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Floating Due Date Snags Chase, Citibank Customers

Banks offer no explanation for the surprise switcheroo

By Joseph S. Enoch
ConsumerAffairs.com

March 14, 2008

“(Citibank) moved my due date to cause me to be late and give them the ability to charge a late fee and move my rate from 3.99% (for the life of the balance) to 24.44%,” wrote Jeff of Noblesville, Ind. “I have always paid electronically on the 24th. ... It sent my monthly bill for Citibank from $211 to $495.”

While the exact numbers are difficult to quantify, ConsumerAffairs.com has found numerous complaints, some going back as far as 2001. Consumer advocates say the banks' tactics are greedy, unnecessary and more than coincidence.

“The consumer groups all agree this is a serious problem. We all get complaints about it,” said Ed Mierzwinski, consumer director at the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization.

“It's really too bad because this likely affects consumers with serious debt,” said Norma Garcia, senior attorney with the Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports. “If it's through autopay they're likely trying to resolve their debt through their bank.”

Common practice

It is common for the credit card companies to change due dates as much as six days or more from month to month according to Mierzwinski and to consumer complaints.

“For the first time that I can recall in 14 years of using my Chase MasterCard, they decided to change the due date making it several days SOONER than it used to be, from approximately the 20th to the 14th,” wrote Karen of Middlefield, Ohio.

Mierzwinski said the companies frequently use the excuse of operating on a fixed 30 or 31-day schedule regardless of the actual length of the month. But he said that doesn't explain why there are often six days or more of a discrepancy from one month to the next.

“I don't know of anyone that has a 35-day month followed by a 25-day month,” he said.

The credit card companies advertise the ability to choose your due date as a service to their customers, but most of the complaints ConsumerAffairs.com received are from consumers who chose a particular date, only to have the bank fail to honor it.

“The benefit of that offer would be undone if they changed the date without the consumer's consent,” Garcia said.

Sara of Brooklyn, N.Y. had to cancel her Chase credit card when three months in a row she asked for a due date of the 19th and three months in a row her due date was the 13th.

“I am still being expected to pay my $29 late fee,” Sara wrote.

Chase responds

“Chase aims to make it easy for our customers to do business with us,” Chase representative Megan Stinson wrote in an e-mail. “We offer flexible payment methods for customers and the ability for them to choose their payment due date to help them better manage their finances.

“When an account is opened, it is clearly disclosed that the payment due date may vary slightly, by up to five days, from statement to statement depending upon the number of days in the month,” Stinson continued. “This information is also communicated to our customers when they request a new payment due date, whether that is online or with a Chase representative.”

However, Stinson did not answer many of ConsumerAffairs.com's specific questions including why Chase does this, how long it has been doing it and how consumers can get their money and lower interest rates back.

Citibank is mum

For two days, Citibank representative Samuel Wang promised to answer ConsumerAffairs.com's questions but did not do so and now is not returning e-mails or phone calls.

ConsumerAffairs.com could find no similar complaints involving other large credit card companies.

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