How on earth do you clear a credit card?

gracie83

I finally paid off the last of my debts a few weeks ago. I paid the final balance on the credit bill and phoned up to cancel the card. They say I was in credit by £26 so they would send me a closing cheque. I asked them to hold on to the money to make sure that any additional interest which needed paying could come from that money. They said there would be nothing more to pay as I had paid the bill on time. The cheque arrives. Yesterday later I get a statement saying my balance is now -£10.50 as they have taken more interest on the card. The statement took 10 days to reach me so there will probably be another demand for more interest next month as well.

How on earth can a person achieve a 0 balance on a closed credit card?

lisyloo

You need to go into credit by more than you think the interest next month will be.
Sadly what you were told on the phone was wrong (call center people are sometimes wrong and often not highly trained or quallified).

You could make a complaint.
Following their formal complaints procedure is best.
If you have a note of who you spoke to, date and time, then this would help enormously.
They may even be able to find the recorded call if you know the day and time.
No guarantees, but they may well offer you a "gesture of goodwill" e.g. your £10 back.
This wording means they won't officially put it in writing that they were wrong, but they want to give you something to go away.

My advice is don't believe what call center people say.
I'm not knocking them because it the fault of the companies who provide them with minimal training but you cannot rely on what they say.
You have to do your own research.
It's not a criticism so don't take it the wrong way but they work FOR you so you could have insisted they kept the £26 and this is how you need to deal with them if you don't want to suffer from their mistakes.
Normally if you get told something wrong then companies will apologise, but they won't always offer full compensation for the result.

A statement can only ever show interest up to the statement date.
A statement cannot show interest beyond that because they don't have a crystal ball and don't know when you will pay.
So if you are in debt, then there will be interest between the statement date and the day that your payment cleared.

Dave101t

pay off the card.
spend nothing in the next statement month. pay off the interest that occurs.
thats it.

i did that but didnt close my card, no interest since.

CLAPTON

Its simple

just pay in full for two consecutive months and there will be no further interest.

it's how all CC work.