Help needed to understand credit card interest please!

sensiblesaver_2

Hi

I got a Tesco credit card with 0% purchases for 3 months. So I only paid the minium for the 1st 3 months. At the end of last month when I got my statement it came £980.28 so I paid the whole lot off to avoid interest. Or so I thought! Got my statement for this month and I've been charged interest of £4.23 which I don't quite understand as I paid the amount on my statement in full. Please can anyone shed any light on this, is there something really obvious that I'm missing??

Thanks

King_Of_Fools

I assume you paid your 3rd month statement part way through the 4th month of you having the card. If so, the interest is for the time after the first three months and before you made the payment.

sensiblesaver_2

Thanks, that makes sense I think. But I received my statement for period ending 11th October on 11th of October and it says the money must reach my account by 31st Oct. The money shows on my Tesco statement as being received on 22nd Oct for the exact same amount. Am I supposed to pay the amount in full before I et my statement? I'm confused :-(

IWantToBeFree_2

The 0% deal may have expired before the payment date, the deal will start when you open your account, which may not be your statement/payments date.

E.g if you opened account on the 13th of the month, the 0% will have expired on the 13th and the interested would from then to the payment date.

sensiblesaver_2

That sound pretty sneaky! My account was opened on 16th July though. Is what your saying that the 0% deal will have expired on 16th October, and even though they don't send me the statement until the 22nd, the 0% deal will have expired and I paid interest from 16th October to 22nd?

Just to clarify for me (sorry I know it's a daft question) but if I now continue to pay my account in full when I get each statement, will I pay interest between the 16th & 22nd of the month every month? I know logically that the answer is no but going by what has happened this month, surely I will end up paying nterest every month then??

IWantToBeFree_2

Its not sneaky, it will have been in your terms and conditions! But you are right, the deal would have expired on the 16th October.

How many days interest free do you get on your normal purchases? It tends to be around 56 days which means that you shouldn't pay interest going forwards if you pay off in full every month

sensiblesaver_2

Ah I think I get it now, I obviously over looked that part of the T&Cs. I have 46 days interest free. Will get the direct debit set up to pay in full every month just to be sure (as was the plan anyway.)

thanks for your help