Capital One Minimum Payments.

Stuface

I've had a Capital One Visa for almost three years now. I've only used it for stuff I know I can pay back, in order to get my credit rating sorted.

In March 2010 I had to use it in an emergency after a holiday, and I reset my payments with Cap One as 'minimum payments' via Direct Debit. Prior to this, my payments were always 'full' amount, and paid on time.

Cap One's T's & C's are REALLY hard to find, but in MY mind making a 'minimum' payment would keep the card at, or below it's limit.

Although it's partially my fault for not looking at my staement often, I'm now 30 percent over my card limit, despite never missing a DD.

I assumed that the DD payments were covering the interest and any charges, although it seems they're not !

Any thoughts, guides or help would be welcome even though I suppose there's no legal recourse as 'assumption' is not included in Law, and I'm probably on a 'loser'.. but it hacks me off (hacked off smiley disallowed)

Regards

Stu

DizzleUK

Sadly this is a common assumption that people make. The minimum payment is a percentage of the balance at the time of the statement. Things like high APRs and PPI and other things can easily add up to more than 5% of the balance at the time of the last statement.

Also, if you are over your limit, you will have other charges added to your account. £12 here and £12 there soon adds up.

fozmcfc

Possibly Capital One should inform the customer if the minimum payment will not cover the interest. Once with my Egg card, I received an email and a message on my account online that the minimum payment wasn't going to be enough to stop me going over my limit and that I should make an additional payment. I know that without that email I would have found myself in a similar situation to yourself.

Best to ring them, remain polite, explain situation and hopefully they will stop any further £12 charges to start with, they might even refund a couple. If you haven't already, try to make a payment to bring your account into order, even if it means selling something or going without for a month or two.

Unfortunately the whole episode, won't have done your credit rating any good.