I did a balance transfer of $3,000 online with the understanding that I would receive 0% finance charges on that amount for 18 months. When I called "Customer Service" (which should be renamed "customer disservice") to clarify how this worked (i.E. How they differentiated the balance transfer amount from purchases), I had to surf the same voicemail menus for over 4 minutes before (magically) the option to speak to a live representative was suddenly offered.
I was on hold for over 45 minutes and finally spoke with an agent who was a non-native english speaker and who could not formulate grammatically correct (english) sentences, so I asked to be transferred to someone who spoke english correctly. When the next person picked up the line, I heard a lot of people talking loudly in the background and before I could say a word, she declared that I would have to call back because she couldn't hear me, and she promptly hung up on me.
When I called back (again surfing back and forth between 2 voicemail menus for 4 minutes before the magic option to speak to a live person was offered) and spoke with a nice english-speaking man, and after explaining my inquiry to him, I finally asked "how do I avoid accruing any finance charges at this point?" and he said that as long as I paid off my purchases every month, that I would not have any finance charges because my balance transfer carried a 0% finance charge.
I began to feel that these representatives have a script or a list of replies and are required to stick to the patented replies. I reached this conclusion when I started asking some "what if" questions, or giving the rep a scenario and asking if I would have a finance charge in that instance. My question essentially was, how could I utilize the 18 month opportunity of 0% finance charges to pay off the balance transfer, while I continued to use my card and pay off any purchases each month.
I understand that the fine print says that payments are credited to balances with lowest interest rates first, but then that means there really is no way to truly have 0% interest on a balance transfer if you continue to use your card for purchases, because your finance charge is based on your average daily balance.
Well, upon seeing a $42 finance charge on my next statement (after making payments that amounted to more than my purchases that month and even went toward paying off that balance transfer), naturally I was confused. Ironically I received a letter from CapitalOne asking me to "take the challenge" to tell them what they could do to make my card better. Well, I have several suggestions and complaints, so I called and was again on hold for 45 minutes after being transferred to an agent (could this be a pattern to frustrate consumers into just hanging up?), and was again transferred to a call center and to a non-native english speaking agent. Upon asking, I was informed that the call center was in Argentina.
I asked to be transferred to a call center in the US, and after another lengthy hold time, spoke with a "supervisor" who informed me that as long as I had a balance from the balance transfer, that my payments wouldn't go toward any of my monthly purchases! I asked "how can you say I have 0% finance charges if your charging me finance charges (14.9%) based on a daily balance that includes my balance transfer?"! He then investigated and found that even though my statement clearly listed the transaction as a balance transfer, that the amount had been "posted" in their system as a purchase. He said that perhaps I had done it incorrectly online when I had made the balance transfer (but then why would it clearly state "balance transfer" on the statement?).
I proceeded to tell him my problems and frustrations with CapitalOne (inability to speak with a live english-speaking person easily or timely [45 minutes of hold time, twice], receiving incorrect or vague/deceptive information from reps, and incorrect billing) and he asked if I was complaining about CapitalOne's customers by voicing my outrage at CapitalOne's inability to field calls in a timely manner.
Then he proceeded to tell me that they would have to compute how much of my payments have gone toward my balance transfer and how much interest I should be charged, since the average daily balance should NOT include my balance transfer. And, of course, that would take 1-2 billing cycles (presumably because they use abacuses, in third world countries, and snail mail the math answers back to the US).
So I have now received another statement with incorrect finance charges. At this point I have cut up my card, am preparing a letter to the CEO of CapitalOne and have initiated a balance transfer from my account to another card. I have since learned that the only way to truly have 0% finance charges on a balance transfer is to not have any charges on the card BEFORE you transfer a balance, and then NOT USE the card at all afterward until you have paid off the balance.
So we, as consumers, are rewarded for not using the card. Makes perfect sense to me.
Teri
Waukegan, Illinois
U.S.A.
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