CT in California said: “Purchased a refrigerator about one year ago with the differed interest plan and made monthly payments. Somehow on my July 08 invoice, I missed an alert that said: ‘To avoid deferred finance charges, pay your promotion payoff of $ by xx/xx/…’
Well, I did not pay the payoff amount and the next month there was an additional $668 of deferred finance charges added to my bill.
I Called Best-buy customer service but they said the alert was very clear. I argued that would I have not paid the full amount had I know that I’d have to pay an additional $668? The customer service, said sorry can’t do anything about it.
I agreed to pay off the remaining $250 from last month’s bill and ask them to forgive the deferred finance charges, but they said it can not be done and that I’d have to pay the finance charges.
Is there anything I can do to avoid paying this misleading Deferred Finance Charge?”
Editor’s Note: I will give you 100 to 1 odds that you did not miss the alert. This scam has been ongoing at Best Buy and HSBC Finance, and prior to that at Best Buy and Household International, since 1999 that we know of first hand. There are variations of the scam, such as not getting a statement in the final month before the payoff. Another variation is to send the ‘alert’ with the final statement, but the payoff date is a week earlier than the due date. Another version of the scam is to extort a “fast payment’ fee even though you pay five days before the due date, whereby HSBC claims they are so far behind that they cannot guarantee a timely application of your payment — thus all interest would technically be due in full.
Also please note that when calling Best Buy customer service you are speaking to HSBC employees.
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