Deceptive Account Statements & Communication To Make You Stay in Debt

<p>In November 2016 I app**** for and obtained a Game Store credit card and made a purchase. I made my first payment towards my balance in November.</p> <p> </p> <p>In December I received a statement via email from Game. The interest calculated on my purchase and all associated fees were listed and a closing balance was provided. A few days later in December, using my end of year bonus, I paid my balance in it's entirety (or so I thought) and I received an SMS from Game stating as much (I have the sms referencing the fact that as of the 4th of January 2017 my available balance was R20000, implying that my debt was paid).</p> <p> </p> <p>Then, on the 13th of January I received an SMS promoting shopping at Game and I see that my available balance is R19974!!! I called customer service to verify this and determine what is going on. Apparently the closing balance is not the settlement balance and that interest for the month of December was still to be reflected on my next statement. So from where I stand it looks as though Game's business strategy is to have debtors pay off their debt in perpetuity because interest owed is not shown in its entirety and every time you think you've paid it, the next month you see that there is still more interest that is owed.</p> <p> </p> <p>The way in which Game communicated with me was misleading and down right ******** and I emailed ********** to explain my situation and convey my annoyance. I stated that I plan on pursuing this further and that I plan on reporting this to the credit bureau and Ombud. I was hoping for an apology at least but I haven't received any response. An apology may have satisfied me and I may have forgotten about it. I haven't reported the incident to credit bureau or credit Ombud yet but when I have some time I will.</p> <p> </p> <p>I paid the outstanding R26 on the 13th of January so that there are no further issues but I will not be using the store card again because I don't trust the Game store. The amount in this case is trivial but it's scary when considering possible future purchases. Imagine next time I think I'm paid up and then interest on a R20 000 purchase gets charged later?</p>