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Thieving BoS and MINT!!

I feel i have just been robbed by BoS and Mint

Had some large balances hanging around in excess of £7k from each card and have been paying just over the minimum each month for nearly two years

Managed to borrow some money of my family to pay these off and thus put an end to my debt snowballing through interest i was being charged each month - approx £100 for each card

My May 10 statements showed I owed £7k and £7.9k and payment due date was 9 June 10

I paid these balances off in full exactly to the penny as shown on my May 10 statement and in time of the due date

Just got my June 10 statement and to my horror the thieving b*st*rds have charged me interest of £100 and £120!!!

I was absolutely livid so called them up and they gave me some garbled explanation that although I had paid the balance off in full, I had accrued interest up to the date at which the payment was received, and this was reflected in my June10 statement.

They then referred me to the "small print" on the reverse of my statement which according to them clearly explains this...yeah right!

Can anyone tell me whether this is standard practice?

I thought that when you get your monthly statement and you pay off in full the balance they have shown, you wouldnt incur any further interest charges.

I think this is day light robbery and plan to write in to them about how misleading their monthly statement is and try and get these amounts waived.

Absolutely nowhere does it state in clear plain english that were i to pay off the balance in full, i may still incur additional interest charges.

My other question would be if this is the case how do I know what I should pay in order to clear the whole balance short of being a mind reader??

Any pointers advice is greatly appreciated.

:mad:
«13

Comments

  • laurel7172
    laurel7172 Posts: 2,071 Forumite
    Once you stop paying off your credit card in full each month, when you get your credit card bill it includes interest up to the statement date. Interest continues to accrue on a daily basis after that.

    So, yes, sorry, they can do that, and it is standard practice.
    import this
  • YorkshireBoy
    YorkshireBoy Posts: 31,541 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    wookie66 wrote: »
    Absolutely nowhere does it state in clear plain english that were i to pay off the balance in full, i may still incur additional interest charges.
    From the BoS card T&Cs...
    3.4 We will not charge interest on purchases shown on your current statement, if you pay the total balance shown on that statement by the payment date (and have also paid the total balance on the previous statement by the payment date). On all transactions where we do charge interest, we charge it from the date we first charge the amount to your account.

    http://www.bankofscotlandhalifax.co.uk/creditcards/conditions_8473.asp
    Mint will have a similar condition.
  • YorkshireBoy
    YorkshireBoy Posts: 31,541 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    wookie66 wrote: »
    My other question would be if this is the case how do I know what I should pay in order to clear the whole balance short of being a mind reader??
    1. Ring them and ask.

    2. Work it out.
  • DizzleUK
    DizzleUK Posts: 569 Forumite
    Laurel is correct. It's called residual interest.

    If your statement is produced on the first of the month, you will probably recieve it around the 3rd or 4th of the month. If you pay the balance on the day your receive your statement, you will still have interest to pay.

    What they might call "standard practice" is actually logical. Interest is charged on a daily basis, so your balance increases every day, so everyone's statement is out of date by the time you recieve it.

    In future, if you intend to close a credit card down, phone them up on the day you want to close the account and ask them what the final amount due is to settle the balance. Even better, phone them up in advance and get them to explain their procedure for closing an account so you know what to expect.

    Too many people have blind faith in the system, making assumptions based on not much information and then end up with a shock when things don't work out as they expected (I am NOT talking about the times when a consumer gets screwed when the creditor f**ks things up, that's different).

    If you plan to do something different to your normal routine, including but not limited to:

    1. Changing your payment method
    2. Doing a balance transfer
    3. Closing an account

    BE SURE YOU KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN AND WHAT YOU NEED TO DO IN ADVANCE BY SPEAKING TO THE COMPANY INVOLVED!
    Remember this: nothing worth doing is easy.

  • Tirian
    Tirian Posts: 992 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Essentially, what the terms and conditions say in a complicated way can be summed up quite simply: once you've started paying interest, no more free ride!!

    Essentially, if you pay off what you've spent straight away at the end of each statement period, they treat it is if it were not credit (i.e. charge no interest). As soon as you leave any of it to linger beyond, they then start treating your balance as credit, meaning it is accruing interest every day that goes by.
    For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also ...
  • HouseHuntr
    HouseHuntr Posts: 522 Forumite
    wookie66 wrote: »
    I feel i have just been robbed by BoS and Mint

    Had some large balances hanging around in excess of £7k from each card and have been paying just over the minimum each month for nearly two years

    Managed to borrow some money of my family to pay these off and thus put an end to my debt snowballing through interest i was being charged each month - approx £100 for each card

    My May 10 statements showed I owed £7k and £7.9k and payment due date was 9 June 10

    I paid these balances off in full exactly to the penny as shown on my May 10 statement and in time of the due date

    Just got my June 10 statement and to my horror the thieving b*st*rds have charged me interest of £100 and £120!!!

    I was absolutely livid so called them up and they gave me some garbled explanation that although I had paid the balance off in full, I had accrued interest up to the date at which the payment was received, and this was reflected in my June10 statement.

    They then referred me to the "small print" on the reverse of my statement which according to them clearly explains this...yeah right!

    Can anyone tell me whether this is standard practice?

    I thought that when you get your monthly statement and you pay off in full the balance they have shown, you wouldnt incur any further interest charges.

    I think this is day light robbery and plan to write in to them about how misleading their monthly statement is and try and get these amounts waived.

    Absolutely nowhere does it state in clear plain english that were i to pay off the balance in full, i may still incur additional interest charges.

    My other question would be if this is the case how do I know what I should pay in order to clear the whole balance short of being a mind reader??

    Any pointers advice is greatly appreciated.

    :mad:

    Robbed ? Thieving !!!!!!!s ? My a r s e !!!

    Another pointless rant due to the OP being inept !
  • TFD_2
    TFD_2 Posts: 907 Forumite
    wookie66 wrote: »
    I think this is day light robbery and plan to write in to them about how misleading their monthly statement is and try and get these amounts waived.

    You may think that but you're wrong! Your lack of understanding about how credit cards work does not mean they robbed you.

    Every single day there are threads with people ranting and raving about being robbed or ripped off, when in fact they haven't been. Gets quite boring actually.
  • opinions4u
    opinions4u Posts: 19,411 Forumite
    Try to look at it this way:

    Why would a credit card become interest free for a month, simply because they've issued a statement?
  • veryunsure
    veryunsure Posts: 249 Forumite
    edited 24 June 2010 at 11:59AM
    Why are replying posters always so rude?

    The OP asked a question he/she didn't know the answer to and gets some sarky replies implying that he/she is stupid.

    What is the purpose of these forums if this is all the help that can be given?

    Of course we should all know the right way to do things and I am sure the other posters here do; I wish I was smart like you!
  • tyllwyd
    tyllwyd Posts: 5,496 Forumite
    wookie66 wrote: »
    I thought that when you get your monthly statement and you pay off in full the balance they have shown, you wouldnt incur any further interest charges.

    If your balance had been zero on the last statement, and you had spent on the card since and then paid it off in full when you got your next statement, you wouldn't have paid interest.
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