Seeing how we wrote about credit card financing for home improvement projects yesterday, we thought we would make time to follow-up on our experiences using the retailer’s credit card to finance our exterior replacement door.
In Part 33 of this series, we wrote how only by checking the retailer’s credit card statement did we notice that we still, after 2 months, had not yet received the agreed upon:
- delay in the startof the 12 month no interest, no payments deferral period from September 2007 when we signed the contract for the replacement front door to June 2008 when the second replacement door’s installation had been completed, and
- $500 credit against the balance owing due to the inconveniences we had experienced due to the shoddy installation of the first replacement door by the retailer’s sub-contractors
Since it’s been a while here is a reminder of the replacement front door situation.
First, here was the original door. It was entirely green on the outside. We had started to paint the sides of the actually door black when we made the decision to replace the whole darn thing.
Next, this was the first replacement door:
Last, here was the second and final replacement door:
Now, when we called after receiving the retailer’s credit card statement 2 months after the re-install, we spoke to the now new store manager who took down the same information as the prior store manager.
Approximately a month later the next monthly credit card statement arrived from the retailer’s financing subsidiary. I did not have my hopes up.
So, what did I find?
First, the agreed to $500 credit was finally applied to the balance owing on the replacement front door. Yea. 
Second, the 12 month no interest no payments deferral period was not deferred to start June 2008 when the 2nd replacement door was installed. It was deferred to late August! Thank you new store manager. She gave us an additional 2 months deferral to compensate for our added frustration. At least that’s the way I am looking at it.
Third, on such no-pay no-interest deferral promotions, you do still have to pay interest if you fail to pay the full a mount at the end of the deferral period; and at the regular credit card interest rate (in our case a whopping 28.8%!) calculated from the start of the deferral period. This is called accrued interest during the deferral period, which keeps growing and growing until the end of the deferral period, which:
- changes to billed interest charges which you start to owe the credit card company if you do not pay off the balance owing at the end of the deferral period, or
- magically disappears if you do pay off the balance owning before or on the end of the deferral period.
What did I see on the retailer’s credit card statement we received was that this accrued interest amount did not return to zero. I mean, one could debate that if the deferral period now started August 2008, that accrued interest on that date would also be zero.
Rather, it was almost $900. Yikes! The retailer is calculating accrued interest from September 2007, the date when we signed the original contract. It is almost double the discount I was given to compensate us for our time and frustration with the original replacement door!
This does not seem right to me.
However, I know exactly what the retailer’s credit card arm will say.
I can’t be bothered. I plan to pay off the balance at the end of the now adjusted end of the deferral period. If I fail to have sufficient cash then I do have a line of credit at all of 5% that I can use.
But, geeeze, if someone does not look at the details and makes the mistake of forgetting to pay off the full balance before the end of the now new deferral period, they could be in for quite a shock.
So, remember, the devil really is in the details. Do not ignore your credit card or mortgage or load statements. Only you has your own best interest at heart.
