Barclaycard Interest Rates ?....Illegal ?

[Deleted User]

Neither can I. I'm all out of ideas.

Hang on - no I'm not. What dates were your statements produced for Dec and Jan?

And have you - or they - moved your payment due date?

Droffats

My statements have always been received on the 6th or 7th of the month.
I have never requested otherwise.
The last 2 were dated 6th December and 7th January.

[Deleted User]

And is the payment due date still the same? What was the due date for the December statement and then the Jan statement?

Also the November statement?

Droffats

The November statement was dated 4th November, due date 29th. (paid on 23rd)
The December one was dated 6th December, due date 31st. (paid on 23rd)
+ the January one dated 7th January, due date 1st February. (was planning to send cheque on 26th)
I don`t think I have ever been "late" with a payment.

redpete

Droffats wrote: »

Hi zx81
The closing balance on the December statement was the high one...£12,124-79 but 1.873% of even that figure, which the balance had, obviously, not been at for the entire month, is only £227-10, so I just can`t see where the £362-25 that they have charged me this month comes from.

Were new purchases made after the statement date but before you paid anything off? Look at the daily balances that will be shown on the statement. It's not difficult to put these into a spreadsheet with the date and work out what you think the interest due should be - not guessing based on the snapshot that the statement balance gives.

The leaflets they sent you would presumably include the explanation of how interest is worked out - what did you not understand from these?

I`ve just looked at my December statement and that shows an estimated interest figure of £394.30 ! (which, I must admit, I hadn`t noticed before....).

That estimated figure in the December statement is what they expect to be included in the Jan statement if you only pay the minimum amount by the due date. It looks like you paid a bit more than the minimum amount which is why the interest amount charged in the Jan statement is less than £394.30.

Droffats

The 2 main purchases in November were £6900 on the 4th + £3667 on the 29th.
Any other transactions were very small.
Yes, the "minimum payment" due on the December statement was £242-49....but I paid them £6000.
If they are saying that the interest would have been £394 if I`d only paid the "minimum", I would have expected it to drop a bit more than thirty quid when I`ve paid them £5758 more, wouldn`t you ?

[Deleted User]

What's the estimated interest on the Jan statement? I don't think we're going to be able to resolve this one, but it will show if the same calculation they used on the December statement is also being used on Jan - or whether Dec is an anomaly and a mistake, which I have to think it is.

[Deleted User]

Droffats wrote: »

The 2 main purchases in November were £6900 on the 4th + £3667 on the 29th.
Any other transactions were very small.
Yes, the "minimum payment" due on the December statement was £242-49....but I paid them £6000.
If they are saying that the interest would have been £394 if I`d only paid the "minimum", I would have expected it to drop a bit more than thirty quid when I`ve paid them £5758 more, wouldn`t you ?

No, it doesn't work like that. The interest would only have dropped a lot if you'd made a very quick payment - ie as soon as you got the statement. Basically, the estimated interest says "You've got £12k of our money - if you're going to borrow this for another month, then we're charging £394 interest." You effectively DID borrow the whole 12k for another month, as you payment was only made towards the end of the month.

At the beginning of the next month, they say "You've got £6k of our money now - if you've going to borrow this for the next month, we're charging £x interest".

So re my post above, interesting to know what the x is on the Jan statement.

CpdButWhy

Droffats wrote: »

Hi jamesd, yes, that would appear to be the case, but as my account was down to £78 in March of last year I assumed that all my larger purchases MUST have been settled in full. The only other answer, I guess, is that they say that each and every "purchase" still had a couple of quid outstanding ?...but that would be VERY cheeky of them, and "unethical" to say the least !

Not necessarily all... only the largest one before March

Although still, I am not sure.

Are they supposed to

a: charge a flat-rate interest based on the original transaction size while the transaction is not fully paid off, or

b: just interest based on the remaining balance for transactions that are outside of their possible 0% period?

Droffats

Sorry for the delay, zx81....trying to "work" too...ha! ha! (need to in order to pay my "interest" charges ! )
The Jaunuary statement shows an Estimated Interest for next month of £115-19 (against a current "balance" of £6620)