Interest on BT Fee

rolo1_2

Hi

Can any one tell me is interest charged on a balance transfer fee? - The reason I ask is I have transfered a sum from Virgin to the post office credit card to avail of 9 months 0%

My first PO statement shows amount transferred and transfer fee, all fine. However the blurb and bottom of statement says estimated interest next month is £2.13? - I can only assume it is interest on the BT fee. Can anyone confirm this before I ring them up.
Thanks

cse

Interest on BT fees should always be charged at the same rate as the balance transfer, so that's a bit odd. Having said that 'estimated interest' doesn't really mean much, so it could just be that their system can't handle promotional rates or something like that. It's certanly worth giving them a call to put your mind at ease

chattychappy

Yep, I've noticed the same on the PO card but can't remember what happened in the end.

Since it's only a % on a %, it's a small amount in the grand scheme of things and any payment would be first applied to this, so it wouldn't recur.

cse wrote: »

Interest on BT fees should always be charged at the same rate as the balance transfer, so that's a bit odd.

This is certainly what usually happens in my experience, but don't see that it must be this way if PO T+Cs say different.

If I get a moment, I'll dig through my PO statements to see what happened. I have a feeling that in the end the interest wasn't applied.

YorkshireBoy

The PO card has 12 months 0% on BTs for new customers. Have you had it 3 months without using it? If so you may have fallen foul of their "Transfer must be made within 3 months of account opening" clause.

Or maybe the interest is 'overhang' from purchases made within the first 3 months (assuming the BT was made just before the 3 months 0% on purchases expiry date)?

Or maybe this was an existing customer special offer? This would tie in with the 'overhang' issue above.

If you could list your account activity since opening it may help us identify why/where the problem has occured.

rolo1_2

Thanks Folks

YorkshireBoy - I have had my PO card for two years and have never used it, PO emailed me a few weeks back with the 0% on BT for 9 months offer, which came at a perfect time as my Virgin 0% deal was just coming to an end!!.
I'll use the 0% with PO for the 8-9 months and then hopefully Virgin will be offering further 0% deals. I plan to use this switching cycle between PO + Virgin as long as possible.
Chattychappy - I would be interested to see what happened with your charge, no probs if you can't hunt it out, I can wait till next PO statement and see what interest (if any) is charged.
Thanks again Guys

YorkshireBoy

rolo1 wrote: »

I plan to use this switching cycle between PO + Virgin as long as possible.

Offers for new customers tend to be significantly longer in duration, ie up to 20 months is available.

Any particular reason why you're not looking to take advantage of these deals?

rolo1_2

Hi Yorkshireboy - Not sure I understand what you mean. I've had my balance on Virgin for the last 17 months @ 0%.

I have had the PO card for two years and never needed to use it, until now, hence the switch taking advantage of PO 0% for 9 months, before the virgin deal ran out.

YorkshireBoy

rolo1 wrote: »

Not sure I understand what you mean. I've had my balance on Virgin for the last 17 months @ 0%.

My point was you're not going to get a 17 month existing customer deal from them. The best I ever got is the one I have now...12 months.

If you can clear the entire balance within 9-12 months I agree it may not be worth looking at other cards. However, if it's going to take longer than that you could maybe save yourself a couple of BT fees (say 6% in total?) over the duration your debt exists?

rolo1_2

Yes, fair point. However I already have a Barclaycard with a small balance @ 0%, and have probably used most of the rest over the years in my Balance transfering adventures............... so don't really want to apply for any more just yet! - happy to stay one step ahead of the game for the time-being, and take a bit of a hit on BT fees rather than being hammered with interest.

chattychappy

rolo1 wrote: »

Chattychappy - I would be interested to see what happened with your charge, no probs if you can't hunt it out, I can wait till next PO statement and see what interest (if any) is charged.
Thanks again Guys

A bit inconclusive... I wasn't charged interest on the fee. I can't see an "estimated interest" figure, but I only scanned the first page and that might have appeared on the next page. It was back in 2008 and I do have a vague memory of estimated interesting being shown and thinking it odd.

rolo1_2

No worries ChattyChappy, thanks for going out of your way to do that. Cheers