balance transfer fees..

Willowpop

Hi folks, can anyone advise please.
My husband made 2 balance transfers onto a tesco bonus credit card to take advantage of a 0% deal. Obviously there were fees for the transfer, which is fine.
He has received his latest statement and tesco have added the transfer fees onto the minimum repayment for the balance, so whereas he was expecting to pay about £90 minimum repayment (and assumed the fees would be added to the balance of the card and paid off via the monthly payments) he has a statement wanting £173…the £90 min repayment and all of the transfer fees 'upfront'.
Is this normal? It has surprised us a little as we hadn't budgeted for a big bill like this, assuming the fees would become part of the balance of the card.

Thanks in advance.

[Deleted User]

Depends on the t&cs. But x% of the balance plus fees and interest is fairly standard.

Always dangerous to assume what the terms will be without reading them.

Willowpop

It was sort of an educated assumption as I had done a transfer to a different card a couple of months ago and the fees just added to the balance (the fees had interest,the 0%balance didn't) but the min repayment on the statement was just a % of the whole balance, not the %of the balance PLUS all of the fees and any interest.
That's why I was checking if it's something out of the ordinary.
I am assuming it's something some cards do then?

[Deleted User]

Yes, pretty normal.

flashg67

Must admit, I've done several balance transfers over the years and never seen what the OP is saying. Never had a Tesco card, so that's not to say it isn't correct - but not 'normal' in my experience...

YorkshireBoy

flashg67 wrote: »

Must admit, I've done several balance transfers over the years and never seen what the OP is saying.

The only one I remember doing this was MBNA a few years ago.


These days, in my experience at least, all providers I've used have added the fee to the balance (including MBNA).


Maybe the OP's husband's card, being a "Bonus" card (no longer offered to new customers?), had an existing customer offer and this was subject to different T&Cs regarding the fee, or the card has different standard T&Cs to their current new customer cards?

Willowpop

Thanks guys for your thoughts.
It was an existing customer transfer rather than a new card so perhaps you are right.
It's a bit frustrating as I am bit of a card tart and shuffle stuff around, but have never seen this, mine have always just been added to the the balance and just paid off over time…though I don't have an exhaustive knowledge of all the cards and how they work.
It's frustrating as I have finally persuaded my DH to actually move some of his debt around so it's on 0% and then he gets hit with an unexpected bill on the 1st statement. I know that he would have to pay it back over the period of the balance on the card, but it wouldn't have been in one big hit. We budget pretty tightly, so will be a struggle to find the extra for this month.
You live and learn I guess.

chattychappy

This has happened to me on at least a couple of cards. Not Tesco, but I don't remember which ones.

I expect it is more common that it used to be because of the Lending Code requirement that the balance must reduce, which means that some CCs have developed formulas along the lines of x%+fees+interest which should ensure that this happens. "Fees" then gets scooped up in the definition.