Minimum Finance Charge with Vanquis

Kyresa

SnowTiger wrote: »

As you didn't pay your first Vanquis statement in full, could this be interest for the first month you used the card?

In general, if you don't pay your credit card bill in full each month all purchases attract interest from when they are made. When Vanquis produced your first statement they didn't know you wouldn't pay it in full, so didn't charge you any interest on your purchases. Now they do know they've charged you interest them.

This is one of the reasons I've never used any of my cards in the first "month" I've got them and always waited till after the first statement to use them - never been charged any interest yet!

Doondie

Kyresa wrote: »

This is one of the reasons I've never used any of my cards in the first "month" I've got them and always waited till after the first statement to use them - never been charged any interest yet!

Are you serious?

Paying off your balance in full each month BEFORE the payment due date is the key to not paying them interest for the money they've lent you, not waiting until after the first month's over (unless of course you don't have interest free period and don't care when you start utilising your credit limit). Some repay manually, others (incl. myself) do it by direct debit.

Let's not forget that interest accrues until the balance is paid off in full. They have no way of knowing IF and WHEN you'll give them back everything you owe them, so interest is calculated in arrears from the date the transaction appears on your statement until repaid in full.

I can't imagine being charged twice for the same thing. As long as one keeps track of their card usage, there won't be financial issues.

P.S. A friend of mine got this 'deferred' thing on her card because she didn't repay her balance in full, so I googled it. I always repay in full, so it was kind of new to me.

Kyresa

Doondie wrote: »

Are you serious?

Absolutely serious ...there's something in the T&Cs about usage in the first month.. wasn't very clear, so I just don't use it till after first statement date

I hardly use the cards anyway. max £100 in a month.. they're really to get the green ticks:beer:

mariem_3

Hi,

I wanted to ask for some advice if possible. My Vanquis credit card bill for January was £1905.28... I paid the full amount off by the due date apart from the £0.28 which I forgot about - it was simple human error. I always pay my full bill off every month without fail, but this month I simply forgot about the 28p (I should probably have put it on a direct debit given my current problem - I usually just pay the full statement amount separately via online banking at some point in the month). Anyway, I’ve received my statement in for this month and it has interest charges as follows:

Billed Deferred finance charges – £62.90
Purchase interest - £30.05

I knew my card had a high rate of interest - though I can't seem to find the terms & conditions document anywhere to find out the exact rate, but it's around 35% - 45 %... But I never realised that was it was even lawful to charge a total of £92.95 in interest on 28p! I've never encountered this before I guess, because I always pay it off in full. Can you offer any advice on this, because the people on their customer service desk are adamant that its a valid charge – they say because interest works a month in arrears. I asked if that meant I’d be refunded in the next statement and she said no, the charges stand - I spoke to 2 separate people who basically said the same thing. Any advice would be welcome, as I really don’t know where to turn with this - it seems unbelieveable.

Marie

MorrisonsEmployee

mariem wrote: »

Hi,

I wanted to ask for some advice if possible. My Vanquis credit card bill for January was £1905.28... I paid the full amount off by the due date apart from the £0.28 which I forgot about - it was simple human error. I always pay my full bill off every month without fail, but this month I simply forgot about the 28p (I should probably have put it on a direct debit given my current problem - I usually just pay the full statement amount separately via online banking at some point in the month). Anyway, I’ve received my statement in for this month and it has interest charges as follows:

Billed Deferred finance charges – £62.90
Purchase interest - £30.05

I knew my card had a high rate of interest - though I can't seem to find the terms & conditions document anywhere to find out the exact rate, but it's around 35% - 45 %... But I never realised that was it was even lawful to charge a total of £92.95 in interest on 28p! I've never encountered this before I guess, because I always pay it off in full. Can you offer any advice on this, because the people on their customer service desk are adamant that its a valid charge – they say because interest works a month in arrears. I asked if that meant I’d be refunded in the next statement and she said no, the charges stand - I spoke to 2 separate people who basically said the same thing. Any advice would be welcome, as I really don’t know where to turn with this - it seems unbelieveable.

Marie

:eek:

Because you didnt pay the bill in full even though it was only 28p Vanquis charge interest on the full amount of the previous balance [In your case £1905.28] - As shocking as this sounds they seem to be able to get away with it.

I had a similar incident and paid off my bill in full except for 66p and was whacked with a charge of £15 the following month

SnowTiger

mariem wrote: »

But I never realised that was it was even lawful to charge a total of £92.95 in interest on 28p!

You haven't been charged £92.95 on 28p. If you don't pay your credit card bill in full each purchase attracts interest from the date it were made.

This isn't unique to Vanquis.

bluetor

I've just logged on to check how much my minimum payment is for next month and was shocked to see the following on my statement !
Billed deferred finance charge for £15.76, repayment option plan for £15.88 and purchase interest for £24.84. I don't clear my balance every month but always pay well over the minimum payment and have not seen this before. What are they ?

camuk81

Billed deferred and purchase intrest is their version on the monthly APR.

Repayment plan option is their form of payment protection and will apply while ever there is a balance on the card where you owe them money.

Lapchien

Finally managed to pay off the balance to this company. Last March my last default dropped off my credit file, at the same time they raised my credit limit to £3100! On Monday my bank called and offered me a loan (RBS), so I've used this to pay off Vanquis (£1300) and Capital One (£1500), I was also offered a new RBS card and I turned them down!

I would urge anyone considering applying for a Vanquis card not to do so, as if you do use it they will squeeze you for every penny. I even used to get sales calls from them every month offering products, and they sent me credit card cheques. They WANT you to get into debt so they can squeeze you even more. You may say if you have the card you can use it as a 'credit builder' - which is fine as long as you can resist the urge to use it, and only buy a packet of crisps or a paper, and pay off the balance in full.

Whenever I've called the call centre the people I've spoken to have been fairly obnoxious, in spite of me having a limit of £3100 and being on their so called gold service - you can feel the contempt they have for their customers.

Please do NOT use this company.

<rant over>

Kyresa

It's quite simple. When you set up the card you set up a direct debit to pay the FULL balance. It's much easier not to spend when you know it has to all be paid off the next month.

I've had Vanquis for over a year now and have never had any problems with them. Just because they "offer" doesn't mean you have to "accept"

Your problem was you built up a balance because, as you state, you couldn't resist the temptation to use it.