Be Careful with Tesco 13 month 0% offer

h9999

Just want to warn anyone else about the Tesco Credit Card - I think the deal is the same as the one I took out 3 months ago - you get 3 months 0% on purchases, 13 months 0% on balance transfers and also tesco purchases.

What they don't really make very clear is that if you spend ANY money on anything OTHER than Tesco it is impossible to make use of the 13 months 0%

This is because as soon as you make a payment (at the three month point) the FIRST thing to be paid off is the Tesco purchases! Which means that an interest rate on everything else kicks in immediately.

I have had to clear my balance after 3 months - I don't think they made it very clear in the t&c's how the deal worked.

So, if you want to do it - ONLY use it for Tesco purchases - then from what I gather you can actually benefit from the offer!

I feel that it is rather misleading, but can be useful if used wisely!

surreysaver

All credit cards do this, where one 0% offer (say balance transfer) is different to another (say purchases). Except one. Can't remember which one it is - Nationwide?

agsnu

Uh, the advice given here and everywhere is to never spend on a balance transfer card for precisely this reason. The order of payments will have been clearly stated in the T&Cs.

Paul_Herring

The phrase given to this is 'negative payment hierarchy' whereby the least expensive debt (that with the lowest interest rate) is paid off before the more expensive debt (the opposite being positive payment hierarchy, of which only a few cards (Nationwide?) use.)

A web-search will show that people are warned about this, but it's not until most are actually hit with this practise that that they realise exactly what it means.