VIRGIN WARNING - clearing interest free balance

Colin3

Be aware that you cannot reply on your LAST statement to alert you to when interest will be charged on your NEST. I nearly came unstuck because I was looking out for the statement line, ”Estimated Interest-Next Statement”, so I could clear my balance before the 9 month interest free period finishes.

I spoke to Virgin Money MBNA and whilst they have always been helpful, they said this line will only kick in AFTER the due date when a debt or balance has NOT been repaid – it is not an advance warning.

So be warned – pay or transfer your balance BEFORE the date of your final 9 month period.

PS they did try to sell me a lift balance transfer loan from the card at 6.9% for anyone interested.

Milarky

Surely the 'estimated interest' can be used as a guide (but only when it is not '0.00' as during the months of 0% promotions)? Suppose it said:

'Estimated Interest: £12.85'

'due date' was 25 days after the statment date

next statement: was due in 31 days

you had a balance of £1500 and

'standard' interest rate was 1.242 per month?

From this you could work out that for a full month (31 days) at standard rate you would pay £18.98 but because they are saying it will be £12.85 (that's 21/31 of the full month's amount) you can reasonably conclude that the promotion rate ends in 21 days time??

(The easiest thing to do, of course, is phone up Virgin and ask for an exact final date - ususally this coincides with the due date anyway IME)