Blance Paid in Full - but still charged interest

Funster2003

So I recently paid off all my wife's credit card debts, which she had kept a secret from me. £13k in total. All credit cards destroyed, all balances paid. I've taken control of her finances and now oversee everything, via a joint account.

Last week she received a letter from her Halifax Credit Card. Despite me paying off the £7k balance in time, they have charged her £96. They say it is because the interest starts from the minute the statement is sent. So even though she paid the monthly total in full they've still charged additional interest. None of the other credit cards have done this.

It has made me really angry because out of all her debt, this one was the really nasty one. 27% interest. They've made a lot of money from her. I really really don't want to pay them.

I've asked them to send her a letter explaining why they have charged this. Does she have any legal rights to refuse these fees?

noh

What Barclaycard say is correct. It is interest owed for the period between the statement date and the date the bill was paid.
All credit cards work that way. She may well still get bills from her other card providers.

Tixy

This is standard for all credit cards.

The trailing interest is the amount due from the date the last statement was generated to the date payment was received by the credit card company. The money was borrowed for that period of time so it is reasonable that they charge interest on it.

You have to pay 2 consecutive statements in full to stop trailing interest.

engineer_amy

its called trailing interest as far as im aware
on the statement date, the interest for the outstanding balance is added and you are sent the statement. you paid the statement balance shortly after this, clearing the balance. But they will still charge interest on the full balance for the few days between the statement being generated and you paying them.
Completely legal, above board, more than likely explained in their T&Cs.
So there would be no legal right to refuse them (not fees, interest).
You can appeal to their better nature and ask nicely if they will waive it, but I wouldn't say they would go for that.

chattychappy

Yep, it is standard. Having said that, I've noticed that sometimes small amounts of trailing interest aren't applied despite the T+Cs providing for it. I can only assume that some CCs take the view that it's either not worth the hassle issuing a further statement or that the loss of goodwill/argy-bargy means it's cost-effective to write it off.

Cycrow

chattychappy wrote: »

Yep, it is standard. Having said that, I've noticed that sometimes small amounts of trailing interest aren't applied despite the T+Cs providing for it. I can only assume that some CCs take the view that it's either not worth the hassle issuing a further statement or that the loss of goodwill/argy-bargy means it's cost-effective to write it off.

i've had that with barclaycard before. Not sure if its because i usually pay in full each money or if its standard for them. But one month i had some additional spending which i couldn't pay off in full, the following month i did and no more interest was added, which i wasn't expecting as i thought there would be some trailing interest

Megan_Ogden

Just pay for it :cool: Legal fees are more expensive

JKSandy

If my other half racked up £13k of debt behind my back they would be out on their ear