In 2004 Discover Card had an offer of 0% APR interest on balance transfers for the duration of the tranferred amount. As long as there were at least two posts during billing periods from February onward, the 0% APR would be maintained. I was able to maintain the 0% APR rate until October by using my Discover card at least twice each month.
My billing cycle ran between the 10th of each month. So the two required transactions had to post by the 10th of each month. I have an automatic charge on Discover that posts the 20th of each month. The other varied as to when I used the card.in review of several statements, most of the transaction dates and post dates for card uses on my statements are the same.
This changed however in September. On September 8 I purchased a T-Shirt online. According to Discover Card's statement the transaction date was Sep. 9, but the post date was Sep. 11. I contacted the vendor to see who was responsible for the delay. The vendor claimed that there was no delay on their part. So it could only be Discover Card who was responsible for the delay.
Could there have been a deliberate delay on Discover Card's part?
The amount remaining of the balance transfer was just under $10,000.By delaying the post date until after the 10th of the month, Discover Card could go from 0% to an APR above 15%. The difference between September's finance charge and October's finance charge was over $120 in my case. If I'm stupid enough to let that balance remain with Discover Card, I would continue to pay a slowly decreasing amount starting at about $125 per month.
The reason I'm making this report is because I smell a rat. I contacted Discover Card at the beggining of this week and have yet to receive a reply. If there are others who had taken advantage of this offer by Discover Card and had similar experience, I would like to know. But this also is a fair warning to those who may still have the 0% APR on their balance transfer not to wait until a couple days before their billing cycle ends to use their Discover card.
I also question Discover Card's ethics. Could there have been a memo or verbal instructions telling employees to delay postings on accounts like mine so that the 0% APR on balance transfer could be wiped out? Only time will tell if there's a fraud going on here.
0 comments