On “No Interest” Credit Card Claims

Have you been tempted to make a large purchase because a store will issue you a credit card with “No Payments and No Interest” for six or 12 months – or longer?

 

It sounds like a great deal: you buy something now, and you have a long time before your first payment is due.

 

Be careful! While you are not REQUIRED to make any payments during this time, the waiting may indeed cost you – in interest – unless you pay off the ENTIRE balance before your promotional period ends.

 

The devil is in the fine print. For example, my new credit card agreement with Home Depot (one of my favorite stores) says I don’t have to make any payments for nine months after my initial purchase using the card, and “No finance fee will be imposed on this balance if you pay the amount of the balance in full within the promotional period.” However, the agreement then states “If you do not pay the balance in full prior to the expiration of the promotional period… finance charges on this balance will be imposed from the date of purchase until the balance is paid in full.”

 

In other words, if I pay off the entire balance before my nine months is up, I indeed avoid paying any interest. No problem.

 

However, if I don’t pay off the entire balance by the end of the nine month promotional period, then I’ll be responsible for paying principal plus interest for the entire promotional period – the very “grace” period I thought I was getting interest free! This is true even if I’ve paid all but a single dollar before the promotional period ends… that one dollar is enough to trigger the acceleration of all that interest. 

 

It’s important to note that Home Depot told me this up front: a store manager explained it all before I signed for the card. And I indeed will pay my card off long before nine months, to avoid any interest.

 

Other stores, however, may not be so candid, because they’ll get more from you in the end if you don’t make any payments during the promotional period, allowing the customer to focus on the “No Payments Required” pitch. I’ve checked several large chain stores, and they all have similar language. No wonder they give you a year or more to begin required payments: the longer the promotional period, the more interest you may be blindly accruing.

 

The lesson: be careful with credit cards, particularly those with “No Payment and No Interest” claims – and lots of fine print.

On Profanity in Social Media

Frequently, I run across gratuitous profanity on otherwise professional blogs or websites. While I’m as laid back as the next guy, the trend bothers me.

  

I’m not talking about amateur blogs or the too-cool-for-school crowd of rock bands. I’m talking about people who should know better.   

Joel Postman, a business consultant who blogs about social media (http://www.socializedpr.com) – and who states he spent four years as the speechwriter for the CEO of Sun Microsystems – recently wrote an online column about online ethics. He can’t quite make his point without using an obscenity.  

  

“Some in our profession claim to be confused about the rules for using blogs and other social media in marketing and public relations,” Postman writes. “This is unfamiliar territory. We’re on the frontier of communications. The rules are being written as we speak.’” Bullshit. New media does not require new morality. Most of us know right from wrong, and just because we’re using a blog or an online forum doesn’t release us from our responsibility for ethical behavior.” 
 

The irony, of course, is the writer violates the very behavior he espouses. I don’t think a professional would use the word “bulls###” in a printed trade publication or annual report, so why is it acceptable just because it’s online? Surely a speech writer can generate something more creative than schoolyard profanity. (EDITOR’S NOTE: After this blog appeared, Joel rethought his use of the profanity and deleted the offensive word from his post.)

  

I’m not picking on Joel, as the problem abounds everywhere. For example, I subscribe to a very good communications/public relations website called ragan.com. Unfortunately, the site subjects readers to the occasional “a##hole” or “bulls####” or other obscenity, usually in its headlines no less. I guess the editors assume they’re being hip or edgy, but it only distracts from their message. 

  

Profanity isn’t helping to advance dialogue in social media; it’s a crutch used by those too lazy or immature to recast their sentence. Readers deserve better.