Stingy Barclays policy

foxgloves

We bought a new kitchen from Homebase last Jan on a 'Buy now pay in 12 months' interest free loan. The loan company they use is Barclays. We saved up the money to pay off the amount in full within the 12 months so as to avoid paying the interest, which would almost have doubled the price of the kitchen. Partner decided to pay using his credit card which we would then pay off in full at the end of the month (best option for us as would have got a few loyalty vouchers). We knew there was a £29 early settlement fee (or a 'we are not getting any interest off you so we'll take something' fee) but were surprised when Barclays said that there would be £100 fee if we wanted to pay using a credit card. Partner asked why and was told 'I don't know. You just do. It's policy'. Needless to say, we paid on debit card instead. Hadn't encountered this before and we're not usually naive since we discovered budgetting. Is this normal practice? It seems laughably tight-**sed to me!

Hax

I'm guessing that as you're wanting to pay off a loan instead of buying a product/service, it could be construed as a cash advance.