Capital One 5% cashback card - when to pay off?

rustleg

I've been checking the small print on the Capital One 5% cashback card which also gives 0% on balances until "the day after your March 2012 statement". It says "No interest is payable on subsequent statements (i.e. after the first statement) if the outstanding balances on your current statement and the previous statement are paid in full by their respective payment due dates." As an example if my statement date is 15 March 2012 then interest starts accruing from 16 March. So exactly when must I pay off in order to avoid being charged interest? I think the answer is to pay all off when I get the Feb 2012 statement (by its due date). If I wait until the March statement I will be charged one months interest, then maybe another smaller amount in the following month. Is this how others read the rules? I also see "No interest is payable if you pay in full the outstanding balance on your first statement by its due date". This seems to imply that I will be charged interest after March 2012 on any purchases from the purchase date since it won't be on my "first" statement. This isn't normal credit card practice as far as I am aware, normally if you pay off everything each month you never have to pay interest - have I read this wrongly? Another thing: you get 5% cashback in the first 99 days up to £2000 spend but if you go over £2000 in this period you get nothing on the rest. So it pays to have another cashback card handy if you do plan on spending more in those 99 days. APOLOGIES TO READERS - I CAN'T GET MY COMPUTER TO PUT IN PARAGRAPH BREAKS

YorkshireBoy

rustleg wrote: »

So exactly when must I pay off in order to avoid being charged interest? I think the answer is to pay all off when I get the Feb 2012 statement (by its due date).

You need to ensure cleared funds are received and allocated to your account by your March 2012 statement date (the day before is preferable, but I'm sure 'on the day' will suffice as they apply credits at the start of the day and close off statements at the end of the day).

These cleared funds should be sufficient to clear both the February statement total and any purchases made between the February statement date and the March statement date.

I also wouldn't use the card between the date you pay and the March statement date.

Complicated innit?

sterlingstash

I've got the 5% cashback card but didn't realise it had an interest free period. Do they all have that - it's not advertised on the website?

I dropped a £2k purchase on it straight away (to get the max £100) and then BT'd that away to a 24 month 0% Barclaycard, and wasn't going to bother using it again before the 3 month period when I can start earning more cashback, but 0% purchases may change my mind....

YorkshireBoy

sterlingstash wrote: »

I've got the 5% cashback card but didn't realise it had an interest free period. Do they all have that - it's not advertised on the website?

Seems to be an 'affiliate special'. Details are in the weekly e-mail, but here's a direct link...

http://www.capitalone.co.uk//creditcards/world-mastercardTC67.jsf

rustleg

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

You need to ensure cleared funds are received and allocated to your account by your March 2012 statement date (the day before is preferable, but I'm sure 'on the day' will suffice as they apply credits at the start of the day and close off statements at the end of the day).

These cleared funds should be sufficient to clear both the February statement total and any purchases made between the February statement date and the March statement date.

I understand your point about cleared funds, but if I wait until the March 2012 staement date won't this be too late to pay off the Feb balance by its (earlier) payment date?

thenudeone

You still need to make the minimum payment from the Feb statement by the due date shown on the Feb statement. The rest can wait until the day before your March statement.

rustleg

thenudeone wrote: »

You still need to make the minimum payment from the Feb statement by the due date shown on the Feb statement. The rest can wait until the day before your March statement.

Thanks, glad you agree. This isn't quite what YorkshireBoy said and I wanted to clarify it as it helps me and may help others.