Amazon Mastercard Interest Charged on recent Purchases

splatt30

ALL credit cards offer say 50 days interest free on purchases but only if you have paid the full amount outstanding the previous month, or in the case of my Tesco card the previous 2 months. Otherwise they start applying interest from the day of purchase.

Even with the new rules that a payment goes to the highest rate balance first I think it's easiest if you have an interest free balance on a card to leave it be and not add anything else too it unless that is also going to be interest free.

gutt3d

Damn - I had no idea! The amount of interest I'm talking about is very small - a couple of quid - but in my ignorance I could have quite easily put a major purchase on there and got stung for a several more quid.

I currently have 2 credit cards - my Amazon one, and a Halifax one for when I go abroad. I thought it "bad" (somehow) to have more than 2 cards - but perhaps I should get an extra one for day-to-day expenditure, and use the Amazon one for BT only.

I honestly consider myself reasonably savvy when it comes to money. And I'm healthily paranoid when it comes to credit cards and insurance companies etc trying to get money out of me. I even read the small through the credit agreements - obviously not carefully enough.

Clearly I still have a lot to learn - but it makes me wonder whether others get caught out by this type of thing. Sneaky, sneaky b*******.

callum9999

gutt3d wrote: »

Damn - I had no idea! The amount of interest I'm talking about is very small - a couple of quid - but in my ignorance I could have quite easily put a major purchase on there and got stung for a several more quid.

I currently have 2 credit cards - my Amazon one, and a Halifax one for when I go abroad. I thought it "bad" (somehow) to have more than 2 cards - but perhaps I should get an extra one for day-to-day expenditure, and use the Amazon one for BT only.

I honestly consider myself reasonably savvy when it comes to money. And I'm healthily paranoid when it comes to credit cards and insurance companies etc trying to get money out of me. I even read the small through the credit agreements - obviously not carefully enough.

Clearly I still have a lot to learn - but it makes me wonder whether others get caught out by this type of thing. Sneaky, sneaky b*******.

It's not necessarily bad to get more than 2 but why can't you use your halifax card for everyday spending and abroad? Unless you were after a cashback card or the Clarity only has a small limit?

gutt3d

I got the Halifax card after doing a bit of research here at MSE, and found that it's great to use in the rest of Europe (as there's no conversion fee from Euro/Sterling) but I also read that it's not great for using at home - something about the interest or fees... I didn't read too much more, as I was happy enough with the Amazon card. I just read the part about "no conversion fees" then "not great for using at home..." then went for it. It's currently in a box with my passport.

My plan had always been to settle my Amazon card then ditch it - then get an M&S card. The Amazon loyalty points are pretty poor, and the M&S one is interest free on all purchases - seemed like a no brainer.

I think I'll just lock the Amazon card away until the balance transfer is gone - there's less than £100 on it now - and meantime get an M&S card for 'normal' use. No real point in keeping the Amazon card though - you need to spend £1000 before you get a £10 Amazon voucher! Balance transfers free until Dec (I think) but I'd only use it to pay for spending while abroad - and I'm not likely to use the Halifax card again until next March/April.

Looks like time's up for the Amazon card.