Beware the Juniper VISA Card!

[kkat69]

I got the Juniper card and haven't had any issues with the "double cycling" etc. Then again I made my payment in full on time as per when they said it had to be paid to eliminate the interest.

They give out a chart that tells you when the purchase was made, and when it has to be paid so that you aren't paying interest on that principal.

I followed that and haven't paid any interest yet.

It IS an akward practice but when they flat out TELL you and SHOW You when the purchase was recorded (i.e., what they will attach as the start date) and when it has to be paid off, it's a no brainer to avoid the interest.

 

[ewxlt]

Ugh.

Just signed up for one to purchase a MacBook.

I think we'll just pay it off early to avoid any hassle...then cancel it.

 

[vistajumper]

Yeah, I also thought I'd be a clever one and ease the cost of my mbp over 90 days. I made timely, equal online payments (scheduled transfers from my bank) and still got hit with a $60+ finance charge. Latest billing statement says that I paid off the previous statements balance in full and there was no current purchase activity, because I haven't used it, but I still owe $4.12 in finance charges!?!? $4.12 on a $0 statement?! I'm canceling this card first thing in the morning and considering filling a complaint with the BBB.

Lousy Redcoats.

 

[McGiord]

Yeah, I also thought I'd be a clever one and ease the cost of my mbp over 90 days. I made timely, equal online payments (scheduled transfers from my bank) and still got hit with a $60+ finance charge. Latest billing statement says that I paid off the previous statements balance in full and there was no current purchase activity, because I haven't used it, but I still owe $4.12 in finance charges!?!? $4.12 on a $0 statement?! I'm canceling this card first thing in the morning and considering filling a complaint with the BBB.

Lousy Redcoats.

Did you file the complaint? What happen afterwards?
________
buy glass bong

 

[neiltc13]

Re the first post: Since when has interest not accrued from the date of purchase on a credit card?

Sounds like your own fault to me.

 

[atszyman]

Yeah, I also thought I'd be a clever one and ease the cost of my mbp over 90 days. I made timely, equal online payments (scheduled transfers from my bank) and still got hit with a $60+ finance charge. Latest billing statement says that I paid off the previous statements balance in full and there was no current purchase activity, because I haven't used it, but I still owe $4.12 in finance charges!?!? $4.12 on a $0 statement?! I'm canceling this card first thing in the morning and considering filling a complaint with the BBB.

Lousy Redcoats.

This has happened to me on other credit cards. Call them and see if they can't remove the finance charges. This is not just Juniper that tries to keep charging interest if you don't pay finance charges ASAP.

Nothing I've seen in this thread is any shadier than any other credit card I've ever dealt with so far. They're all out to make a buck with deals that sound good until you dig into the fine print and find the loophole they're hoping to nail you with.

 

[w0ngbr4d]

Back when I graduated from college I bought several big items on 0% interest thinking it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. One was a TV from Best Buy @ 21.9% interest. After a year I had accrued $500 in deferred interest charges. Even as I kept paying it off, there would have been a point where the accrued interest charges would have been more than the balance of the card. I decided it wasn't worth the risk so I paid it off.

About a year and a half ago, someone told me about Dave Ramsey. His ideas are very conservative, but after listening to the amount of trouble people have got themselves into with credit/debt on his radio show, I decided that using credit cards on a daily basis isn't for me. I use them for mainly for online purchases now that I can pay off immediately (I just bought a Macbook Pro with cash on hand after saving for a year). Other than that I'm debt free except for my car, which will be paid off in a year.

If you have the $, why not just pay for the computer outright? If you don't have the $, why not save until you can pay for it outright? Then you won't have to mess with credit card companies and their tricky ways.

 

[nsbio]

Juniper is a credit card for people with bad or no credit history - I guess it serves its purpose in that regard. Given that, I am surprised they do not tie you up in the corner and pick your pockets the very next day you bought anything with this card .

But seriously, I am more surprised why Apple actually associates themselves with one of the shoddiest establishments available.

 

[SchneiderMan]

Juniper is a credit card for people with bad or no credit history - I guess it serves its purpose in that regard. Given that, I am surprised they do not tie you up in the corner and pick your pockets the very next day you bought anything with this card .

But seriously, I am more surprised why Apple actually associates themselves with one of the shoddiest establishments available.

no its not, you need a good credit for that card.

 

[keehun]

You should talk to Apple about it. Dunno, sounds silly but they might be interested in the horrible experiences that their customers get when using the Juniper cards... I'm sure that's not what Apple wants out of its customers.

 

[lag1090]

My next step is to file a complaint with the FCC and the California Attorney General's office.

I think you may have meant the FTC. The FCC wouldn't have anything to do with such a complaint.

 

[hexonxonx]

I had tried to get the Juniper Visa card twice before I was actually approved for one. I had very little credit at the time and that was what the explanation was that they mailed me. Finally after I got a CircuitCity card, Juniper approved me for a card at a fairly small amount, enough to barely cover the cost of a low end MacBook. Several years later, I have cut my interest rate in half and my credit limit is enough to buy several Apple computers. It's a very good card to have in my opinion. You just have to make your payments on time and pay the balance off occasionally.

 

[steelers]

Juniper Service Is Terrible

For all you who complained about the juniper visa card-you were correct! I bought my son a macbook to use at college. They mailed the statement to another address so I failed to make my first payment. My fault there but not getting a statement was their fault. Anyhow, I managed to get the address changed and had the first card cancelled because I never received it. I was told that they would send another statement along with another card and that my account would be updated to show I was current-they did credit the late fee which was nice on their part although they charged (but reversed also) an over the limit fee which does not make sense since I maxed the card on my first and only purchase so how did I go over the limit? Fees and interest do not count towards an over the limit fee. Anyway, I was told to send out a payment when I got the statement. Since then I get calls everyday trying to get a payment over the phone of which I will not do for anyone for any reason-it is my private rule: I do not give information over the phone by personal choice nor do I make on-line payments. I tried to explain to these people who call for payments to read the comments on my account, of which they do, then they insist that I make a payment over the phone even though it is annotated that a payment will be sent once a statement is received (new due date). These representatives are anything but cooperative and they refuse to do what they agreed to do. I am told daily that they cannot stop calling until a payment is made. It has been 10 days now since they said they'd send another statement to the corrected address and I have yet to receive it.

My point here is simple: This is a totally crappy company. Never have I had so much of a problem settling such a small matter. They don't care about service even if they were mailing my statements to a wrong address. They ignore their own notes on what was agreed to and badger me daily. This company is by far the worst I have ever dealt with and I have only been with them for just over a month of which I never received a statement yet. BEWARE is totally correct! They are a bad company and that is that.

 

[kmaute]

I don't mean to troll but it seems that most of these problems could be easily solved by not buying something you cannot currently afford and paying cash. I bought my Mac using a debit card. No problems here. Just an idea.

 

[montanachad]

Going into debt for a computer is irresponsible, imho.

Anybody here remember the early 2000's with the "super computer" g4 line up? 3,000.00 computers which are worth only like 400.00 today. I made the mistake of going into debt for a "super computer", and years later am paying the price of my irresponsibility.

 

[kingtj]

Going into debt over a computer?

And IMHO, what you just said doesn't apply to me almost at all!

I work in the computer field (both a day job as a network admin. and a side business of my own doing on-site service and consulting work). Not only that, but a have a daughter in grade-school too. Given all of that, it would be irresponsible of me not to own several computers, AND not to keep up with current technology with them.

I need a good, reliable portable I can take to customer sites for troubleshooting purposes, or on the rare business trip my day job sends me on -- and I use it for the occasional web site design/update work I do at work, too. (My work provides a Windows XP desktop, but has almost nothing in the way of good web design software for it. They used to just outsource all of their web needs until I started working here. Now I just bring my Macbook Pro, pre-loaded with all the web tools I need, and I update their sites with it as needed.) At home, I want a computer for my kid to use, and I want a fairly high-end system for my own desktop use. (I dabble in everything from video editing to photography to a little bit of music and MIDI stuff, and I also like doing a bit of computer gaming.)

Realistically, there's no way I'd own all of this equipment if I refused to ever buy any of it on credit. But I've also been able to write at least some of the purchases off as business expenses on taxes. (I make my own business cards and flyers, and even all of my invoices on the computer, as well as update my own business's web site, and schedule many appointments by email.) The rest, I look at as a great investment. Sure, the hardware rapidly depreciates. That's always been the case. But you don't buy a computer thinking the hardware ITSELF will be worth money down the road. You do so because of the usefulness you get out of it while you own and operate it!

Without some of the first-hand experience in troubleshooting issues I learned by playing around with my own systems, I don't think I could even do an effective job with the on-site service work, OR some of the problem solving they pay me to do at my day job. So this stuff is all about my primary sources of income! The money spent on a little credit card or loan interest is nothing compared to the value I've gotten from all of it!

Going into debt for a computer is irresponsible, imho.

Anybody here remember the early 2000's with the "super computer" g4 line up? 3,000.00 computers which are worth only like 400.00 today. I made the mistake of going into debt for a "super computer", and years later am paying the price of my irresponsibility.

 

[kingtj]

Juniper VISA?

Unless Juniper has changed recently, this was not initially the case for their regular VISA card they issued. (The deal with getting one partnered with Apple as part of their "loan" promotion may be different too.)

After my divorce, I was pretty much starting over with my credit - and I had no credit cards at all. Juniper was the first company to offer me an unsecured VISA card at that point in time (I think with some piddly balance like a $500 limit). I had applied for several others and was rejected.

For that reason alone, I hung onto my Juniper VISA and actually *liked* having it, at first. But as my credit improved and I got better cards, the Juniper card really didn't keep up. I think they finally raised my credit limit to more like $1500 ... but their interest rate stayed horribly high, and I found out about their "non customer service" when I tried to dispute a late fee a while ago.

Basically, talking to anyone there is like talking to a robotic brick wall. They just repeat themselves, telling you "no" to anything you request, in a thick foreign accent.

I'm about to cancel the thing at this point, since my own local bank offered me a better credit card offer than theirs......

no its not, you need a good credit for that card.

 

[belvdr]

And IMHO, what you just said doesn't apply to me almost at all!

I work in the computer field (both a day job as a network admin. and a side business of my own doing on-site service and consulting work). Not only that, but a have a daughter in grade-school too. Given all of that, it would be irresponsible of me not to own several computers, AND not to keep up with current technology with them.

It all depends, but I don't think many folks are buying these on credit and using them for a source of income. But, to your point, do you also buy Cisco 6500 series switches or 7200 series routers on credit to keep up with the current technology?

I also don't agree that it is irresponsible to not own several computers; that seems like an excuse to buy more and more. You can easily have one system running several machines in a virtual environment for no additional cost over the machine itself.

 

[kingtj]

re: computer gear on credit

I don't work for anyone using high-end Cisco routers, so no... that's not an issue for me. But honestly? One of the outside consultants we bring in once a week to work on a custom software application here has just such a setup at home. His basement is full of rack-mounted pro switches, servers, and other such gear. Most people think it's insane, but when you see what he earns per hour for his time on-site, and you realize the types of situations he's called upon to resolve -- I'd say it's totally justifiable in his case.

(Among other things, he hosts email and some hosted web-apps for clients from his home - so his "play" environment actually serves a real, useful purpose besides just being a place for him to experiment.)

And as far as owning several computers is concerned? Virtualization is great, but how do you propose you're going to let your kid play her online web games or do school-work on the computer at the same time you need to use it for work? As far as taxes are concerned, you don't even WANT to share a computer like that - because you can only claim a portion of its costs as a tax expense in that scenario. (You'd have to figure out the percentage it's used for business vs. other activities ....)

There are also issues of physical space limitations. I can only place so many things within cables' reach of a given computer. If I want a setup that's comfortable and easy to use for recording and making music, that pretty much means a computer devoted to that task. (You're not going to fit a set of Roland electronic V-Drums and guitar processing gear, microphones, etc. in your computer room where your other desktop is set up.....)

It all depends, but I don't think many folks are buying these on credit and using them for a source of income. But, to your point, do you also buy Cisco 6500 series switches or 7200 series routers on credit to keep up with the current technology?

I also don't agree that it is irresponsible to not own several computers; that seems like an excuse to buy more and more. You can easily have one system running several machines in a virtual environment for no additional cost over the machine itself.

 

[belvdr]

I don't work for anyone using high-end Cisco routers, so no... that's not an issue for me. But honestly? One of the outside consultants we bring in once a week to work on a custom software application here has just such a setup at home. His basement is full of rack-mounted pro switches, servers, and other such gear. Most people think it's insane, but when you see what he earns per hour for his time on-site, and you realize the types of situations he's called upon to resolve -- I'd say it's totally justifiable in his case.

(Among other things, he hosts email and some hosted web-apps for clients from his home - so his "play" environment actually serves a real, useful purpose besides just being a place for him to experiment.)

Yeah, honestly. I'm not out buying $150k switches just so I can play. It doesn't make any sense.

If it's a hosting environment, it makes sense. That said, I wouldn't consider hosting out of a home a "pro" environment, mainly because you're missing automatic generator power, redundant feeds, and environmentals. Also, if he's playing on machines that are production, I definitely would question whether common sense is being used here. This would be a person I walk away from, because their playing may spell disaster for a production environment.

And as far as owning several computers is concerned? Virtualization is great, but how do you propose you're going to let your kid play her online web games or do school-work on the computer at the same time you need to use it for work? As far as taxes are concerned, you don't even WANT to share a computer like that - because you can only claim a portion of its costs as a tax expense in that scenario. (You'd have to figure out the percentage it's used for business vs. other activities ....)

There are also issues of physical space limitations. I can only place so many things within cables' reach of a given computer. If I want a setup that's comfortable and easy to use for recording and making music, that pretty much means a computer devoted to that task. (You're not going to fit a set of Roland electronic V-Drums and guitar processing gear, microphones, etc. in your computer room where your other desktop is set up.....)

Again, it all depends. If you are using it for a source of income, you have to compare numbers to see if it makes sense to borrow for that. And, again, I don't think many people are buying expensive hardware to generate revenue.

Regarding VM, you can easily connect console to a virtual machine and it looks just like the real thing. Or, you can make the host OS her OS, and run the VMs off that. You can then use your work PC (or another computer) to attach to the VMs' consoles. It's not a difficult solution. So you could have say 2 computers to purchase, not several.

 

[kingtj]

hosting, etc.

He has a considerable investment in battery backup equipment with extended runtime batteries attached. It's not the same as having generators, but he claims it will run his whole system for "days" before all the batteries are depleted.

I'm sure he has the sense not to tinker around with items in his environment that could impact the hosting operations he's doing. However, the fact that he is able to bill people for some hosting functions helps offset his expenses to run and maintain the environment as a whole.

Obviously, we're not talking about this guy hosting mission critical payroll transaction stuff for big credit card companies, or airline reservation booking, or anything remotely like that. We're probably talking more like some spam-filtered email accounts for church groups, or realtors hosting some web sites with him..... He might be giving some people a lower-priced alternative to mainstream choices?

But regardless, I think my original point is still perfectly valid. If you're someone who even indirectly makes money through the use of your computer, there's no reason NOT to buy one - simply because you don't have the cash on hand to pay for one in-full. Even a high-end Mac Pro is nowhere near the same kind of investment as even a typical used car purchase. It may well be a situation where a person would like to pay it off over a few months, around $1000 a month at a time. Seems perfectly reasonable to me.

I guess my thought is, I see a LOT of people spending an awful lot of money on things FAR less useful (and potentially revenue-generating for them) than a new computer. (Season tickets to sporting events or expensive concert tickets come to mind.... or even the people who think nothing of keeping a cable TV subscription that costs upwards of $100 a month, or $1200+ a year right there.)

Yeah, honestly. I'm not out buying $150k switches just so I can play. It doesn't make any sense.

If it's a hosting environment, it makes sense. That said, I wouldn't consider hosting out of a home a "pro" environment, mainly because you're missing automatic generator power, redundant feeds, and environmentals. Also, if he's playing on machines that are production, I definitely would question whether common sense is being used here. This would be a person I walk away from, because their playing may spell disaster for a production environment.

Again, it all depends. If you are using it for a source of income, you have to compare numbers to see if it makes sense to borrow for that. And, again, I don't think many people are buying expensive hardware to generate revenue.

Regarding VM, you can easily connect console to a virtual machine and it looks just like the real thing. Or, you can make the host OS her OS, and run the VMs off that. You can then use your work PC (or another computer) to attach to the VMs' consoles. It's not a difficult solution. So you could have say 2 computers to purchase, not several.

 

[soLoredd]

I haven't had any problems thus far with my Juniper card. I've made several big purchases with it (including my MBP) but paid the full amount off within a week or so of the purchase. I use it as my "play" card because of the lower limit compared to my B of A and CapitalOne card. I just buy stuff with it and then pay it off.

However, this isn't the first place I've heard of problems with them. One of my co-workers went through similar experiences as some of you and he promptly cancelled his.

 

[martinje23]

READ THE FINEPRINT beware the Juniper VISA card!

I purchased an iMac in January and we applied for the card online and we had no problem with meeting the 90 days interest free. It wasn't really reading the fine print as it was stated 90 days interest free. It is a credit card, if you make a purchase then you are bound to those agreements as you said you agreed to them. Juniper had every right to do what they did. It was stated 90 days and that is what they did. Any credit card is going to work in this manner. It doesn't matter if the item was shipped or not. You may not realize it but many online purchases you have to have the funds on that credit card before they will process it. Yes some will put a hold on the account for that money but that money will not be 'taken out' until it is shipped but it can go back to the original transaction date. If you were to go into a store and sign up for their credit card and there was 90 days interest free. That means you have 90 days from purchase date to pay it off. It doesn't matter if you get the invoice in the mail and your payment deadline is different than the deadline for the 90 days interest free.
It is simply common sense to read what you are getting into. This should be a lesson for you.
I am sorry you had to pay all that interest but that is the lesson to be learn about not reading what you are getting yourself into.

Now with all of that said. I personally do not like the Juniper card because we have had problems dealing with them. They have a messed up system of paying online. I do not know why this is a problem but we have had problems from day one trying to use it online. Instead we had to call in our payments. I don't trust the postal mail to make sure it is in their hands by the deadline.

 

[vaselisa]

stay away from Juniper card

I want to agree with a few folks that posted complaints about the Juniper card.
I didn't know that I had signed up for electronic payments when I applied ( I think it is automatic), and the email under which the bill arrived was called something completely different, not Juniper, so It went into my trash, and I never even saw it or would not have recognized it even if I did see it. I was waiting for a bill to come in the mail, which it didn't. Finally I called them to ask where my bill was, and they were very unhelpful and rude. I was late with my payment by then (though only by 1 day). I tried to explain that I wasn't aware I was signed up for electronic payments, that I am ready and willing to pay right away, begged to avoid the late fee and the APR increase to 22%, which had pushed my balance over the limit and hence another fee - but to no avail. I even spoke to a supervisor, and he was unmoved. I said I would be transferring my balance if they weren't willing to work with me on this and his response was, that it was my choice. I transferred my balance and will have nothing to do with them. Very rigid and inflexible, avoid them if you can.

 

[mcpryon2]

To the OP, that sucks. I had a Juniper card, but I canceled it because they lowered my limit after I bought something on it then paid it off right away.

I think this whole thing should serve as a warning to read the terms before applying for any CC, regardless of the bank. CC companies are especially predatory right now because they've killed what they can and are now picking the bones of the dead for any last taste.

I laughed out loud when I was on hold and they kept telling me to hold for the next "relationship manager." Very Apple-esque of them.