Interest free on purchases

Maxemoss

Please can somebody help me to understand what this means exactly. I appreciate it sounds self explanatory, but I'm still cautious and a bit confused.
I have little experience of credit cards. I have one that my partner and I use for petrol only, getting air miles, but paying off each month

I work part time, want to buy a better camera for a photography job ( that I will be paid for). Rather than borrow from bank/elsewhere, I'm tempted to get a 0% purchases credit card (m & s card) buying the camera and then paying back within the 15 month 0% period time (well within it, probably within 6 months). Advantage also that credit card purchase offers me added protection if the camera goes wrong at any point!
The details also say that it is interet free for 55 days (or something like that) if balance paid in full each month, otherwise 15% apr.
So if I'm paying back only some of it each month, then I will pay 15% interest yes? So therefore it's not really 15 months 0% interest on purchases.

I realise I'm probably not getting it, but if someone understands my question and can explain I would be very grateful,

[Deleted User]

No. You have 15 months of being charged no interest. All you need to do each month is pay the minimum payment, and then clear the balance before the end of the promo period.

That way, you won't pay any interest.

CLAPTON

the 0% interest is a promotional rate that applies for the first 15 months; the standard terms which will apply after 15 months, mean that you will pay 15% unless you pay in full each month

so yes it really is interest free for 0% if you pay at least the minimum monthly payment

Maxemoss

Wow, so they make money...how...by people overspending on it and/or not clearing balance in time before interest starts I guess?
Cheers. Sounds like a plan then. I really do only want to use it for this camera, won't even keep it with me otherwise.

Maxemoss

Brilliant thanks for the quick replies

[Deleted User]

Maxemoss wrote: »

Wow, so they make money...how...by people overspending on it and/or not clearing balance in time before interest starts I guess?

And by people missing the first payment, often by setting up a DD and then ignoring their statements. Often the first DD is not set up in time to take the first payment.

Don't let this happen to you and ALWAYS check your statements.

Maxemoss

Deleted_User wrote: »

And by people missing the first payment, often by setting up a DD and then ignoring their statements. Often the first DD is not set up in time to take the first payment.

Don't let this happen to you and ALWAYS check your statements.

Brilliant, thanks for heads up. Will be vigilant.

tomsco

Maxemoss wrote: »

Wow, so they make money...how...by people overspending on it and/or not clearing balance in time before interest starts I guess?
Cheers. Sounds like a plan then. I really do only want to use it for this camera, won't even keep it with me otherwise.

Fees/interest and merchant fees (ie. a perecentage of each transaction)

DK-Tandy

sorry to butt in here, but i wanted to know a similar answer and do the same thing as OP but was unsure on how it worked, Can you chose how much to pay each month? or do they make you pay a minimum which will over-run the interest free period so they make you pay interested, or could you choose how much you wish to pay back?

EDIT: how to the work out how much you pay monthly?

Scarpacci

DK-Tandy wrote: »

sorry to butt in here, but i wanted to know a similar answer and do the same thing as OP but was unsure on how it worked, Can you chose how much to pay each month? or do they make you pay a minimum which will over-run the interest free period so they make you pay interested, or could you choose how much you wish to pay back?

EDIT: how to the work out how much you pay monthly?

You can choose how much you pay each month, provided you pay at least the minimum amount due. The minimum payment is not set with the plan of clearing the card within a promotional rate in mind or clearing it in any reasonable amount of time. The minimum payment will either be a fixed sum, generally between £5 and £25, or 1% of the total balance - usually whichever is higher. If you're only paying over 1% each month, you can imagine how long that would take to pay off.

You can either decide to pay just the minimum and plan to have a big lump sum at the end to pay it all off, or you can plan to pay more each month to pay off the balance. The first plan has its benefits but can be problematic if you're tempted to spend the lump-sum you're saving up. The second plan doesn't really make full use of the 0% deal, but it does mean you won't end up at the end of it with a large balance on the card.

To work it out how much to pay monthly, I'd take the full balance and divide by the length of the promotional rate minus 1 month. Promotional rates usually expire on the anniversary of the account being opened, not on the xth statement date. So if you have a 12 month 0% deal, I'd be planning to pay it off by statement 11. If you spent £1,000 then it would be about £91 p/m. Whatever you decide, make sure it's higher than the minimum payment requested on your statement.

DK-Tandy

i only plan on spending £410 max, and paying back atleast £10 per week (£40/£50 per month, depending on how many Friday's are in the month)