First payment on brand new credit card

lister11

So, as I'm in the same position and clueless, if I recieve my statement today saying I owe £ and it is due by 11 Oct..........if I pay fully this amount on, or by, that date I will incur zero intrest?

New spends aside.

I've also heard that paying off your card in full before a statement leaves you with no credit history changes as it appears to the CRA that you are not using it?

Sorry for the Hijak, as related as it is.

newbutold

lister11 wrote: »

So, as I'm in the same position and clueless, if I recieve my statement today saying I owe £ and it is due by 11 Oct..........if I pay fully this amount on, or by, that date I will incur zero intrest?

New spends aside.

That is correct, you will incur zero interest.

JimmyTheWig

lister11 wrote: »

I've also heard that paying off your card in full before a statement leaves you with no credit history changes as it appears to the CRA that you are not using it?

Will depend on various dates, but certainly could be true.
If you are paying in full, no reason not to pay after you've got your statement.

Uplink

lister11 wrote: »

I've also heard that paying off your card in full before a statement leaves you with no credit history changes as it appears to the CRA that you are not using it?

As far as I could tell from my credit file, reports are made once a month (independent of your statement date?), but I didn't have a CC back then, only current accounts* without overdraft facilities. As far as I can tell, the CRAs have no idea about when and how much you pay, and they only receive a monthly snapshot of your balance (everything you owe, not just the last statement) - but until I see my file with my CC on it, take this with a grain of salt.

*Yeah... apparently current accounts are credit products - probably because you can go negative on them whether you have an overdraft or not, so they get reported to CRAs.

Aaron28

You have to pay in full otherwise they charge you interest and than compounded interest on your previous remaining amount. i had this situation once and i have paid a lot as extra interest.....

Anthorn

lister11 wrote: »

I've also heard that paying off your card in full before a statement leaves you with no credit history changes as it appears to the CRA that you are not using it?

Not exactly and it depends on how fully they report and when they report to the CRA. It depends on whether they report on the payment deadline date or on a set date every month and whether they report the last statement balance or the balance on the day they report. You'll need to view your credit reports to assess it.

With Vanquis for example for my balance to appear as nil on a credit report my payment will need to have reached my account and credited to my account before the date on which they compile the balance - the day before the last day of the month reported to the CRAs on the 12th. of the following month (confused yet?) That could mean making a payment to clear my balance before the statement date and timed exactly allowing for the transit time. That's too much for most people to do and the reason why credit card lenders will assume you're not using the card if the balance on the credit report is always nil. A string over several months of varying small balances usually indicates that a card is being paid off every month depending on the date of the update.

Over the last 4 months I've cleared my balance every statement but a balance is shown on my credit reports for all of those months