Charged interest on Tesco Credit card-Why?

mab2000

I looked at my statement online today and saw that I had been charged £3.72 in interest. However, i disagree with this, so I will write down the situation as follows:

15th December Statement: new balance £426.28 Payment Due 4th January

Summary of balances: Purchases £157.18

Tesco Direct Buy now pay later promotion with 0% interest for 6 months and no payments required £269.10.

Now as the Buy now pay later purchase doesn't require you to make any payments for it until after 6 months, I only paid the £157.18 due on the purchases balance. I paid this on the 24th December via faster payments. However, today i saw that I have been charged interest. I phoned Tesco Bank today saying that i believed that i shouldnt be charged interest, they said it was because that i didn't pay the balance off in full, when i said that i still dispute it he said "what do you want me to do about it?" I tried explaining to him that the other part of the balance was at 0% interest and didn't require any payment but they just said I will refund the interest as you are a good customer. Well i wont believe that until I see it.

The order of payments says that any buy now pay later purchases are paid last, and the only other thing i had on the statement is the £157.18 of purchases.

Does anyone else agree that i shouldn't have been charged interest, if not, where have I gone wrong? I am planning to write to them with the information so its clearer but dont want to go to the bother if I am wrong. As for the interest refund they said will happen, would it not show up until my next statement or should it really be part of my pending balance now?

Thanks in advance for anyones help.

CannyJock

Was the £157.18 all purchased on the statement dated 15th December?

noh

For the previous two months had you paid the balance in full?

mab2000

Thanks for your responses. I had paid my previous 2 months statements in full. The £157.18 was all purchases except for the buy now pay later purchase between the 16th November and the 15th December. I made the buy now pay later purchase between these dates as well.

CannyJock

If you've been paying the bills in full, and the purchase don't include things which are treated as "cash advances" like foreign currency, gambling website, then the positive allocation of payments should have cleared the purchase balance like you say.

mab2000

Ok heres where i think it has gone wrong.

I took out a virgin credit card and decided to transfer all my debt onto 1 card so that i could cut up all my cards, have a set low monthly repayment for 16 months at 0% interest (and pay everything back within that time) and start paying for everything with cash before i got trapped into overspending with credit cards. Rather than keeping the buy now pay later purchase on my tesco credit card, i balance transfered it to the virgin card after the 4th of January. I am thinking that this must have confused their systems. But, as my December statement lists the £269.10 as a buy now pay later purchase where i didn't have to actually pay anything at all for it this or the next 5 months, and is at 0% interest, I still think that I shouldn't have been charged interest.

Also, all of the purchases were simple shop purchases that wouldn't have counted as cash advances.

LeeSouthEast

I suspect your payment goes to clearing the promotional balance first. You continue to be charged interest on standard purchases until then.

Certainly that's how Barclaycard do it, and it'd make sense for others to follow suit.

mab2000

According to the order of payments list on the back of my statement, any buy now pay later purchase is the last to be paid. It's a slightly different promotion to a normal 0% promotion as no payments at all are required for the duration of the offer.

plane_boy2000

Not sure what has happened to you as I have an item on BNPL with tesco and its always included in the total balance, but the summary at the back shows how much is at zero interest and how much is at standard rate.

I clear my new purchase balance each month and have not been charged any interest, but it does state that if you wish to pay all or part of the BNPL you have to telephone them so they can alloocate the payment to it.

Only thing I can think is that you either missed the payment date, or you have something on there which is classed as a cash advance and has incured interest from the date of the transaction

mab2000

plane_boy2000 wrote: »

Not sure what has happened to you as I have an item on BNPL with tesco and its always included in the total balance, but the summary at the back shows how much is at zero interest and how much is at standard rate.

I clear my new purchase balance each month and have not been charged any interest, but it does state that if you wish to pay all or part of the BNPL you have to telephone them so they can alloocate the payment to it.

Only thing I can think is that you either missed the payment date, or you have something on there which is classed as a cash advance and has incured interest from the date of the transaction

This isn't the first time I have used the buy now pay later offer and like you I had purchases and a bnpl purchase on my card at the same time. And I didn't get charged any interest then. I do think doing that balance transfer has confused their system so I'm gonna press ahead and send them that letter tomorrow.

denise38

More or less the same thing happened to me . I didn't have BNPL but paid the balance in full yet they still charged me interest . This has happened twice now so I have taken my business elsewhere as we got absolutely nowhere with them. Staff were a bit cheeky &. Balance was paid in plenty of time. Card now cancelled.