Virgin CC and Interest Charges madness!!

LeonThePro_2

Hi everyone,
A very strange thing has just happened to me. I took out a VCC with 9 months interest free on BT's. So i transfered away and have been paying it off slowly over the months.
So I recieved my September Statement which said have a balance of 376.65 and the payment due date is the 11 oct and est interest would be 4.45 as my nine months is now up. So I sent full payment (376.65) in plenty of time.

My Oct statement arrived today which says thank you for your payment 7th Oct for full amount (4 days in advance) but you owe us 3.53 in interest.

Spoke to customer services who were less than helpful saying something like every other card charges you interest up front but they charge it after and that I would have to pay.

This has never happened with any other BT card I have had and why would a CC company charge me before even borrowing off them especially if the charge was 0%.
Surely since I made payment before the date they told me I shouldn't have to pay interest.

Any advice or explanations.

Thanks & Regards.

charlie12

Welcome to MSE

It looks like your 0% period ended before you paid the full balance off. So you were charged interest on the 376.65 for the period of time that you were out of the promotional period. Don't rely on statements to judge your 0% expiry date, they don't tell you when the promo period ends.

Whenever you do a balance transfer you should ask the provider the exact date that your promotional period ends. This is usually the join date + promo term (9 months in your case). If you check with them now you'll probably be given a date that doesn't correspond to your statements.

You're lucky that you were only charged 3.53 in interest, as many people have several thousand pounds left at the end of a promo period and therefore the amount of potential interest charged is much more.

djlester_2

I'm with Leon on this.

Just got off the phone to Virgin and I am absolutley LIVID :mad:
Every other credit card I have had will charge interest on the money that is outstanding AFTER the statement comes through. So naturally I left it until the last moment to clear off the balance on the credit card, with the payment date in the next few days.

Just called to cancel the card and they are going to send a statement to show me how much interest I owe. I am absolutley bloody furious. I was so close to swearing at the poor girl on the other end of the phone.

It would seem they charge interest since the last statement until the balance is paid, acrued daily. If I had realised I would have paid it all off sooner.

Does this seem underhand and decitful to anyone else?? Is there anything I can do to get out of it (I am guessing not).

At the very least, can we get the word out that this is how Virgin operate and make people aware of how they charge the interest. You MUST pay the balance off BEFORE the statement is issued - interest is then accrued AFTER the statement. Heaven knows how you are supposed to second guess the statement dates.

Going now before I swear and inevitably (and rightly!) get banned from the forums after my first ever post!!

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

mountainofdebt

have you looked at the back of your statement recently?????

I don't have a virgin card but several RBS cards and it does say something about this on the back of my statements so it's not as if they are doing anything in secret.

grumbler

djlester wrote:

Every other credit card I have had will charge interest on the money that is outstanding AFTER the statement comes through.

This is incorrect.

If you mean 0% for N months introductory offers, generally they don't charge interest during first N months you have a card, not untill the payment date of the last statement.
If you mean 50-59 days interest free period on purchases you have it only if you pay balance if full and on time. Otherwise interst is charged from the date of every transaction.

It would seem they charge interest since the last statement until the balance is paid, acrued daily.

Again, if you mean 9 months 0% offer, they charge interest from the date 9 months expired till the day you paid the balance.

If I had realised I would have paid it all off sooner.

Why did you expect to have 0% for longer than 9 months that they promised?

You MUST pay the balance off BEFORE the statement is issued - interest is then accrued AFTER the statement. Heaven knows how you are supposed to second guess the statement dates.

Wrong. You must pay the balance before 9-months period ends. And Virgin have no obligations to remind you to do this.

YorkshireBoy

Section's 2b & 2d of the Virgin T&C's cover both the OP's and djlester's area of complaint.

https://wwwa.applyonlinenow.com/UKCCapp/Ctl/validate?eid=6EC24DD

These interest charges are also detailed...

* in the Virgin card summary box

* on the signed Virgin credit agreement

* on the copy of the credit agreement that comes with the card attached

* on the reverse of the Virgin statement