I recently had my Sears credit card paid in full and closed this month, and it had a $0 balance since the beginning of the month. However, when the new month rolled over, it showed a $69.23 charge on there and they claimed it was a finance charge left over from January and it was a legit charge. Well, I complained about it. I was like, how can I have a finance charge for February if I had it paid off and how can there be a charge left over for January when that was paid off, too? That doesn't make sense to me and I told them I was not going to pay that and they said they removed the charge. Does this really make sense though? I've had other cards that never did anything like this.
They're getting desperate, trying to pull one over on you. They probably did this to a bunch of people, expecting most of them to catch it, but hoping that a few less alert people wouldn't. And they probably suceeded.
Well I'd wager a couple of things: a). they are liers and your right, and their trying to get some free money.... not likely. b). you had a balace on your card near $1,500 at the time you paid the card off. Since finance fees are based on the max charged amount of the card at the end of the billing cycle (which ended before you paid it off), you got assesed the finance fee for the portion of the money not yet paid off because it hadn't accrued yet. Its a nasty little game they play and you have to understand everything about how CC work before you should be allowed to have one. I have been caught in this mess a couple of times in the past (not with sears), and once you understand the game rules, you cna play the system to your advantage.
(B) could be the reason why they said it was a legit charge, however I still don't believe it. For February's statement it should of said $0 for a balance since I had it paid in full but it still actually showed a balance. That still didn't really make sense to me because there shouldn't be a balance since I had it paid off. As soon as I paid my final payment, I called and closed it. Well, they worked with me in taking care of it since I never missed a payment but to take advantage of a good customer isn't right which is why I normally never open up store cards in the first place, I probably never well again The funny thing is I got a letter in the mail by them stating my account was closed and the next business day they sent me a card in hopes I would re-open the card and keep using it. I just went to pick up some scissors and I cut the letter up-- card and everything. If I get another charge next month even though it's been closed I'll just call back and tell them to keep reversing it, which I don't understand why this would happen if the card is closed.
Sometimes companies' systems just screw up. Ring them up, complain a bit, whine a bit, and it will soon be magicked away.
^^^ Agreed. My cc account has been blocked numerous times, or had finance charges applied to it for no reason at all. Just a mistake on their end. It's incredibly annoying, but it usually only takes a day or two to clear it up.
Citi did the same thing to me when I paid off a balance (prior to the due date). I actually called up customer service to confirm that the balance was zero, then cancelled the card. Nevertheless, the next statement came and had a $35 "finance" charge. They suck.