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A Michigan woman says a Best Buy “0% interest” promotion is designed to trick consumers into getting hit with unexpected retroactive interest charges.
According to plaintiff Ruth Stinson, Best Buy lures consumers with an offer of “0% interest” financing for a limited promotional period.
What consumers aren’t adequately notified about, Stinson claims, is that any unpaid balance remaining at the end of the promotional period triggers a lump-sum, retroactive interest charge based on the full purchase price for the entire promotional period.
“Even if a consumer falls just a few dollars short of full repayment, she is charged interest as if she had never made any payments to Best Buy,” the Best Buy class action lawsuit reads.
The company backs this promotion up with high-pressure sales tactics, according to this Best Buy class action lawsuit. Sales personnel are allegedly offered extra compensation for signing up customers for a Best Buy credit account. In-store advertisements heavily promote the “0% interest” financing period, without mentioning the charge for retroactive interest that could follow it, according to Stinson.
She says she was lured by this promotion in October 2015, when she financed a $947.82 purchase under a Best Buy “0% interest” payment plan. The Best Buy salesperson allegedly told her she would get 18 months of financing at “0% interest” but did not mention the prospect of a lump-sum interest payment at the end of that period.
The credit application and approval process only took about five minutes, she says. At no point during that process was she alerted to the consequences of failing to pay off the entire balance during the promotional period.
Despite paying off a significant portion of the balance on her purchase, Stinson says that at the end of the “0% interest” promotional period she was hit with an interest charge of $309.54.
As a result of promotions like these, consumers are drawn by the prospect of a no-interest purchase without understanding the consequences of failing to pay them off on time, Stinson argues. She cites a consumer survey in which only 28 percent of those surveyed correctly understood how interest is charged under “no interest if paid in full” store-brand credit card terms.
Best Buy relies on that misunderstanding to get customers to pay large interest charges when they expected to pay none, Stinson claims.
Stinson is proposing to represent a plaintiff Class that would cover all U.S. persons who, within the applicable statutory limitations period, made a purchase from Best Buy using store-issued credit and were later hit with a retroactive, lump-sum interest charge.
She is asking the court for an injunction barring Best Buy from continuing the promotion at issue. She also seeks an award of actual, punitive and exemplary damages, restitution and disgorgement of related revenues, and court costs and attorneys’ fees, all with pre- and post-judgment interest.
Stinson’s attorneys are Melissa S. Weiner and Christopher J. Moreland of Halunen Law, Jeffrey D. Kaliel of Kaliel PLLC, and Jeff Ostrow and Scott Edelsberg of Kopelowitz Ostrow Ferguson Weiselberg Gilbert.
The Best Buy 0% Interest Financing Class Action Lawsuit is Stinson v. Best Buy Co. Inc., Case No. 0:18-cv-00295-JNE-FLN, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota.
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215 thoughts onBest Buy Class Action Says 0% Interest Promotions are a Trap
My daughter just got hit with over 900 dollars in interest. All the payments we made in her card went to other charges and nothing went to the promo balance. There was no way to even try to allocate payments specifically to the promo balance on their website. No visibility whatsoever. Add us into this one.
How do I get added to this – Guys the worst part is the website where you are supposed to see all the info you have as charges on your account nothing is there – they do not show the transactions then you can only make one payment at the amount they specify – which isnt even the correct amount to pay the promo rate off by the date — How are they getting away with this absolutely awful!!!!
The article doesn’t detail the most predatory part of this promotion. I just got off the phone with a representative about my promotional plan. The monthly payments that you make on your credit card do not even contribute to the “promotional balance” unless you go through a very arduous customer service pipeline to reallocate portions of your payment to the promo balance.
For example, I have a promo balance of $300. My standard monthly payment on the credit card is $50, but I pay $100. None of that $100 that I paid goes to the promo balance. I had to call and set up a specific reallocation plan to send the remainder of the payment to the promo balance.
Add me to the list, I made additional payments but the never applied it to the promotion, now they are charging me $1800.00 interest on a $2500.00 purchase.
This is a scam. I never received a statement. Best Buy sales representatives created Best Buy online account for me at time of purchase. All the statements were sent to an account which I was unfamiliar with never told full disclosure consequences of an ‘EXPIRED Promotion”, If I had received a statement. I would of certainly paid if off immediately. Now I owe 2000 interest. Please add me to the list this is unfair a SCAM!!!
I want to keep this thread alive. My situation was very similar.
I had purchased around $1,000 on a promotional 0% interest. I paid the due amount every month, never missing a payment. I used my card for smaller items, always paying every month. At the end of the terms, i was SLAMMED with 24.99%. My bill went up to over 2,500$.. Shortly after that I kept getting hit and my “account” is at nearly $5,000 for something that should have been paid off.. It’s not in some stupid collection thing and I refuse to pay any of it.
Best Buy is a VERY sneaky, greedy company (I worked there). They always push credit cards and protection plans regardless of whether the person was viable to do so. The associates will blatantly lie about card terms, (notice how most of them don’t call it a “credit card” anymore?) and give false information because the managers push you to meet a quota of card sign ups.
Report to bbb and consumer complaint. In process disputing. Similar situation .
Please keep in mind on these promotional purchases customer must pay the item in full before the terms expire. As a credit card holder they responsible for checking there balances and amounts due on there account. They must make the adjustments on how they pay there monthly bills to ensure the promotional items are paid in full before they expire otherwise based on the terms and conditions of those offers they would get charged the amount of interest accrued for the time frame of the interest free product.
I don’t remember other credit cards offering promotional deals. I pay $200 a monthe twice a month = $400.00. Way over my required payment. I have been monitoring what is owed on my promotional purchases. It has not reduced.
I just found this. They did the same scam on me as well. I bought one Iphone they told me if I pay $44.58 per month, pay it off in 18 months, there is no any interest and any other charges. This month I should have paid it off. But I found on the statement I have to pay $225 interest. I called 888-574-1301. They are very rude. They said I should have paid $44.59 per month so to avoid the interest. Now I have to pay the interest. I told them, it is obviously a trap. Why didn’t you tell me to pay one more cent when I bought it? They said our communication is on the statement. I asked: Why didn’t the communication start from when I bought the cell phone? why from the statement? Is this your service? They were so rude and said “Now you have to pay the interest. I have nothing to talk to you.” And they hung up. I called them again and said I have to cancel the card. Then they let the manager talk to me. The manager was rude as well. I insisted they set me a trap. Then she said they would cancel the interest. This was what they could do. I said “why you didn’t just let me pay one more cent at the very beginning. It is just a trap. You have to stop this trap. “She was rude and refused to give me an answer.
Please add me to this list.
Add me to the list, I made additional payments but the never applied it to the promotion, now they are charging me $1200.00 interest on a $1600.00 purchase. Their customer service is a joke , the supervisor was rude and uncooperative.
UGH! Me as well! I put a payment of over 700$ on my card and the balance never went to the principle. now I have a ~$4,000 balance for an $800 purchase. As a former best buy employee, I can tell you their credit card practices are designed to scam.
Made $1,526 24month purchase. Setup $65 auto pay. But 5 month before the end purchased a phone and paid $123 in taxes, and $8.99 per month protection.
Was just surprised with $650 interest charge.
Add me to the list please
Add me to the list.
Maybe many people were scammed the same way I was by Best Buy but don’t even realize it. I purchase approximately $2,000 in items under the zero percent plan for 18 months. I was making payments of $150 per month and never missed a payment. After 18 months I seen an interest charge added to my bill of more than $700. I called and told them over the 18 months I had paid more $2700 which was more than the initial purchase. And they told me I had made purchases after that purchase and since these were not purchased under the zero percent plan, all payments I made would go to cover the balance of these first. So they were applying my payments to purchases made after the items in the zero percent plan, and making sure to keep a balance on the other items after the 18 month period ended.
Please keep in mind on these promotional purchases customer must pay the item in full before the terms expire. As a credit card holder they responsible for checking there balances and amounts due on there account. They must make the adjustments on how they pay there monthly bills to ensure the promotional items are paid in full before they expire otherwise based on the terms and conditions of those offers they would get charged the amount of interest accrued for the time frame of the interest free product.
No, because this happened to me also. They don’t give you an option of “what to pay”. You just pay toward the balance, but if you bought other things that weren’t in the promotional balance afterwards you “pay those first”.. it basically makes it impossible to pay off the promotional item. It’s predatory and a massive scam.
That is what happened to me. They put payments on future purchases and maintained a balance on the $1400 purchase, just to hit me with $588 in interest 2 years later. had to pull my statements to see how it happened. I thought it was payed in order of purchase. Not so. Now they put me over my limit and want a lumpsum payment.
Add me to the list.