Should the minimum payment requested be more than the interest charged that month?

SnowTiger

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

Because purchases were made during the prior month.

Were they? OP said "didn't spend anything."

JimmyTheWig

SnowTiger wrote: »

Were they? OP said "didn't spend anything."

There's a (rather large, as it happens) balance on the account so they must have spent on it at some point.
I took it to mean that they hadn't spent anything since the last statement, but assumed that they had made purchases up until the last statement.

angel_whip wrote: »

My interest the previous month was £60.52 so neither figure is less than the minimum payment.

That, then, to me sounds wrong.
That's a rather large interest payment. What's the outstanding balance?
Glad to hear you're no longer spending on it!

Essentially, what I want to know is whether this is something I should formally complain about.

Before you complain I would check their figures.
You should have paperwork to say how they calculate the minimum payment. If not, ask them.
You should have paperwork to say what the interest rate is. If not, ask them.
Come back here with the figures if you want help working out if its right according to what they should have done.

If it's right by some fluke circumstances that the minimum repayment works out less than the interest being added then I'd complain to them about the rules.
If they've applied their rules incorrectly then you can obviously complain about that.


But I should add that there's nothing to stop you checking your statements and paying more than the minimum if you want to. Paying more than the minimum will seriously take time and money off the debt, so that's a good plan in any event.

angel_whip

I'm doing the snowballing thing at the moment - paying off the minimum on this card, then throwing as much as possible at another to clear the balance. Unfortunately there's a bit left to pay due to getting married and then husband being made redundant straight after, screwing up our plan of paying off the debt in interest free period.

I'll double check my paperwork tonight and see if you guys can help me see if they are applying the rules incorrectly. I was doing this thinking I was safe in the knowledge that while I was hammering my other card this one wasn't accumalating any more.

Thanks for your help.

CLAPTON

while snowballing is the most efficient way of paying off multiple CC debts, it is better to pay a little more than the minimum payment as the fact is noted on your credit records, this t may hinder attempts to gain further credit later

JimmyTheWig

angel_whip wrote: »

I'm doing the snowballing thing at the moment - paying off the minimum on this card, then throwing as much as possible at another to clear the balance. Unfortunately there's a bit left to pay due to getting married and then husband being made redundant straight after, screwing up our plan of paying off the debt in interest free period.

I'll double check my paperwork tonight and see if you guys can help me see if they are applying the rules incorrectly. I was doing this thinking I was safe in the knowledge that while I was hammering my other card this one wasn't accumalating any more.

Thanks for your help.

So technically, it's in your interest for them to have got the minimum payment too low!

angel_whip

No, it's not technically in my interest - I didn't want the card to get more into debt. I wanted to maintain it albeit only knocking a couple of quid off the balance every month, while paying at least 10% balance off the other one (more in months when can afford).

Anyway, I spoke to Barclaycard and they backed down very quickly and reduced my interest rate so now paying the minimum covers more than the interest. They diidn't admit that they were wrong, but just changed the rate.

Thanks Clapton for the tip of paying off a little more - I round it up to the closest £5 now - is that enough?

Thanks

JimmyTheWig

Obviously it's not in your interest for them to have been charging too much interest.

My point is that if you are wanting to pay as little as possible on this card to free up more money for a higher interest debt then Barclaycard setting the minimum payment artifically low does help you.

Sounds like you've got it sorted now, though. Nice one.