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Lowe's - Six Months Same as What?

Lowe's, Home Depot and Monogram Credit Card Bank will pay out about $4 million to settle a consumer class action lawsuit charging the companies misled customers with their "interest-free" promotions.

Lowe's • Products • Special Orders • Floors • Kitchen Remodeling • Low Price Guarantee • Credit & Billing Problems • Credit Denied • Chargegard Credit "Protection" • "No Interest" Deals • Rebates • "Protecting" the Dead -- • Home Depot, Lowe's Settle Credit Card Suit

William of Jonesboro AR (11/26/05):
I purchased a $2300.00 riding lawn mower on the interest-free no-payment account with Lowes. A week later I went back and bought a bagger for the same mower. With the next payment I paid the amount of the bagger off in full. Then the nightmare started.

I was billed for the $2300.00 for the price of the riding mower. I knew the terms that I bought the mower on and disregarded (no interest or payments) the bills that I received. Later I began receiveng calls on my "Overdue" payment on the mower. I explained (when called) that they were in error with their billing.

Finally after many calls from Monogram bank (Lowes) my frustration level peaked. I paid off the loan in full because of my total disgust with this greed-driven bank. Later I leaned that Monogram all the while was reporting my honest activity as dishonest...unwilling to pay...delinquent. I had trouble buying a house and was forced to settle for a higher interest loan because of THEIR deceptive credit biling and thus fraudulent reporting behavior.This is the unethical activity that thousands should be reporting about MONOGRAM.

Sho of Los Angeles (11-16-04):
Beware of the "0% for a year" deal. If you go over that one-year mark, you will forfeit all of the interest paid during the year. If you did pay within that 1 year time frame they are supposed to refund you the money back for all of the APR paid. I missed that 1 year deadline by a week and I was told that I will not be getting my refund of $330 (which means I unintentionally paid 21% in APR through out the year). This to me is bit sneaky on behalf of Monogram and Lowe's. They lost my lifetime business, which would exceed $330, for their cowardly business practice.

Victor of Dallas (11-04-04):
I signed up for a one year no-interest in the amount of $7,761.04. Later, I did an electronic funds transfer which paid the amount in full. Somehow, after being paid, it was shown as being posted 3 days after the due date.

When I followed up with Discover Card, I was told that the EFT took approximately 24 hrs and that it should have been received by the due date. I called Lowe's and explained that I had no problem paying a late fee or a surcharge, but that I found it ridiculous to get charged $1,165.14 (the back-owed interest) for a payment that arrived 72 hours late.

I got the runaround at the Customer Service Center and was referred to Monogram Credit Card Bank of Georgia. At Monogram, I still cannot get hold of a live person to deal with. I've been charged $1,165.14 and wasted lots of time wasted chasing after a REAL ANSWER, but don't have one.

David and Melissa of of Kirkville NY (10-26-04):
We moved into a new home last year and furnished the entire home with nearly $6000 in merchandise from Lowes. Because we hadn't closed yet on the house -- we obtained the credits from our builder -- and because of the volume of material we purchased, we opened a Lowe's credit account, which we later learned was held by Monogram Bank of Georgia. We were told that we would have 12 months' interest free and that as long as the balance was paid in full during that period, no interest would be charged. The store management also promised a 10% (New Home) discount for ALL the merchandise we bought.

Because we made the purchases on the account and had most of the items delivered later by delivery truck to our new home, we simply provided them with a detailed list with stock numbers, pricing, special advertised rebate information, etc. We never received store receipts for the bulk of these items because of the way we purchased them.

We later had several problems after delivery of the items with our billing statements. Not all the items received the 10% discount as agreed, and very few if any of the rebates were applied, resulting in total billings of approximately $400 more than should have been charged. We live about an hour's drive from the store location and made numerous attempts to straighten things out with the store management, but weren't successful.

In October of last year, we were assured by the store manager that everything would be redone and billed correctly, and that the store would rest the 12-month interest free period so it wouldn't end until November 2004. In November of 2003, we received all of the funding we needed to pay the card off completely as we had planned. However, we received a statement that was again in error and about $400 too high. We sent a payment equal to the correct amount (around $5,200) along with a letter explaining that store management was to have straightened out the issue with their credit/billing company. Still, we kept getting monthly statements showing a $400 balance, though we contacted the store and the credit center on numerous occasions.

Around May or June of this year, the credit center tacked an additional $400 on our account plus late fees, claiming that we had gone past the interest-free promotion period, and that instead of zero, our balance was now up to about $900. Furious and aggravated that we had spent all this time trying to straighten this out, with this result, we started getting phone calls from a "Monogram Bank of Georgia". We didn't recognize the name so I looked it up on the Internet, and the first thing I saw was multiple sites regarding the class action lawsuit against the company. When we looked further, we saw that Monogram was the Lowe's Credit Center.

After taking even more time to explain the situation, Lowe's Credit Center quickly admitted that applying the $400 interest was a mistake and took it off the account, along with late charges, and promised they would fully investigate the remaining disputed balance of approximately $400. They never did. They copied a series of statements and later said that I would have to work with the store again to resolve the discrepancies.

This month, my balance went from $400 to over $900 again with only about $100 or so in legitimate purchases last month. When I called the Lowe's Credit Center, the customer service representative looked up the information on our account and (after keeping me on hold for 25 minutes) came back and said "the balance is correct sir." I asked how my balance increased by over $500 when I only had purchases of $100 and she claimed that previous billing statements showed the higher balance, which is not correct. They were in the $400 range which was still in dispute.

The problems we have endured, the wasted time, and the threat to our sterling credit rating have made this an unending nightmare for more than a year. That is the appreciation we get for furnishing our entire home through Lowe's. There is a complete communication breakdown between the retail outlets and the people that do the accounting and billing and we're STUCK in the middle. They have refused to provide us with a single detailed itemization that would substantiate their claim that we owed them that additional $400, because we don't owe it! They want $1000 from us and we owe them a little more than $100.

Because of their errors, we have faced a lot of wasted time and frustration, multiple trips to the retail store itself, the risk of damaged credit, and fraudulent charges of approximately $800.

Bruce of Incline Village NV (7/13/04):
On July 5, 2003 I charged a purchase in the amount of $2,048.66 on my Lowe's Credit account. The terms of the purchase were that the amount due would be carried interest free for one year with no monthly payments due during that period. However, if the amount due was not paid on or before July 5, 2004 then interest would be back charged for the entire year.

On October 5, 2004 we made another Lowe's charge for $1,065.63, with 6 months interest free, and payment was not due until March 5, 2005.

On June 8, 2004 we paid Lowe's in the amount of $2,048.66, the amount due for the 1st purchase due on July 5, 2004. This amount was the exact same amount on the billing statement. However, instead of Lowe's applying the full amount they applied a portion to the second purchase of $1,065.63. This caused the July 5, 2003 purchase for $2,048.66 to be charged interest from date of purchase, even though I paid it off in full and on time. How do you pay off a specified purchase when they apply a payment to a portion which is not due?

Pam of Cabot PA (6-10-04):
I recently made two major purchases at Lowe's, about 8 months apart. Both were promotional items offering special credit terms: the first was interest free for one year, and the second was interest free for 6 months so long as the balance was paid off before the end of the promotion.

Since then I have made several payments online, specifying that the payment was to go towards the balance on the first promotional item. I did this so that I won't have to pay interest on that balance. Each time, however, Lowe's has split the payment between both promotions, seemingly in the hopes of forcing me to pay interest.

I called to complain, and spoke to supervisors who assured me that the problem would be taken care of. However, it wasn't, so I mailed in the next payment with written instructions for the payment to go to the first promotion as a payoff. They ignored this as well and split the payment again.

Larry of Roanoke VA (12/15/03):
Lowe's, through their credit card, offers no-interest promotional purchases from time to time. The problem is, Monogram Bank makes it very difficult to pay these off. When they receive your payment, they apportion it to the regular balance as well as any promotional purchases. It took us months to get them to properly apply our payments to promotional purchases so we could avoid the interest. Additionally, the monthly statement is very difficult to decipher. We will never use this credit card again!

Darlene of Leesburg VA writes (6/4/02):
In October 2001, my fiance and I bought a new home. We decided to open separate Lowe's accounts (his limit was $250, mine was $300) to buy a washer and dryer. We purchased these and were given 6 months of "no payments". My first payment of $15 is due on June 19, 2002.

On June 3, 2002, I received a letter from the Monogram Bank of Georgia stating that my account had been closed due to my credit score changing. I called and asked how they could cancel my account when I had done nothing wrong and my first payment wasn't even due yet. They stated that because I bought a home, my credit score dropped so after a review of my credit they decided to close my account. I argued that nothing had changed since I was approved by Lowe's. I was approved AFTER I had bought the home so they knew of this purchase BEFORE they approved me.

Now my credit will be adversely affected because they closed my account. How is it possible that they can close my account when I don't have bad credit with them? I am in perfect standing with them. Based on a "credit review", they are making a judgement about me that has nothing to do with my account with them. They also closed my fiance's account 2 months after he opened it for the same reason.

Ed of Lenoir City, TN (4/17/02):
Lowes Credit Card issued 4/25/01 (later I found out it was issued by Monogram Bank Of Georgia) with a creit limit of $1500. Purchased refrigerator for about $1300 on a no-payments, no-interest basis until Jan 2002. Fine print says 6 months but promo was Jan 2002. In Nov 2001 I refinanced and paid off Sears, Pennys, Home Depot, and 3 credit cards totalling about $5000-$6000. Obviously, my credit score should have improved (had no delinquencies on any accounts and making monthly payments to Lowes).

In December I get a letter from Monogram Bank stating after reviewing my account they were lowering my credit limit to $500. My balance at the time was about $1250 because I had made some small purchases and I was making $20 monthly payments at the time. Now I find out that the credit bureaus show my Lowe's account as over the limit when I did nothing to cause this. Main office customer service denied this until I faxed a copy of my Eqifax credit report and then the response was there was nothing they could do that the decision was based on my credit file which, as I stated earlier, should have been better at this time than when the account was first opened.

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