Disney Visa Ripoff

[LJD2143]

No this is definately a change. I have been a card member since Day One. I always have watched my account and never paid one dime in interest.

The change affects how they apply your payment to your "interest free charges." If you use this card just for Disney Purchases (not other monthly purchases) and you have several purchases expiring at different times - One expiring in April, one in June and one in September, they will apply the payment to the one in September first. Therefore, you could be start being charged interest on the one coming up in April even though you made a payment enough to pay it off. They are hoping no one notices.

I told the customer service person if they wanted to do away with the program they should just end it. This is a deceitful way to really not be giving you 6 months "free interest."

You are correct.
This IS a change, effective Feb. 2010.
Chase has admitted it.
It only affects people that have more than one "Promotional Transaction" on their account at the same time.

 

[doconeill]

No this is definately a change. I have been a card member since Day One. I always have watched my account and never paid one dime in interest.

The change affects how they apply your payment to your "interest free charges." If you use this card just for Disney Purchases (not other monthly purchases) and you have several purchases expiring at different times - One expiring in April, one in June and one in September, they will apply the payment to the one in September first. Therefore, you could be start being charged interest on the one coming up in April even though you made a payment enough to pay it off. They are hoping no one notices.

I told the customer service person if they wanted to do away with the program they should just end it. This is a deceitful way to really not be giving you 6 months "free interest."

You are correct.
This IS a change, effective Feb. 2010.
Chase has admitted it.
It only affects people that have more than one "Promotional Transaction" on their account at the same time.

OK, I understand this example more. And as far as I can tell it is perfectly within the law as I understand it.

The law only requires that payments beyond the minimum be applied to the balance with the highest rate first. They do not regulate which of several balances with the same rate they apply to. This normally doesn't matter.

But if as cdavishb said, they apply it to the NEWEST of several 0% balances, the oldest will expire its promotional rate, and you will get hit with a charge on the next cycle. However, the next payment made will be applied to that balance because it is no longer among the lowest.

Alas, this is permitted by the new law. But in fact it was permitted before, as the bank could decided totally which balance the entire payment went to - and even after the oldest promo balanced popped, they could continue allocating the payment to the newest, so the finance charge would keep accruing.

 

[LJD2143]

All cards are starting to do that. There's an easy way around it though. Pay off your car each month.

The people that this is affecting are the people who DO PAY their entire current balance each month. These are people who do not accrue ANY interest on their account and do not carry any balance other than a couple of "0% Free Financing for 6 Monthes Promotional Balances".

If you have more than one Promotional Balance, one expiring in February and one expiring in March, they now apply your Feb payment in the following order:
1) current balance/purchases
2) March-expiring Promo Balance
3) Feb-expiring Promo Balance

So even though you may have sent payment in full for your entire current and Feb-expiring balances, they apply it to March first. As a result, you are left with an interest-accruing Promo balance that expired in February.

They are essentially punishing their best, credit-worthy customers who had not been paying any interest.

 

[doconeill]

They are essentially punishing their best, credit-worthy customers who had not been paying any interest.

True, but its because they aren't making any money of these customers.

And the banks have ALWAYS done things like this. They have always allocated payments in such a way that it benefited them, unless they provided terms that specifically state how they do it.

The new laws are there to simplify the matters and to be clearer to the consumer, and prevent to some level the practice of bank-benefit transactions, but not all of them. Because of the law changes, the banks are figuring out how to do things within the law that still gets them some money.

I just canceled a card that I had a 0% balance on. I was only using it for that rate which was good for a year. With all the law changes, they were adding all sorts of new charges. One was a $40 annual fee unless I used the card over a certain amount during the year. Another that I just discovered was a "$0.50 non-purchase fee". Apparently I get charged 50 cents if I don't use the card at all. They offered an opt-out phone call, which I called. I was prepared for the usual "Let me transfer you to our cancellation department" which is code for "I'm going to put one of our best retention experts on the line to make you feel bad about canceling..." It didn't happen. They just canceled my card, no questions asked. And I had an over 22 year relationship with them.

After the credit crash and the new laws, the credit card companies generally do not want your business. So they are raising rates, cutting the credit limits, and inventing new fees to punish those that don't actually pay them money.

 

[kmk1180]

The people that this is affecting are the people who DO PAY their entire current balance each month. These are people who do not accrue ANY interest on their account and do not carry any balance other than a couple of "0% Free Financing for 6 Monthes Promotional Balances".

If you have more than one Promotional Balance, one expiring in February and one expiring in March, they now apply your Feb payment in the following order:
1) current balance/purchases
2) March-expiring Promo Balance
3) Feb-expiring Promo Balance

So even though you may have sent payment in full for your entire current and Feb-expiring balances, they apply it to March first. As a result, you are left with an interest-accruing Promo balance that expired in February.

They are essentially punishing their best, credit-worthy customers who had not been paying any interest.

This doesn't make sense.
You start saying it does effect those who pay off their balances.
Then end with except those who have promotional balances.

Well if you have a promotional balance...you have a balance and are not paying off what you owe.

I think LJD2143 still has it right. If you pay off when you owe you don't get charged the interest.

 

[cdavishb]

One Final explanation since some people seem confused about this. We all understand how credit card companies work etc. The complaint here is the deception.

Disney and Chase have an agreement to offer a Credit Card with one of the main selling points being 6 months "free interest" on Disney Vacations, Cruises, etc.

If, like our family, you travel to Disney often. (We've cruised over 12 times), you may have more that one "free interest for 6 months" promotions on your account at the same time. You may have the cruise you just took, plus a deposit for another vacation, or other qualified Disney purchases. They list them separately and clearly on your account and show when the "free period" expires.

We have never paid any interest on any of our Disney Vacations and have earned points toward trips to Disney by using our card. This was a win win situation for us. Taking a six thousand dollar cruise and having six months interest free to pay for it was a great deal. The change with how they are posting the payments to the most recent charge instead of the oldest charge is going to change this and we wanted to make others who may not have notice aware of the change.

As an aware consumer, I will change the way we use the card as to not pay any interest. And one final comment, the credit card not only make money on interest charges, they make a fee on every single transaction made. It is paid by the merchant - not the consumer.