ASDA Balance Transfer Problem....

CBU2004

Ok so my balance is around £1,700.
Balance Transfer is £950

When approached in store I was told BT was 0% for 12 months - planned to pay in January, and the purchases I would pay in full to avoid interest.

Now here's problem, I was told and assumed also that they did it like Argos store card does it. If I were to get a buy now pay later interest free, then that is what it was, my BT and purchases would be split. Like argos, if I had a £200 balance on Buy now pay later, and made a purchase of £100 - only interest would be charged on the £100.

Now I have made purchases on my ASDA card along with BT, so I rang up to see what I would have to pay to avoid interest, I was not sure if the Handling Fee was included in this.

Then I was told, interest would be charged and would continue to be charged until I paid the balance off in full, the whole £1,700.
I explained the lady who was doing in store promo for card said I could use this with purchases and the BT would be interest free until end of promotion - in 12 months !

The pre-contractual information on stated the following -

**Balance Transfer Terms and Conditions: Balance Transfer fee of 2.9% (minimum fee £3 per transaction) will be charged in respect of each Balance Transfer. Subject to account status. Account Terms and Conditions apply. You can Balance Transfer up to 80% of the available credit limit within the first 90 days of account opening. Balance Transfers from existing storecard accounts and loans issued by Creation Financial Services Ltd or Creation Consumer Finance Ltd and credit card accounts issued by Sygma Bank UK are not permitted. Minimum value for Balance Transfer is £50. At the end of the promotional period you will be charged the Standard Rates of Interest in accordance to your Account.

As you can see there is nothing there that states purchases would mean full account balance interest !

They offered to refund me interest on the next month, but that was not good enough as I was not planning to pay the £950 BT until January. They then said a manager would call me back in 24 hours, I am assuming the same thing will be said by them.

What can I do ? I can pay off all outside the £950, and then the £950 in January.

Cheers

Tixy

I think this is a misunderstanding / miscommunciation.

If you have 0% on balance transfers then you definitely won't pay interest on that part of the balance.
You will pay interest on the purchase element of the balance from the date of purchase to the date you pay off the purchase.

What you don't get is the 'up to 54 days interest free' on your purchases that you normally get if you clear your card in full each month (as you are not clearing the card in full). This is why its advised not to use a 0% balance transfer card for purchases as well.

If you pay off all your puchases this month (and don't make any more) then next month you would only pay a small amount of trailing interest and the following month you would not be charged any interest.

NPHammer

It will be in the terms and conditions somewhere.

Take this as a painful lesson learnt never to spend on balance transfer cards unless they have a concurrent 0% purchase offer on the card for as long as you want to hold the balance transfer at 0%.

This probably isn't the answer you want to here, but I'd be amazed if Creation budge on this. I think you've done well to get a months interest refunded as a goodwill gesture.

CBU2004

NPHammer wrote: »

It will be in the terms and conditions somewhere.

Take this as a painful lesson learnt never to spend on balance transfer cards unless they have a concurrent 0% purchase offer on the card for as long as you want to hold the balance transfer at 0%.

This probably isn't the answer you want to here, but I'd be amazed if Creation budge on this. I think you've done well to get a months interest refunded as a goodwill gesture.

They did also say they would reset the 0%, but I wanted to log a complaint so a manager will call me, I will end up doing the pay off purchases and not use card and keep with the 0% BT and not use card for purchases.

CBU2004

Ok got this sorted, there was a miss-communication.

I was not charged interest on the BT and won't be for 12 month, however even if I pay off the purchases in full, interest is still applied to them purchases as the statement balance is not cleared (because of BT) however I was told this would not happen by the in store promotion team.

I got a call back today, and they apologized, so what they have offered is for me to pay my purchases, as I was going to in full.

Then on my next statement when I get my interest for those purchases, I have to call back and they will reverse that interest charge.

So yea basically, it is what Tixy explained, lol.

After that any purchases I make will have interest as long as there is a balance.