Bill Me Later - Remember to Read the Fine Print

[AABCDS]

I'll preface this by saying that this whole ordeal was my fault for not reading the fine print.

So I made a $36.55 eBay purchase in August and decided to sign up for Bill Me Later and get an extra $10.00 in eBay Bucks. I saw the promotion that Bill Me Later was running where you could get pay off the balance in 180 days and pay no interest.

I saw my statement today and noticed a $2.00 minimum finance fee and a $5.00 late charge. I then looked at my September statement and noticed another $2.00 minimum finance charge. Unhappy, I called customer service and was told that the 180 days same as cash promotion only applied to purchases over $99.00.

In conclusion:

1. It was my fault for not seeing that there was a minimum purchase amount to qualify for 0% interest for 180 days.
2. It was my fault for not seeing that there is a minimum finance charge of $2.00.
3. It was my fault for paying my bill five days late and incurring a $5.00 late fee.

Needless to say, I closed my account with Bill Me Later -- a PayPal service. It just goes to show, "There's no such thing as a free lunch."

 

[life2short1971]

Anything to do with Paypal beyond the basic service is gonna cost ya somehow somewhere and good too.

 

[mharris127]

You are lucky the late charge was only $5. I will assure you that if you paid the account up within 30 days of the due date no harm was done to your credit report. I can say that with confidence as I was a banking compliance officer for a few years.

 

[Lynchy]

Damn fine print ruins everything!

 

[craig94yj]

Ouch! I'm glad I chose to ignore the promotion. Hey, at the very least you enjoy a great shave every day. Good shaves to you!

 

[Gigster]

I'm always curious about the "hook" credit card companies employ to lure perspective applicants, and looked at "Bill Me Later" shortly after PayPal began to advertise it. When it sounds too good to be true. . .it generally is, which I discovered was the case of "Bill Me Later." Multiple sharp ends on their hook.

 

[SliceOfLife]

Paypal didn't make its founders billionaires (with a 'b') by not charging hidden fee's and stealing people's money, unfortunately.

 

[AABCDS]

Paypal didn't make its founders billionaires (with a 'b') by not charging hidden fee's and stealing people's money, unfortunately.

Yup, I learned my lesson. It was a relatively inexpensive lesson. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

 

[Slash McCoy]

They are jerking me around right now. I told them to cancel and close my account for all the spam they sent me. Now I can't get into my account and they say I owe $146 or something like that, and I have no way to pay them. I emailed them a bunch of times and no reply. Hopefully they just take it from my paypal account but if they put a late charge on me after trying 3 times to get information, I am gonna stiff them. Please, do NOT support this scam!

 

[mmack66]

Yup, I learned my lesson. It was a relatively inexpensive lesson. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

By your own admission, they didn't fool you once.

 

[jva59]

I'm likewise glad that I have resisted the temptation. I certainly didn't notice the reference to a minimum charge either.

 

[noahpictures]

Sounds like a scam to me. "Fine print" is a convenient way to hide crucial facts about the agreement and not be upfront.

 

[retturn2blades]

Thanks for the cautionary tale. I get very tired of Ebay/Paypal pushing that "Bill Me Later" crap program.

 

[BallisticBurrito]

I've only used Bill Me Later once and it was a number of years ago when it first came out. I forgot what I got but it was something computer related and I only used it because you saved $20 the first time you used it. I didn't run into any of the issues the OP had..the only problem I had was that they would only accept a transfer from a bank account..so I had to fart around my bank account page and figure out what to do. Didn't have a problem with it other than that...but haven't used it since. No need to, I don't buy anything I can't afford.

 

[mhdena]

It also has been tricky/sneaky of them to have one due by date for the deferred interest it was the 1st of the month for me and another date for the regular purchases the 12th for me.

I've never paid interest and would call them each month on the 1st to get the total due for deferred and regular to avoid the interest.

2 months ago I saw an interest charge of $7 and called to ask why was this there when I had called and spoke to a lady and got the interest free total due and paid that amount.

I paid the next month minus the $7, called and finally got a Super who saw a charge of $190 that had been posted as a regular charge instead of a deferred charge.

They squared it away and told them then having 2 due dates was confusing to me and no doubt to others as well.

This months statement I see they went to deferred and regular payments due on the same date, the 12th in my case.

 

[AABCDS]

I got a check today for $9.06 from a lawsuit settlement against PayPal for their Bill Me Later shenanigans.