Unfair Barclaycard interest charge?

Janetell

I cleared my Barclaycard balance last month (£130) and spent £207 on it since then which is due to be paid, in full or part, on May 7th. Even though I paid the balance in time last month they have still charged me £1 'standard interest rate'!

Does that mean if I pay in full each month they will charge me £12 over a year? Seems a bit unfair to me. :mad:

fozmcfc

You only avoid interest, if you pay the full balance for 2 months on the trot.

£1 hardly worth going all :mad: over is it.

CLAPTON

when you cleared the first balance of 130 there interest would have accrued from the statement date to the date you actually paid the bill
so you would see that interest on the next statement
as fozmcfc says, interest will stop once you pay two consecutive bills in full

bengal-stripe

Janetell wrote: »

I cleared my Barclaycard balance last month (£130)......

.......but presumably not the month before. That means there is still some interest to be paid for the time between the statement date (interest is calculated up to that date) and the date your payment actually arrived (maybe two weeks later). It's called 'trailing interest'. Only once you have paid in full two statements in a row, no further interest is added.

Janetell wrote: »

Even though I paid the balance in time last month they have still charged me £1 'standard interest rate'!

In your case the trailing interest would have only been a few pence, but it appears Barclaycard have a minimum of £1.00 as interest charge. So, it's either nothing or £1.00 minimum. In future, make sure there is no interest due or more than £1.00 of interest (with only a few pence due, you’ll loose out).

Janetell

Thanks for all the replies. I shall pay off the balance this month so shouldn't pay any interest this time.

To Fozmcfc: I know £1 isn't much but it's still £1!

Maksymilian

OK I get straight too it:
Opened a/c in Jan 2011 transfered £3450 and paid £100.05 transfer fee
Interest free on Bal transfers until May 2012.
Promotional offer of 3mth interest free on purchases.

Feb - payment £100
(Bal £3450.05)

Mar - Payment £100 (4th Mar)
- Out £47.65
- Out £1184.25
(Bal £4581.94)
PAYMENTS DUE BY 11 Apr

Apr - payment £80 (6th Apr)
- payment £47.65 (24th Mar)
- payment £1184.25 (24th Mar)
(Bal £3270.05)
PAYMENT DUE BY 12 May

May - payment £80 (6 May)
(Bal 3190.05)
PAYMENT DUE BY 10 Jun

Jun - payment £100 (6 June)
- Out £1695.43
(Bal £4785.48)
PAYMENT DUE BY 12 Jul

Jul - payment £100 (6 Jul)
- payment £1695.43 (27 Jun)
- Out £17.56 noted as interest on Standard Balance

I can not understand why, when I have paid off my purchases in full before the due date and also maintained my contributions to the balance transfer that I am being charged £17.56 interest.

Hope you guys can understand what I have written.

Can anyone please help or explain what Bcard are doing. I get no sense from the customer service dept.

CLAPTON

you will probably find that the T&Cs say
no interest if the BALANCE is paid in full

now you didn't pay the BALANCE in full, you simply paid the purchases plus a bit off so interest is due
they will charge the interest on purchases on a daily rate appropriate to purchases
and they will charge the BT bit on a daily rate too (which of course is zero for the promotional period)


so have two cards; one for the BT and another for purchases

BobbyMcDougall

Something similar happened to me last year.

I cleared my balance in full, but in the same billing cycle I did a balance transfer at 0%. I was confused as to why I was charged interest of £1 odd.

I phoned barclays and they said the advisor should have told me that as I was transfering in the same billing cycle then interest would be charged. In the end they credited £12 to my account to cover the interest that would be charged during my 0% period.

chattychappy

BobbyMcDougall wrote: »

Something similar happened to me last year.

I cleared my balance in full, but in the same billing cycle I did a balance transfer at 0%. I was confused as to why I was charged interest of £1 odd.

I phoned barclays and they said the advisor should have told me that as I was transfering in the same billing cycle then interest would be charged. In the end they credited £12 to my account to cover the interest that would be charged during my 0% period.

Yep, I can understand that. The tiny residual balance got "marooned" until the BT amount was paid off. But that shouldn't happen any more (except for the first £1) now that payments are applied to balances with the highest interest first.

Maksymilian

CLAPTON wrote: »

you will probably find that the T&Cs say
no interest if the BALANCE is paid in full

now you didn't pay the BALANCE in full, you simply paid the purchases plus a bit off so interest is due
they will charge the interest on purchases on a daily rate appropriate to purchases
and they will charge the BT bit on a daily rate too (which of course is zero for the promotional period)


so have two cards; one for the BT and another for purchases

I guess so.
These financial companies should make these rules more clear and offer examples of what can happen. I guess its in their interests to make things as unclear as possible so as catch the customer out. That's how I feel.
Thanks for the response anyway.

I still dont think that it is right cos as ChattyChappy said the balances with the highest interest is paid off in full and I did that and contributed further to the balance of the transfer.

I am an engineer where the rules of the game are base on fundamentals of physics and mathematics. They are black and white and haven't changed for many years. The rules of the credit card game seem to based on somebodies idea of how to make money buy charging interest when the customer thinks that they have paid off the items that interest is chargeable on. To me these rules seem under hand.

Just my thoughts:beer:

CLAPTON

Maksymilian wrote: »

I guess so.
These financial companies should make these rules more clear and offer examples of what can happen. I guess its in their interests to make things as unclear as possible so as catch the customer out. That's how I feel.
Thanks for the response anyway.

I still dont think that it is right cos as ChattyChappy said the balances with the highest interest is paid off in full and I did that and contributed further to the balance of the transfer.

I am an engineer where the rules of the game are base on fundamentals of physics and mathematics. They are black and white and haven't changed for many years. The rules of the credit card game seem to based on somebodies idea of how to make money buy charging interest when the customer thinks that they have paid off the items that interest is chargeable on. To me these rules seem under hand.

Just my thoughts:beer:

tell me

you are a logiacal chap, an engineer with a knowledge of maths and physics

would you work/design something that gives you no return atall..
get real

the T&Cs are, infact written in English and they are totally logical
now I understand why lots of people don't understand them but an engineer should do better....