Don't know anything about credit cards

Steviec321

Hi, Sorry for being a pain.

I am filling in an application for a Nationwide card right now.
It has asked me do i want to set up a direct debit to repay the balance each month.
Which i do, but the only option are Minmium paymenty and whole balance.
Can i not set a DD to pay £100 a month.
If i can't do this, do i just ring up every month and pay that amount of?
Pleae help

Daniel_B

Hi Stevie,
if you only pay £100 off each month, and you have spent more, then you'll end up paying interest - surely you don't want to do that??

And what happens if you spend less than £100 in a given billing period, then you'll be putting your account in credit and not benefitting from it.

Your options are (if you don't want to pay interest):

Set up the DD for the full amount - you have to make sure your current account has enough funds in when the payment is taken though.

Get the bill though the post and ring up, or do an electronic transfer for the full amount.

This is what I do, and I set myself reminders on my mobile, or in outlook to make sure it never gets forgotten.

Each to their own, but don't pay interest - unless it's a 0% card...?

Dan

grumbler

Daniel_B wrote:

...unless it's a 0% card...

Nationwide Classic is 0% for 9 months on purchases. During this period the best is to pay minimum payments (3% of balance, min. £5) by a DD - if you stay within your credit limit.
Put 'saved' money into an instant-access saving account and when introductory period expires (9 month from the account openning - and this could be neither statement date, nor payment date) you should pay balance in full, otherwise the balance will start attracting quite high interest, about 15%APR.

Then you have options described by Daniel above. Another option is to keep the DD for minimum payment (to be sure that at list minimum payment is made every month and you never miss it) and to make additional payments - whatever and whenever you like. If you don't pay balance in full and on time, you will pay interest and will lose up to 56 days interest-free period on all purchases.