0% Interest on Sainsbury's spend disapointment

neilyoung1

Hi People,

I recently took out a Sainsbury’s credit card featuring the 0% interest for 12 months on Sainsbury's purchases as I shop at Sainsbury's and buy my fuel from there (a tank a week!). My intention was kind of stoozing where I put the Sainsbury’s spend into a high interest account for the time being, and only pay the full amount on the non Sainsbury’s spend. I received my credit card statement today, and noticed my 3 month interest free period has ended, and that there would be interest if only the minimum amount was paid. I also noticed the allocation of payments, whereby balances with the lowest interest rate are paid off first (which is true of most cards...), however, this made me think ... If I make non Sainsbury’s purchases on the card, I could never benefit from the 12 months interest free offer as the balance would need to be cleared not to accrue interest on the non Sainsbury’s purchases.

I called Sainsbury’s customer service to confirm this. They were "extremely helpful" in telling me this is the way it is...

Can anyone tell me if this is correct practice and if this card has been miss sold, as I have never seen Sainsbury’s advertise ... only if you spend at Sainsbury’s ...

I know card companies have you hook line and sinker, but I see it like this ... non Sainsbury’s purchases at xx.x% as one element, and the 0% for 12 months as a separate element, after all it is stated as a promo rate on the statement.

Is this true of the 0% balance transfer deals too? if you make a purchase on the card, the whole debt needs to be cleared to prevent interest from accruing on the expenditure? as any payments will go towards paying the balance transfer first ...

Sorry if this is a stupid or obvious thing for me to get wild about, during writing this I can see it probably makes sense ... however, I still can’t help but think it is a bit of a con...

Thanks for any help!

Kind Regards
-Neil Young

tictax

Nope this is standard practice. Did you not read the terms and conditions before signing up?

YorkshireBoy

Welcome to the world of 'negative payment hierarchy'.

Very few card providers operate with a favourable (to the customer) order of payments.

NickX

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

Very few card providers operate with a favourable (to the customer) order of payments.

Nationwide is an exception to this rule and I believe MBNA have recently changed their Terms and Conditions to the customer's favour.

neilyoung1

Thanks for the replies!

Yes I did read the terms and conditions, but at the time I assumed the promo rate was a promo rate ... afer all they do advertise get 0% on all Sainsbury's purchases for 12 months ... but mention nothing about "if you spend at sainsbury's only"

Although I understand the payment order, I am still very disapointed that they can advertise this whilst keeping quiet about the big catch as it is very misleading.

To be honest I dont have a great deal of respect (maybe thats not the right word) for terms and conditions as invariabley every other statement I get from my cards or even banks, I get a new set of amended terms and conditions, so it never works out that you get what you signed up for ...

clio

Saga do, my mum cannot believe how good the saga card is and the way it,s for the customer and not them..
you have to be over 50 mind, so i reckon Jonesy and MR Y-B should be ok to apply hehehehehehehe \0/

jonesMUFCforever

There is no catch! It quite clearly states in the paperwork where and when you get the interest free period.

clio

MBNA doing something favourable for the Customer, wow ive just saw a flying pig go by my window with a toon shirt on

clio

See my over 50 chuckle went down like a lead baloon lol.. \o/