Posts by Bryan Bennett5

Man, just when I thought I finally wrapped my head around this whole damn credit card thing, something else pops up to mess with me. So, here’s the deal. My total credit limit is $4000, right? I haven't even touched the card lately, but then I decided to grab some storage cabinets from a place like IKEA for $2000 and opted for that 12-month installment plan they offer. Based on my math, I figured I'd be looking at a monthly bill of roughly $167—and don't even get me started on interest rates, who cares about that part right now? Anyway, that’s exactly what’s been happening for three months straight. Every month when I log into my JP Morgan Chase online banking and click on my 'credit card account,' it shows I owe exactly $167, which checks out. But once I pay that off, the app tells me I still owe $0.00 and that my approved limit is $4000. Here's where my brain starts melting: if I go into the cards and limits section on the site, it says my agreed limit is $4000 but my available credit is only $2500. Why the hell did they slash my available credit by the full price of the cabinets if the seller gave me 12 months to pay? Shouldn't my available credit only drop by the monthly payment of $167, and then jump back up by $4000 once I pay the bill?

By January 1st, I should be looking at interest charges if my math isn't totally trashed. I’m sitting here wondering why the amount hasn't popped up on the JPMorgan Chase app yet—unless it's already showing up for you guys? Last time I settled up the interest was back on October 1st, and even then, the figure had been sitting there on the JPMorgan Chase site for at least two or three weeks beforehand.

I’m just not seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with this prepaid card situation. Got another question. Honestly, maybe someone already touched on this, but I’ve been getting so worked up trying to get this damn forum to actually load—sometimes it feels like it takes an eternity just to see a single page—so I'm just gonna throw it out there and see what happens...
I pulled $10 $0.00 off my card using an ATM (set over 24 months). If I remember right, I got hit with a fee for using the ATM $117, and then I should be paying $139 every month (roughly 10000/24=416.67). So far, everything seems straightforward enough.
But the interest rates are tripping me up. They say it's 12%. My logic was that by paying back those $10 $0.00 I withdrew, I'd end up paying an extra $400 (which is 12% of the $10 $0.00), meaning I'd be looking at $17 per month. So far, I've only seen one charge for those $17 on October 1st. Am I totally missing something here? Is it possible they calculate that 12% interest every three months based only on the remaining balance? Because if that's how they do it, I wouldn't be paying $400 but way less (like, theoretically, a max of $133 once the principal stops shrinking: 8 billing periods in the second year at $17).
I really hope that's the case, but man, I'm skeptical...

Hey there.
Back in late March, I decided to run a little experiment. I pulled $33 out of an ATM using my credit card, and they set up a repayment plan over 24 months where I’d be paying back $40. I wasn't about to sit around for two years waiting to pay off $40, though, so I just cleared the whole thing at once. That first month, it looked like I had to cough up $8.00, plus the remaining 23 months were set at $1.50 each. Some guy on this forum previously told me that those $6.75—the extra amount tacked onto what I pulled from the machine—was actually just an ATM convenience fee, and that they’d hit me with interest after some quarterly calculation. Well, that never happened. All I ever paid was that initial $40.
History is repeating itself, just with bigger numbers this time. This time I grabbed 10 $0.00 using the exact same method, so I'm dropping the payment schedule as it shows up on my JPMorgan Chase online portal here:

Account Payment Schedule
xxxxxxxxxx (credit account)
Remaining Balance: $10,350.00
Due Date Principal Amount
09/15/2008. $766.67
10/15/2008. $416.67
11/15/2008. $416.67
12/15/2008. $416.67
01/15/2009. $416.67
02/15/2009. $416.67
03/15/2009. $416.67
04/15/2009. $416.67
05/15/2009. $416.67
06/15/2009. $416.67
07/15/2009. $416.67
08/15/2009. $416.67
09/15/2009. $416.67
10/15/2009. $416.67
11/15/2009. $416.67
12/15/2009. $416.67
01/15/2010. $416.67
02/15/2010. $416.67
03/15/2010. $416.67
04/15/2010. $416.67
05/15/2010. $416.67
06/15/2010. $416.67
07/15/2010. $416.67
08/15/2010. $416.59
TOTAL: $10,350.00

What I'm trying to wrap my head around is where the hell is the 12% interest? Based on this breakdown, it looks like I'm only paying back $117 more than I originally took out. Is it actually possible they don't charge interest if you're pulling cash from an ATM?

Hey there.
It feels like everyone’s asking the same questions about how this go!card thing actually works, and honestly, it’s hard to find any real answers. It's like JPMorgan Chase didn't bother explaining a single thing in detail. I guess when you're pocketing a 12% fee, you don't really care enough to hire someone to write a decent FAQ, right?
I've got two things bugging me.
Just to test the waters, I pulled $33 out of an ATM using the go!card (and yeah, I set the repayment term to 24 months). For the first month, they hit me for $8.00, but for the following months, it looks like it'll be $1.50. I'm guessing that extra $6.75 in the first month is because of that ATM fee ($2.75) plus the 12% interest on the $33 I took out (so, basically $4.00). Does that mean the entire interest chunk hits all at once in month one? I was under the impression that even the interest would be spread out over those 24 months.
Second thing—it's been 15 days since the money for that first installment should have been pulled from my checking account, and nothing. Absolutely nothing. Please tell me I don't have to manually log into online banking every single month to pay this off?! Back when I was with Bank of America, I had a Mastercard where everything just worked—money moved automatically from my account whenever I swiped.