MBNA - Squeezing payment periods? - What's a normal payment period?

The_Pedant

Is it just me, or have MBNA been squeezing the amount of time you have to pay off a credit card bill?

Thursday, I received my credit card bill. Payment is due by the 30th. If you read the advice they give, then you should allow 5 working days for payment by post. As the post is later these days & most people work, then that means it could only be posted on the 22nd at the latest. Therefore the 5 days to allow time for post & the transaction to clear, is cutting it very tight, leaving only 1 day leeway.

To me, that's crazy. If a bill comes from another provider I use, I have about 3 weeks to pay ... you can almost forget it's due as you have that long!

Ok,I don't actually use post personally, but it just seems like madness that they send a bill & require you to turn it around so quickly to meet a deadline that seems like it is far shorter than most other providers.

How long do other providers give for payments to reach them, after receiving a bill?

frivolous_fay

Does the bill have a date on it? Perhaps it was delayed.
Check back on previous bills to see how long they gave you to pay.

cottager

I've wondered this about OH's MBNA card. Haven't done any analysis on it at all, but the time allowed to pay by the time he receives it does strike me as much less than I have with my Co-op Visa (or indeed that he has with a separate Barclaycard). The point in the month when it arrives also seems to vary quite a lot, usually around 15th but often as much as a week later, but I've always put this down to postal delays?

If you have online banking you could give yourself more of a 'window' to pay by using that method rather than the post: MBNA now accept Faster Payments (for OH's card at least), so it's same-day as long as your bank can send FP. Nowadays we pay his card the day before it's due.

Edit: sorry, just noticed you said you didn't use the post anyway...