Vanquis Nightmare !

bengal-stripe

Why do you have this compulsive urge to sail so close to the wind? If you hadn't pulled the last penny out of the available limit and paid at the last possible moment, this would not have happened.

How much was the minimum payment and how much was the interest due the next day? Did you spend on the card during the previous month? Leave a safety margin of about 10% of your limit and do not touch this money under any circumstances.

mrclear

thanks for advice.Yes a safety margin of 10% would be ok-interest was around 34 minimum payment day before was for 19 . Yes i did sail close to the wind and it wasn't the best of housekeeping but i still believe that there is a deception going on that will fox many folks. For that reason in spite of my own weakness , i am definitely going to report it to the Financial Ombudsman.Look even the Vanquis call centre guy admitted that it wasn't right and that he didn't like it. The fact is ok its a few years ago now, but when i had a credit card the minimum payment included all interest payments due -one amount -one date - easy no problem. Why the heck can't that be done again? I am going to pursue it for others . As for me this card will be fully cleared Sept 12th and duly shredded

Tixy

mrclear wrote: »

The fact is ok its a few years ago now, but when i had a credit card the minimum payment included all interest payments due -one amount -one date - easy no problem.

The bank cannot ensure that the minimum payment shown on the preceeding statement covers all of the interest that will be charged on the following statement.
That is because they don't know what payments you will make and on what date, or what new purchases will make and on what date between the 2 statements.

Say I have £20 balance on my statement and a card with a £3,000 limit. I may choose to spend an extra £2100 on my card early on during the next month. How can the card holder set a minimum payment that might cover as much interest as they may possibly charge in the event I near max out the card early in the month. They couldn't without the minimum payment potentially being more than was outstanding on the card. Which would be nonsensical.

mrclear

yes but isn't interest free for a month or so ? and that's why surely they would know what your interest would be weeks before the payment is due

Tixy

mrclear wrote: »

yes but isn't interest free for a month or so ? and that's why surely they would know what your interest would be weeks before the payment is due

No it is not interest free for a month or so.
Interest is charged from the day of the purchase to the day of payment. Calculated daily. The only way they will know what interest to charge you on the 8th September is to look at your account balance every day from the last statement to the 7th of September.

Interest is only waivered if you pay your statement in full each month.

mrclear

ok so how could they know the full payment due next for sept 8th ? They showed online - i took a screenshot of it- that amount shown 2 weeks before included interest etc. And even if because they are not sure etc etc how much interest to charge surely they have to make it clear that the minimum payment is a load of c*** if you aren't giving at least the current interest and predictive interst charges with the proviso all things being equal this is the minimum you need to pay It has no relevance ! As i mention above it should be clearly shown as a warning that the minimum requirement means nothing at all in terms of what you have to pay...So whatever the argument about interest and how accurate or inaccurate it would be the fact remains one is led into a false sense of security..but then again that is credit cards anyway i guess. Stay away is my advice

SnowTiger

mrclear wrote: »

but why then do they bother giving a minimum amount that has to be paid and a date to pay by when the very next day the real minimum payment amount kicks in? They know the amount really needed the real minimum payment but instead they i believe trick some of us into thinking the minimum payment by say 6th june is just that! But the REAL minimum payment is the day after with the accrued interest. It is misleading and i really am going to send my complaints to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
If there was no deception they could at the very least state next to the minimum amount required

Please note : when paying your minimum payment on the 6th June please remember the accrued interest that is due because if the not the next day after the minimum due date the accrued interest will be charged to your card. So remember the minimum payment + any accrued interest is what you must pay by that minimum due date or make sure that the accrued interest does not take you over your credit limits or charges will be incurred.

There you are – no big deal . So why not ?

I don't understand what you're talking about. Interest (if any is due) will be added to your next statement.

Here's an example of Vanquis' summary:



It seems pretty clear to me when the payment is due and when the next statement will be produced.

Perhaps the problem is that you left the payment until the last moment?

mrclear

in the above example
the minimum payment if paid like mine was several days before the date actually - the minimum payment is not enough. Now that is my gripe. When i look at the above statement if i pay the fiver off say on 4 dec i have cleared the minimum payment. BUt when the statement comes out on 14th any interest charges will be immediately charged against the card and therefore the minimum payment isn't enough. So it charges the card and if there isn't enough credit on it it goes into default charges etc. So back to me point that there should be a warning at least that on that 14 dec statement day it is a charging you card day so forget the minimum it is not enough if you are close to the limit. As i say the guy did feel this was not right as there had been similar calls..

Tixy

The minimum payment is enough.
Paying the minimum payment keeps you within the terms of the account.

The reason you were charged fees is nothing to do with the minimum payment. It is because you exceeded the limit on your card. Your issue is that you didn't leave enough unused space on your card up to your limit to allow for the interest that would be added based on the balance you had had on the card.

Vanquis is not different to other credit card providers in this respect.

Heffi1

You need to pay more than the minimum then to avoid the charges, if you always pay the minimum then you will pay more in interest over time, the rule is, if you can afford to pay more then you should do so, as that way the bill will be reducing and you will not get late payment charges.

If your bill is produced and sent to you by the 3rd of the month and needs to be paid by the 25th of the month, then you are better paying it early by at least 10 working days in order to get there on time and be processed.

Obviously if you are at your limit each month, then the charges are going to tip you over and late payment charges will be applied.

This is no ones fault but your own, for not paying back more in time.

If you are struggling to pay back what you owe, then go over to the DFW board and ask for some help in managing your money a bit better.

Stop blaming the CC and start paying it back well before the date it is required by.