Am I being diddled?

MoodyBlues

I have a Lloyds card which has an outstanding balance of £6677 on it. Supposedly the monthly interest rate is 1.667% on purchases (never been used for cash) and they have charged me £113 interest! The minimum requirement is £145.80 (although it claims the minimum should be 2% of the monthly balance). The balance from the previous statement was £6713....
Now my questions. Firstly have they calculated it correctly as when I look at it I get different figures! Am I missing something or should I call them? I'm not entirely concerned about the minimum per se as I usually pay more but it would certainly help a little if I have a tight month..

Any help would be appreciated.

chattychappy

1.667% of £6677 = £111.31. So probably a rounding issue (days in the month)?

Do you have PPI?

MoodyBlues

Thanks for the response chattychappy. Yeah that's what I worked out. I can't see why it's £1 to £2 more than it should be. I don't have PPI.

Curt.

Sounds like they have it about right...

chattychappy

Well the min payment does seem significantly greater than 2%.

2% would be £133.54, not £145.80. That does seem like a pretty big difference. Is it always that much more? Are there any fees - eg balance transfer fees that could be accounted for differently?

If not, I'm stuck.

MoodyBlues

Not than I can see. I'll have to take a look at my old statements and see if there's any disparities before. I did make a balance transfer to the card to clear some more of the debt on the statement before this one...I was concerned of the disparity on that one but figured I'd wait til this one, which also looks odd. I must admit to staring at my statements a bit more and paying more attention!
I'll definitely have to call my CC about this.
Thanks for the help.

If anyone else has any clue what might be happening I would appreciate it!

chattychappy

Ha ha ha....

Could you have this condition: (taken from http://www.lloydstsb.com/credit_cards/platinum_card_summary_box.asp)

You must make a minimum payment by the payment date every month of:

• 2% of the balance shown in your statement (minimum £5, or the full balance if less than £5); or, if it is more,
• an amount equal to the total of interest, any late payment, over limit or returned payment charges, the Payment Protection Cover premium shown in your statement and 0.5% of the balance shown in your statement.

By the second condition you would have to pay: £113 + 0.5% x £6677 = £146.39.

We are getting closer...

chattychappy

And the exact amount of interest would depend when your payment hit the account... so I reckon that's correct (your balance was a bit higher before).

If you have that condition, then mystery solved!

crimson_snowflake

LloydsTSB have only very recently made the change in the minimum payment on some accounts from 2% of the balance to [interest charged + 0.5% of balance].
If they have applied this change, it should have been mentioned somewhere on a recent past statement.

MoodyBlues

Ah that would make more sense...I was just interpreting it differently...it'll make it more complicated for my snowballing now, but at least I don't feel I am being conned...much!
Thanks for the help chattychappy and crimson_snowflake.