1bassoon Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 (edited) Now what? I decided to trace our credit card statements since last June, to find out WHY we've seen such an increase! Here's what I discovered: Back in July of 08, I applied for (and was, I thought, approved for) a balance transfer from one credit card to this one. It went through, to the amount of 4500. Well, low and behold, I get a statement from the card I "thought" was now zero - the transfer never went through on their end. Sure enough, our MasterCard had credited the entire amount back to me! I was yanked and mighty angry, to say the least. It cost me over 700 in interest :( But I thought it was over. . . . . . At any rate, as I'm looking at my statements, each month for the past 7 months, they've charged me a minimum of $20 interest on that balance!! AND - to make it worse - ALL my payments have been going towards that balance, which is of course at a LOWER interest rate than that one!!! :banghead::cursing::banghead: OK, vent over. Maybe. NOW what do I do? It's obviously past the 60 days from the original mistake. Am I stuck? I'm thinking I'll call Monday and document in writing as well. . . . but am I out of luck? If this makes any difference - it's with USAA. I've been with them for almost 20 years, my dad's been with them for much longer. They are just usually terrific, and I'm shocked at this. Hoping they will make SOME adjustment - What would you do? Edited February 8, 2009 by HeatherH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nestof3 Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 I think I am following this. You mean you found out that you still had a balance on a credit card (which you thought you had paid off with a balance transfer)? Did you not receive any statements in the last several months alerting you that you still had a balance on the card you thought was paid off? What about the card the balance was supposed to have been transferred to? This is where I'm getting lost. The ugly part of balance transfers is that the payment always goes to the portion with the lowest APR. I'm not really sure there is a way you can fight this. What sort of documentation do you have showing that a credit transfer took place? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommyof4ks Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 Are you being charged for the same balance on both cards? Sorry, I should not try to think so late at night. If you have something stating that the transfer went through to the new card, then that should clear it up. We transferred a balance once, and the new card sent us a letter stating the amount and date that the balance was transferred. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1bassoon Posted February 8, 2009 Author Share Posted February 8, 2009 No, I'm TERRIBLE at explaining things online. . . . . . Another try: We had a balance on Credit Card B. The 0% rate was about to expire, so I was set to transfer it to Credit Card A, our main card. I applied for and was approved for a balance transfer to put the total onto Credit Card A. It looked like it went through, bringing the total on Card B to zero. The next month, I get a statement from Credit Card B. The balance was still there! In my frustration - I put it on Credit Card C. That part is done. (AND can I just tell you how much I can't WAIT to be out of debt!) Revisit Credit Card A. The statement for July shows a balance transfer of $4500, and on the same statement, a credit back to my account of $4500. Grr. I call Credit Card A company (USAA), they apologize, don't know why it didn't go through. If I remember correctly, it was b/c the account number was off by 1 digit - aka user error. Fast forward to last night. We're in major budget mode, so I revisit all of our credit card statements from Card A since last June. Lo and behold. . . . . This entire time, they have listed me as having received a promotional cash advance. It has a low APR - BUT - ALL the payments I've made since July have gone towards paying down a cash advance that I NEVER GOT! There. Does that make any more sense? I'm going to call them tomorrow. At the very least, I want the cash advance off my statement, and every payment from tomorrow forward should go towards paying the other balances. Hopefully, I can convince them to rectify the error beginning 60 days ago - or on the December statement. Prayerfully, they will rectify it from the beginning of the mistake. Any advice on how to word things, or what to say when I call? I do have to say, I've always had a very, very positive experience with USAA. I'm hoping they don't let me down this time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nestof3 Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 Well, if it looked like it went through, meaning your other account balance was brought to zero and the balance showed up on the other card, then I would say you have a case. I would highly recommend setting your cards to receive paper statements since it is easy to forget about online statements. Seeing those statements in the mail really helps see what's on each card. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1bassoon Posted February 8, 2009 Author Share Posted February 8, 2009 I would highly recommend setting your cards to receive paper statements since it is easy to forget about online statements. Seeing those statements in the mail really helps see what's on each card. Thanks, Dawn - the crazy thing is, we actually DO get paper statements! :) This stuff is hidden down at the bottom, where it says what your payments are allocated for. I tell you, the Lord has REALLY used so many things this past year to show me how very at the end of Myself I am - I used to be Ms. Self-Reliant, and in His mercy He has been chipping away at that day, after day, after day. Humility central. Good lesson, necessary lesson, hard lesson. I cannot WAIT until we sell our house, and this debt is over and done with. Thanks for responding - :grouphug: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tree House Academy Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 If you never got the cash advance, then they should not be charging you as if you did. They need to remove that, along with any interest you have paid on it. As soon as they do that, it will even out what you have paid otherwise. They owe that to you and there is no way they can dispute it if the cash advance did not ever go through. I am assuming the "cash advance" you are talking about is the denied balance transfer. Definitely call them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chai Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 It sounds like the original mistake was with the credit card company. Hopefully that will encourage them to the problems that you've had going forward. It is general policy with all credit card companies to pay off the lower-interest rate amounts first, unfortunately. We have had USAA forever too, and I've always gotten exceptional service even when something has been my mistake. Call them and tell them what you want to repair the situation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moni Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 If you never got the cash advance, what is the line item charging interest? :001_huh: The other ladies are smarter than I am. I'm still not following ? :seeya: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tree House Academy Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 I took it to mean that they were charging interest as if the cash advance/transfer had gone through. Since it did NOT go through, it is their error for charging her and they should and most likely WILL remove all extra interest to date. It was their error...if I am following correctly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
missplacedalaskan Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 I think you just need to call USAA and go over everything with them. We also belong to USAA and they have really been wonderful. They reversed the charges on an internet purchase for me that went bad. It can't hurt to talk to them... Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1bassoon Posted February 9, 2009 Author Share Posted February 9, 2009 I took it to mean that they were charging interest as if the cash advance/transfer had gone through. Since it did NOT go through, it is their error for charging her and they should and most likely WILL remove all extra interest to date. It was their error...if I am following correctly. BINGO!!! You win the prize!! (what the prize is, I don't know. . . . . ;)) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KidsHappen Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 BINGO!!! You win the prize!! (what the prize is, I don't know. . . . . ;)) This still doesn't make sense. Generally speaking cc's only charge the cash advance portion of the bill at the higher rate (not the entire balance). So, if you never received the balance transfer, you should still be paying the regular rate for the rest of the charges. Unless they made the mistake of charging you the higher rate on the entire balance in which case they should fix it no problem. If the error was on your part, you can bet that they would go back to the original error and charge the total correct amount. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1bassoon Posted February 9, 2009 Author Share Posted February 9, 2009 This still doesn't make sense. Generally speaking cc's only charge the cash advance portion of the bill at the higher rate (not the entire balance). So, if you never received the balance transfer, you should still be paying the regular rate for the rest of the charges. Unless they made the mistake of charging you the higher rate on the entire balance in which case they should fix it no problem. If the error was on your part, you can bet that they would go back to the original error and charge the total correct amount. My acct. has 3 different interest rates: Purchases at 6%, Cash Advances at 6%, and this "Promotional Cash Advance/Balance Transfer" at 3.4%. CC companies apply your payments to the LOWER interest rate balances first, then once that is paid off, to the higher interest rate balances. What's been happening: ALL the payments I've been sending, until now, have gone towards paying down the Balance Transfer that I NEVER GOT. Interest has been accruing not only on the Balance Transfer that never happened, but ALSO on the purchases balance, which did not get smaller, since my payments have been going towards the balance transfer (which I did not get), NOT the purchases. I'm on hold with USAA right now. . . . . .. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oak Knoll Mom Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 This still doesn't make sense. Generally speaking cc's only charge the cash advance portion of the bill at the higher rate (not the entire balance). So, if you never received the balance transfer, you should still be paying the regular rate for the rest of the charges. Unless they made the mistake of charging you the higher rate on the entire balance in which case they should fix it no problem. If the error was on your part, you can bet that they would go back to the original error and charge the total correct amount. But apparently she was getting charged for a balance transfer that didn't occur--and being charged a high rate at that. Am I correct? I can't wait to hear how the cc company fixes this. We've had problems recently with false charges on two different cards and it surprised me how easy it was to fix with one company and how hard it was with the other. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1bassoon Posted February 9, 2009 Author Share Posted February 9, 2009 Well, now, isn't this an interesting turn of events. . . . . . It looks like they actually made a mistake that BENEFITTED me! Hmmm. . . . . In as plain English as I can muster - It looks like, the month AFTER the balance transfer did NOT go through, the accounting/finance charge department SPLIT my purchases total into two parts - thereby charging me "less" interest on my purchases (6%) than should have been. In other words. Let's say the month before the balance transfer fiasco I had purchases totalling 6000. The next month, they were charging me interest on 4000 at the purchases rate (6%) and 2000 of that on the Promotional Cash Advance rate (3.4%). We SHOULD have been paying 6% on the full 6000. SO - the down side: we've not been paying down the 6%. The UP side: we've been getting charged 2.6% LESS interest on our purchases balance. SO - in light of this turn of events (if you even care and IF you're even following me!) - WWYD? Option A: Say nothing. Act casual. Continue paying on the card. Realize that every time you make a purchase, you will not pay off the 6% rate. Try not to make a purchase. Which will be hard, since we're moving, and may need CC funds to pay for needed repairs, truck rental, etc. Except once we move/sell the house, we'll pay off the card anyways. Option B: Ask that they fix it from this statement forward. Accept the higher interest rate. (FYI: the nice USAA guy said they would not ask me to pay more, going back to their original mistake. He did say it was up to me if we wanted to have them correct the balance transfer problem). Option C: Make this a math problem for my 16yo dd. (only kidding!) WWYD? I've spent waaaay too long on the phone this morning, but both the USAA people were both terrific. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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