Creation Credit Cards WARNING

re5al

I've been carrying out a check on all my debt and have noticed, what i consider to be, a real problem with the way Creations monthly statement calculations work.

This to me presents a real problem but unfortunately no one over at creation wants to hear my complaint. For those of you out there who use BT's offers and still use cards for purchases I would like to explain.

In July I took out a Balance Transfer off of interest free for 12 months. This took my balance to £6179.40. This left me with about £1200 spare balance to make purchases (I use the card to collect Marriott points).

Broadly the type of pattern I follow is:

Week 1 spend £100.
Week 2 spend £300 pay off £100
Week 3 spend £500 pay off £300
Week 4 spend £200 pay off £300

This cycle repeats itself. What I always do is keep my balance above the £6200 mark so that my Balance Transfer rate is not affected.

It turns out that creation do not see things this way and instead choose to pay off a portion of my higher interest rate AND a portion of my lower interest rate. Now 6 months later my BT 0% rate is actually only £4000 and I am paying the full APR on a balance of c.£3k.

Since the change in law in Jan 2011 (where the higher APR should be paid off first) I have been following the same pattern and never heard of such a poor excuse.

I have raised a complaint but wanted to warn others out there and see if anyone had experienced a similar issue elsewhere.

Thanks.

InsideInsurance

I suspect part of the problem you are having is you are making weekly payments and credit cards (and their systems) are not designed for this.

Never read the legislation to see exactly what the wording is but with credit cards things are often done on the basis of Statements. On the basis you are paying in week 2 before week 1 has appeared on a statement this could be a significant part of the problem.

[Deleted User]

Agreed. This is common to most, if not all, cards, not just Creation. Statemented transactions are paid before unstatemented.

blitzboy

As above, I'd imagine it is because you are not waiting for the statements and are instead making weekly payments.

I dont know what their exact terms and conditions are but I expect in there somewhere it will say that Statemented balances will be paid before Unstatemented. So if you make a purchase then make a payment before the next statement which shows that purchase on it your payment will go towards the 0% portion.

triple_choc_chip

Tesco's is the same, I paid a large sum based on my total amount owed but because a portion of it hadn't yet appeared on a statement they credited against the 0% instead; I've vowed to be more patient in future ....

chris-j

I think they are pretty much all the same - Santander certainly are and I think Barclaycard and MBNA..It is the term Statemented transactions in T&C's and basically they will always take payments off items on your statement first.