Vanquis charging interest on settled account??!!

CarlyJayDee

My husband took out a Vanquis card two years ago trying to rebuild our credit. He initially took out two hundred pounds which he paid in lumps but not completely. We then had a V. expensive problem to fix on our car and as that was our only card we used it and then only paid the minimum for several months.

We knew the interest was astronomical so when we were able to clear the balance last month we finally did. We paid exactly what the statement said we owed by the due date.

We have now received a statement from Vanquis for £70 which they say is interest arrears. Can they do this? I've paid several cards off in the past and I have never then be hit with an interest payment. Is there a legal standpoint or has anyone else had this issue and managed to get past it? Any help welcome as this is not a small amount of money and I can't understand why a statement says 'you owe £ xxx' if that's not technically the truth?

BugsyBrowne

CarlyJayDee wrote: »

My husband took out a Vanquis card two years ago trying to rebuild our credit. He initially took out two hundred pounds which he paid in lumps but not completely. We then had a V. expensive problem to fix on our car and as that was our only card we used it and then only paid the minimum for several months.

We knew the interest was astronomical so when we were able to clear the balance last month we finally did. We paid exactly what the statement said we owed by the due date.

We have now received a statement from Vanquis for £70 which they say is interest arrears. Can they do this? I've paid several cards off in the past and I have never then be hit with an interest payment. Is there a legal standpoint or has anyone else had this issue and managed to get past it? Any help welcome as this is not a small amount of money and I can't understand why a statement says 'you owe £ xxx' if that's not technically the truth?

Your account is not closed down until they send you your final statement,when you closed it down they should of told you we will send you a closed account statement to show that your interest and everything from that month is payed up to date.

YorkshireBoy

It's 'residual interest', and perfectly normal for those carrying a revolving balance.

It's accrued from your statement date until your payment cleared onto the account.

You can only stop the interest by paying 2 consecutive statements in full and by their respective payment due dates (or by overpaying to create a small positive balance).

All cards operate like this so I'm not sure why you think it's the first time it's happened to you?

YorkshireBoy

CarlyJayDee wrote: »

...I can't understand why a statement says 'you owe £ xxx' if that's not technically the truth?

Are you sure it said that? I'd wager it said something along the lines of "your current balance is £xxx".

mjm3346

CarlyJayDee wrote: »

Any help welcome as this is not a small amount of money and I can't understand why a statement says 'you owe £ xxx' if that's not technically the truth?

It was the truth, on the statement date it will have been the correct amount. Every day from then until it was paid there will have been further interest charges, just the same as almost every other credit card.

CarlyJayDee

Thanks - no it really never has happened to me. I had a Comet card that I bought some white goods on, paid the min. payments for about a year then cleared one month and has been zero ever since and same with a capital one card and next account. The capital one did put 82p interest on a £1200 balance but when I called and asked why as I had cleared the balance on the due date they said it was their error and they credited my account.

The most annoying thing is at the bottom of the last statement it had the usual 'estimated interest if you only pay the minimum' which said £4??

Hax

You say that they state it is interest arrears - have you ever fallen behind with your payments?

Certainly, £70 seems a high monthly interest charge on a card with a £200 limit - even for Vanquis!

Also, if you were only paying the minimum, was that amount more than the interest charges? Maybe you ended up going over your limit?

Just a few thoughts to consider

CarlyJayDee

Thanks Hax

Sorry I realise now I didn't make myself clear. It started as a £200 but because we never missed payments they bumped up the limit really quick and it is currently £2500 though we only went up to £1800 when we cleared.

I think I've obviously just been lucky with my timings when I've cleared other cards, or the interest accrued was so minimal (as with my capital one card) that they've written it off when I queried it as a way of retention.

I'll obviously pay it as we didn't take out such a naff card to build up credit just to get back to square one - it just seems a bit off but hey ho that's high interest credit cards for you!