Quick CC maths question please!

in*the*red_6

Hi hope this doesn't make me sound too thick BUT....

If I've been charged £31.09 interest on my credit card and the monthly interest rate is 1.456% what should the balance have been?

Thanks in advance :T

ITR

lynzpower

31.09 for a month?

in*the*red_6

Hi yes, I paid off the balance in full last month.

Scouse_Mick

If X is your balance then X * 1.456 / 100 = £31.09.

So X = £31.09 * 100 / 1.456 = £2135.30.

Does this sound about right? It depends when transaactions were added to your account too as they'll work it out on a daily basis but it should be roughly about that.

lynzpower

If the cards has no debt on it how can they charge you interest
Or do I have the tail end of the stick?

CLAPTON

the way interest on credit cards work is quite complicated.

to answer the question you need to say what the history was for the last 2/3 billing periods and not just the last one.

so yes it is possible to pay interest on a bill that apparently has zero balance otherwise.
its only after you have cleard two consecutive bills that the third is sure to have zero interested.

devil in the details i'm afraid.

in*the*red_6

Hi

Thanks for your replies, I realise I didn't really give enough information. We have paid recent balances off in full but last month we had to put £1491.47 on the card. I didn't want to leave any balance on as the interest is so high but didn't have the full money straight away.

Payment was due by 17th May -

I paid:

£541.47 (registered they received it 9 May)
£850 (" " 17th May)
£100 ("" 18th May)

There are also petrol transactions on there which I was expecting totalling £220.41 which I plan to pay off in full this month (have already paid £43 of it).

They've charged me £31.09 interest and I just can't see where an earth they got this figure from - the only amount that didn't get to them before the due date is the final £100 and even if they'd charged interest on the whole lot it shouldn't be this much should it?

Chortle_2

If you do not pay off the balance in FULL they will normally (depends on the t&cs of that particular card) charge you interest on the WHOLE LOT.

There is an article by Martin about it somewhere iirc.

briona

The interest may have been intended to be on your last statement but missed the billing date by just a day or so...

My Capital One credit card bill for last month was £49.61 which I paid in full as I intended to close that account. Hence I was pretty p***ed off to get back from holiday and find a new credit card statement NOT acknowledging my payment in full as I had imagined but rather informing me that I owed them 54p [yes, 54-bloody-pence] for "cash interest" based on a withdrawal made TWO months earlier [think it should have been on the previous statement but somehow wasn't!] HUMPH!

You may find then that the interest calculated was due to a similar error... Their error, not yours but you still owe the interest!

Does that make ANY sense at all???

in*the*red_6

Chortle wrote:

If you do not pay off the balance in FULL they will normally (depends on the t&cs of that particular card) charge you interest on the WHOLE LOT.

There is an article by Martin about it somewhere iirc.

OH MY GOD, I didn't know they did that! Unfortunately the card's in my husband's name so they won't talk to me. They've received the final hundred 1 day after the payment due date and if they don't waive the interest I'm going to close the account, tell them we're switching bank accounts and chase them for unfair bank charges - see how they like that!

I'm so :mad: :mad: :mad:

in*the*red_6

briona wrote:

The interest may have been intended to be on your last statement but missed the billing date by just a day or so...

My Capital One credit card bill for last month was £49.61 which I paid in full as I intended to close that account. Hence I was pretty p***ed off to get back from holiday and find a new credit card statement NOT acknowledging my payment in full as I had imagined but rather informing me that I owed them 54p [yes, 54-bloody-pence] for "cash interest" based on a withdrawal made TWO months earlier [think it should have been on the previous statement but somehow wasn't!] HUMPH!

You may find then that the interest calculated was due to a similar error... Their error, not yours but you still owe the interest!

Does that make ANY sense at all???

Yes I've had similar happen before but don't think that can be the case this time as the previous month's balance was cleared in full (no interest charged) and prior to that it hadn't been used for months??