Apple Card: July Interest Charge

Tim is correct. You’ll owe interest on the unpaid balance for one day. This is known as residual interest or ghost interest. All revolving accounts do this. It’s standard business practice.

There’s no point in rehashing all this. File your complaint with CFPB and get your interest back etc.

Here’s how Apple Card Mastercard accounts work and how they are different from any other credit card that I’m aware is available in the US.

Every account starts the billing period at midnight the first of the month and ends the last day of the month at 11:59 PM ET.

All accounts have a Grace Period equal to the following month’s billing period. In other words if I charge $100 the first of the August, it’s not due until September 30 at 11:59 PM ET.

If I miss that September 30 due date I’ll be charged interest. Interest will be charged not only on the $100, but charges made in September and any October charges will be charged daily interest. Because you failed to pay your total balance due, you’ve lost your Grace Period.

If I pay the $100 on October 1 and any additional amount due. I will still be charged Residual Interest of 1 day. That charge cannot be calculated until the payment is actually received. It sounds like you’re being charged residual interest.

Here is what the payment tool looks like on an account that has been paying interest.

I think you’re confused about the wording you saw or have misinterpreted the sentence I circled. You probably also didn’t click on the link to obtain a better understanding of what was happening.

Jeff, thank you for your advice! I spent hours speaking to Goldman Sachs. I wrote a letter to Goldman Sachs explaining the billing error. Both of these efforts resulted in rejection of my refund request.

After I filed a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, I seem to have gotten results. It appears that Goldman Sachs has refunded my interest charge. The odd thing is they do not communicate to me what they have done/are doing. It appeared as though they attempted to go into my linked bank account for another payment but fortunately that did not work. Then I thought I could begin charging on my card against a positive balance that I now have. The purchase I made was posted, then removed, then later added back. I don't understand what is going on there. I presume they are troubleshooting before the next billing cycle. I just wish they would keep me in the loop.

I am glad I am retired and have the time to deal with this. For the principle and to prevent it happening again, I have spent several hours to get it fixed. I just hope I'm through dealing with this. My confidence in Goldman Sachs has certainly been shaken.

At this point your only real recourse is to file a complaint against Goldman Sachs with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). GS should get back to you in about 2 weeks from the date you file your complaint.

On a side note, I’m sure you calculated your interest wrong. Take the annual rate, and divide by 365 and then do the compounding from the date of the charge and add new charges etc. This will get you very close to interest charge they show. If you have a lot of charges for the period, it can be quite time consuming.

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/complaint/

I highly recommend using your Apple Card as your emergency credit card and keeping a low monthly balance. One that you can just zero out every month and not have to worry about the absurd way they charge interest. I have used my other credit cards for most purchases. One that I can rely on to provide accurate data and one where you pay no interest if you pay the statement balance. Apple Card is great because it's so darn convenient and has become ubiquitous. Some Starbucks purchases and food delivery here and there, and then zero it out, NO BAL every month. This is what I highly recommend. I no longer stress about it.

Cheers!

Contest all of the charges again and file the CFPB complaint. I’d be surprised if it wasn’t reversed.

Residual interest (ghost interest) is common in the credit card industry. In fact I’ve never found a credit that doesn’t charge it. It’s a result of the way they compute interest called Average Daily Balance. There’s no way of getting around it once you lose your grace period, you’ll pay interest and you’ll pay twice. The only way to avoid it is to call customer service get the daily pay off and pay it that day. The amount due changes every day and when you pay the statement balance, it doesn’t include the daily changes to the balance due.

The worst part is the Logix Platinum card in discussion above also computes interest using the Average Daily Balance method, which also means it charges residual interest.

I totally agree with you! Goldman/Apple successfully pulled my scheduled payments from the correct checking account for two months in a row, then tried to pull payment from a closed checking account in October and I have been dealing with growing trailing interest ever since! I called today and asked the "support" person what amount I had to pay to get rid of the training interest. It was NOT the same amount that shows up on my app as the total to be paid in order to avoid interest. It feels like a trick. A trap. If you don't ask the right question you will have accruing interest forever!! And I didn't even make the mistake to begin with. I schedule the correct amount to be paid on time and Goldman/Apple made an error and I am paying for it. Terrible customer service. Goodbye App card.

Thanks for the post. Although Goldman is the bank, Apple is the merchant whom you we are contracted with. I think it’s extortionate and disgusting how they handle interest with the Apple Card’s. They are not a standard credit card company and their collective goal with Goldman is to maximize profits. I highly suggest you use the Apple Card as your card or convenience. Thus keeping a low balance that you pay off as you go. I use my American Express and Visa for travel and large purchases. I have full faith in them as you pay no interest if you pay your statement balance. No gamesmanship. They also have great support. Apple Card is extremely convenient transactionally. Just go into the App and pay it off every week. It only takes 3 seconds.

That is normal for just about every credit card anymore and not Apple Card specific. FWIW skip the conspiracy theorists here, it is NOT only Apple doing it, it IS a lot of the cards. I been thru it myself.

I got a nice bonus from work last year and I paid the full balance on 4-5 credit cards, paid 100% in full. So with a 0 balance, they ALL changed me interest from the "last amount" that was there. Added up to a few hundred dollars over all the cards, but they have you and there is something in writing they do with interest. Citi bank was the worst, they added the interest and then I get emails about a $95 yearly fee as I guess they don't like you paying things off completely.

If you want answers to your questions, I’m happy to help you understand how interest is charged, when interest is charged, why you’re charged what you’re charged.

There are several factors that are important here, which you haven’t even mentioned. The two terms that are part of your situation that explain much of what you’re experiencing. The terms are >Grace Period< and >Residual Interest<.

If you’d like an explanation, I’m happy to answer questions and explain what’s going. It’s up to you. If you want to rant and vent, I get that too. It’s your call. I’m happy to break it down and have it make sense.

I experienced a similar issue with Goldman Sachs. I have been using an Apple Card for nearly a year and the statement balance was scheduled for autopay. Then , for an unexplained reason, my February statement balance did not autopay as I expected on March 31. I realized this payment did not process early on April 1 and promptly called Apple Card Customer Support (Goldman Sachs). Goldman Sachs required that I not only pay the entire card balance which now included the March statement balance, but also charged me interest. This interest charge if calculated on my February statement is not the 18.5% stated rate, but instead amounted to 33.6%. The customer service representatives (I had several calls with them) could see I had never missed a payment and was set up for autopay. They told me they would open an “inquiry” as to why the auto payment did not process and it could take up to 10-days. I just received the decision based on their “inquiry”. They refused to refund my interest and had no explanation why autopay did not process as scheduled. I believe this is Goldman Sachs way of trying to get as much as possible out of their deteriorating relationship with Apple by taking advantage of Apple Customers. In the future, I hope Apple is able to find a better bank to work with for Apple Card. In the meantime, I will no longer be using my Apple Card.