whatever you CC says) interest free..

but ONLY if you begin the period w/ $0 balance.

If you roll forward even $1 then you get no grace period.

[anigbrowl]

34. Yeah, I didn't say that clearly.

Most people assume that every month is the same as the first month (assuming they carry a balance rather than paying it off completely every month). This is wrong. I did too, but it's my own fault for not reading the credit card agreement carefully...though it's also true that the banks deliberately make the CC agreements hard to read. You need to hve PhD-level reading ability to parse one correctly; i do, but (like most people) I was too lazy to comb through 20 pages of legalese until I had a problem.

[graywarrior]

32. That is the best explanation I ever read and I thank you!

[anigbrowl]

35. You're welcome. I had to learn it the hard way, and I was annoyed too!

[graywarrior]

36. I just always think they're out to get us....

....which they are.

[rucky]

31. You're charged on your daily balance.

APR / 365, every day. You paid off what your statement told you your balance was, but you were accruing interest in the meantime. You should be square, now, though.

[graywarrior]

33. We are, and thank you!

[kaygore]

37. I had the same thing happen with Citibank!

I stopped using their card because they had no explanation.

[Sheltiemama]

38. He must be related to my father.

He lives to do stuff like that. And he's very good at it.

[graywarrior]

53. He starts that shit whenever he has the need to "query" a sales rep

He met another hypotist at a Home Show today and started in about the hypnotists in town being territorial. I had to walk away. 20 minutes later he's done and looking mighty proud of himself.

[SOS]

44. Filed a complaint with the OCC against Capital One today

Here's the form to complain about these bums:

https://appsec.helpwithmybank.gov/olcc_form/

[ellie]

45. I have a Capital One card

and I was looking at the bill and they are charging me for payment protection. I called the number to cancel it and the woman on the other end was giving me a hard time about canceling it. They really don't want to let you go. Finally I said, "You raised my interest rate, didn't you?" She said yes. And I said, "There is no more money to be had from me. Cancel it now!" And she said OK and canceled it. I just got the notice.

[LuckyLib]

46. Life is WAY to short to mess with these criminals. Get out of the world of cards as soon as

financially feasible. Paying off the monthly balance, if possible, keeps the wolves at bay! You're known in banking terms as a "deadbeat" for doing so! Isn't their twisted logic special?

[Wednesdays]

48. K&R

:kick:

[WhiteTara]

51. I think I now know why

the duck is still taped to the wall.
:rofl:

[struggle4progress]

54. I had a lame-ass non-interest-bearing bank account once, for which the bank charged

me a $20 closing fee when I closed it.

[1]

55. so, your entire cap one bill is paid off? and you are expending this much of your life energy over..

$2.62???

really?

wow. just wow...

[Raineyb]

56. That's $2.62 that doesn't belong in Capital One's pocket.

It's her money she can make as big a stink as she likes. I assure you that if she weren't to pay that $2.62 that Capital One wouldn't be nearly as dismissive of the amount.