PayPal Credit Promotional Payment Allocation

MrsDixon18
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PayPal Credit is using fraudulent deceptive practices when allocating payments towards promotional purchases. In 2015 CFPB ordered them to pay 25 million to its consumers for their shady practices. It’s 2018 and not much has changed. I have 24 month promotions and I have 6 month promotions. I make my minimum payment towards my 24 month promotions. And I payoff my 6 month promotions way before the end date. Most within a month of the purchase date. BUT PayPal Credit has this deceptive payment hierarchy where they allocate your payments so they benefit from accrued interest. So even when you make the minimum monthly payment and make extra payments to pay off your 6 month promotions, PayPal is not applying your extra payments towards the 6 month promotions. You have to call and ask to have your payments allocated towards the promotions or you’ll get stuck paying what I call the “stupid tax” 19.99% interest from the date of purchase. They bank on consumers lack of knowledge. They never communicate this in writing. They only tell you this when you call and complain. Extremely fraudulent deceptive practices. Shame on PayPal.

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102 REPLIES 102

Temp20230526DP
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Ah ok, understood. It appears to be a problem only for payments above and beyond the amount to avoid interest on the prior cycle’s statement. Shady AF, but unfortunately it might not rise to the level of illegal. Could still be worth running by a lawyer, though. I did notice this issue on my own account, where, after a payment, my easy pay balances were decreasing but my >60-day 6-month same-as-cash balances were not. I’m now just going to pay the amount to avoid interest each month, exactly, and at least for November, it was allocated properly.
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fearlessrick
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Hello, I encountered the same issue, so I wrote about it on my blog:

Here is a link to my blog post:
Scam Alert: PayPal Credit, Synchrony Bank Playing Hide and Seek With Special Financing Purchase Offers
https://moneydaily.blogspot.com/2019/11/scam-alert-paypal-credit-synchrony-bank.html

 

I've contacted my US rep and senators from Tennessee, Synchrony and PayPal Credit, tweeted it, posted on various message boards. Please give it a read. I want to take this fight right to the bankers. I'm sure, like me, many of you are sick and tired of being abused by banks and credit card companies. Please comment on my blog or here on this thread. I'll be checking in and taking action. This practice stinks and is likely illegal. Let's get 'em.

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VegasVic
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Contributor

The shame of this is, everything worked perfectly before Synchrony took it over.  Payments were applied automatically in a natural, logical progression. Synchrony is certainly to blame, but PayPal shares blame as well. I understand them wanting to make a better deal on their servicer, but when they switch they should make sure the same terms for their customers stay in place.

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BraXzy
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Just wanted to pile into this to air my complaints too - I've found PayPal credit so incredibly frustrating that I probably won't use it in the future.

 

I currently have (or rather did have) 3 different Buy Now Pay Later type transactions on my account. All purchased at different times, one was a 12 month thing, the other 2 were 4 month interest-free offers.

 

I have a bunch of issues with the way PayPal credit works and the usability of it in general. Including being able to see how past payments have applied to the various balances. But by far the most frustrating part of this service is the complete lack of clarity on how payments are allocated or any other detailed information full stop. It has completely messed up my budgeting and it drives me up the wall that I can't personally decide how payments are applied per outstanding balance.

 

It worked it out something like this (rough numbers for arguments sake):

 

Purchase 1: £360 (12 months)

Purchase 2: £160 (4 months)

Purchase 3: £400 (4 months)

 

So I said okay each month P1 needs £30, P2 needs £40 and P3 needs £100 - I'll make my payment £170 for this month. Not only did it not apply anything close to that, and not only do I have NO IDEA how my payment was distributed, I ALSO got charged the original minimum payment amount on top...

 

All I know is one of the items I had three or more payments planned out is now fully paid off while the others have less paid than expected.

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fearlessrick
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Sorry for not posting this sooner, but I continued to research and the media rep for Synchrony directed me to the LAW governing this.

Yes, once again, we can thank our benevolent legislators in congress for creating an environment that favors their campaign contributors, the banks, not their constituents, consumers. What Synchrony does is in accordance with Regulation Z. Here's my updated blog post, explaining it all:

https://moneydaily.blogspot.com/2019/11/weekend-wrap-paypal-creditsynchrony.html

 

Here is my original blog post:

https://moneydaily.blogspot.com/2019/11/scam-alert-paypal-credit-synchrony-bank.html

 

Sorry, folks, that's the way it is. Banks and financial companies get to **bleep** you, with a blessing from congress.

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jgatl
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Contributor

You will need to look at your minimum payment required. It should be the "easy payment" amount required (£360/12 = $30) plus the minimum on the remaining 4 month same as cash. I believe this is a flat £28, although it's changed a few times since I wrote my first post. Unless you have a 4 month same as cash balance expiring next month, the £170 payment will be allocated as £28 to one of the 2 same as cash balances, and the remaining £142 will be allocated to the £360 balance until it's paid off. When you call in to reallocate your payment, I'd recommend allocating the £112 (£170 -£30 for easy pay balance -£28 for minimum payment) to one balance (such as the £400 one) until it's paid off, then continuing the £112 allocation until the £160 is paid off.

 

One final tip, if you have a month where your payment will allocate across the two 4 month balances (£160 and £400), adjust your payment slightly so you only pay off one balance. In your example, in the third month the £400 balance with a £170 payment (£140 net) will result in £20 being applied to the second balance. So adjust the third month payment to £150 and the fourth month payment to £190. Asking PPCredit to allocate across 2 balances is asking for trouble. They will invariably do it incorrectly. 

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Kidkoffee
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Contributor

Totally agree. I have wasted hours of my time contacting customer service to try to pay off my balances properly. There is no easy way to do this, and once you finally do, you have to wait, nervously,  1-3 billing cycles to see if they actually did what you asked! In my case, last time they didn't!! So...I had to call back and complain again to get them to fix their admitted "mistake!" I thought they passed a law ending these types of shady banking practices during the recession. I am currently paying off all of my balances, and then I will stop using PayPal Credit altogether. I will never do business through Synchrony Bank again, and I urge you all to do the same. I have good credit and, therefore, many other options. This is unacceptable on every level, and this is the first time I have EVER dealt with this type of filth from a credit company.

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Pobe
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Same thing is still going on 2020 in UK. I just sent an email about it to their customer service. I hope I won't have to call them next week.

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jgatl
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Contributor

@Pobe Call in and ask for a supervisor. Tell the CSR you have had payment allocation problems and that a previous supervisor told you to ask for them.

Some good points to follow:

  1. Have the original purchase date, seller name (from PP Credit statement), original purchase amt and current balance for both sides of the allocation (from balance and to balance)
  2. Document the date you called, what you asked to have done, and the expected before/after results
  3. There is an internal ID used for each balance. Get the CSR to tell you that ID, it's a simpler way to identify the balance if the allocation is done incorrectly. 
  4. Have the supervisor restate the allocation before/after results and ask that the unique IDs be used in the work request documentation
  5. Set a calendar reminder for 2 weeks after the date (mine are taking just under 2 weeks)
  6. When you receive an Account Notice from PP Credit, wait 2 days and then check your balances. The account notice precedes the actual change. CSRs will tell you it takes 1-2 billing cycles to show up, but the allocation transactions will show up with 2 days of the notice. 
  7. Repeat steps 1-6 if the allocation is done incorrectly

I highly recommend building a spreadsheet of your balances, with one set of columns representing the balance(s) owed and another set of columns representing the payment made against each balance. The rows represent each billing period. Match that spreadsheet up with your statement and put comments on the specific balance column (or payment portion allocated against that balance) when you call in with notes from your call. It makes it much easier to track down historical changes rather than flipping through statement PDFs.

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Kidkoffee
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With all due respect, you shouldn’t need a 7 step process and an accounting minor to pay your promotional balances down in order of expiration lol! Not to suggest that your post isn’t sound, but to me it perfectly illustrates the ridiculousness of dealing with a shady bank like Synchrony. They want you to just give up and pay interest...For every one of us on this forum, there are probably 10 people getting **bleep**. So...have a few shots of whiskey, follow this 7 step program, then pay off all of your balances and bank elsewhere!!
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