Confused about Argos card payment

Lancashirelass63

We opened an Argos credit account this year and the payment is now due to be paid after 6 months interest free credit. We get a statement from them every month online and the last one I got says we owed £0.00 so I was awaiting this months statement to tell me the balance so I could pay and haven't received it yet although it's due today. I logged into the account to pay hoping to pay by credit card but then discovering they don't accept credit cards so paid with my debit card in full.

I then noticed the date to pay by was the 2nd September and not the 4th September so I'm really confused.:( What's the point of sending statements if the money is due in between the statements? The August statement said we owed nothing but no doubt the September statement will have an hefty interest charge and late payment fee on. They aren't very clear are they

Anyone else had a problem with this card or is it just me who's thick and didn't understand it? We are now cutting the card up, it's just too confusing for a couple of oldies

Fruit_and_Nut_Case

This appears to be their business plan. They hope that people will forget to pay and will then be hit by horrendous interest payments. I suspect this is what will happen next with yourself as you have missed the deadline.

Faith177

It states on your statement every month when your buy now is due to run out.

You must pay it on or before that date i believe it may state that in their T&C's when you take out the card.

The buy now does not run from the statement date but the day you made the purchase same as any buy now

Lancashirelass63

Oh right I see oh well we will just have to pay it but it's a lesson learned, we won't be buying anything else on their card, it's being cut up now and binned.

Thanks for the replies :-)

YorkshireBoy

Lancashirelass63 wrote: »

no doubt the September statement will have an hefty interest charge and late payment fee on.

It may be even more "hefty" than you think, as there could be 6 months of 'deferred interest' on there. At 29.9% APR, that'll be around 15% of the goods value.

Lancashirelass63

Yes I reckon that's what will happen as well as the late payment fee

Just tried to pay an additional £90 online now to cover this but it won't let me, keeps saying card payment unsucessful

Well once bitten twice shy, if they had said on their last statement that the money was due on the 2nd September then it would have been paid but the nil balance confused me and led me to believe that it wasn't due till the next statement date. My own stupid fault I know My memory isn't as good as it used to be I didn't realise it couldn't be paid by credit card and have been asking my other half to leave the credit card for me for the past few days but he forgot till last night and then I found out this morning they didn't accept them.

Argos cards can work out quite costly if you aren't on the ball!

SuperAllyB

I wouldn't think you'd get a late payment fee if the last statement said 0.00 due. You are only late in so far as getting the interest-free deal, not in so far as managing the account correctly.

Lancashirelass63

Oh I hope you are right, it's only £12 but it's better than nothing. Had a major operation a few weeks ago and my brain isn't up to scratch lately, a few years ago I would have spotted that it was meant to be paid by the 2nd and not the 4th, things just don't go in my head like they used to :o