Amazon Store Card Interest May Accrue for Customers

Many customers who believe they are receiving 0% interest on their store credit cards including the Amazon Store Card may not actually be getting what they are thinking.

Many store debit cards, including the Amazon Store Card, are under scrutiny because many customers believe they have been promised a 0% interest rate yet, many times, interest rates pile up during a “no pay” period.

Allegedly, store cards like the Amazon Store Card may charge customers extra fees over and above what the customer was led to expect they’d have to pay.

The Amazon Store Card as well as other store-based promotional credit or debit cards often advertise a 0% interest rate for a certain period of time. This is called deferred interest. The Amazon Store Card offers this deferred interest time period for six months.

What is unclear is if customers will ever have to pay this interest. Many customers understand this 0% interest rate to mean that for 6 months, their purchase is not accruing interest. However, this is actually not the case.

With the Amazon Store Card and many other similar cards, the 0% interest simply means that interest does not need to be paid within the deferred interest period if the balance is paid in full by the end of the deferred interest period.

If the balance is not paid in full by the end of that time, the customer then must pay the full accrued interest. This practice is what some customers believe is a deceptive practice by stores.

According to Amazon, the interest on a purchase made totaling $149 or more can be deferred for six months. The interest on a purchase made for more than $599 can be deferred for 12 months and for certain select Amazon purchases, the interest can be deferred for up to 24 months.

Sometimes store issued cards come with perks such as “points” or cash back. For example, the Amazon store card comes with a 5% cash back policy. This is in effect as long as the Amazon store card owner is in good standing with an Amazon Prime membership.

The Amazon Store Card website states that if a member falls out of eligibility for Prime membership, the 5% that it may have given back to the card owner is then charged back to the card.

Many customers of the Amazon Store Card may not have known they would have to pay if the balance was not paid in full by the end of the deferred interest period, and some believe that these practices are deceptive on the part of Amazon.

Amazon’s current interest rate for their Amazon Store Card is 26.99%. This can add up and be unexpected for the consumer, especially if he or she was not counting on having to pay that.

If you have an Amazon Store Card and you were faced with unexpected high interest rates because of deferred interest, you may benefit from speaking with an experienced attorney.

Join a Free Store Debit Card and Credit Card Fees Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

Did you participate in a 0% interest promotion on a store-branded credit card and were charged an interest fee? Were you unexpectedly charged a Returned Payment Fee on a store-branded debit card? You may be eligible to join this class action lawsuit investigation into allegedly deceptive store card fees.

Join the Investigation Now