Which card has longest 'repayment days' ?

alevel18

Do all credit cards have only 30 days to clear the balance or do some cards have longer?

e.g If I borrow £1000, do some cards offer an option to clear balance in (for example) 60 days (instead of normal 30 days)?

CKhalvashi

Mine are usually between 2-3 weeks from the date the statement is produced, which leads to 6-7 weeks interest free.

HappyMJ

Many are also 14 days so be careful. There's none which are beyond 30 days. You need to pay the statement balance before the next statement is due to be printed so 30 days from the date the statement is printed is the maximum.

Why do you need 60 days? Using a credit card and paying in full is usually just for the features and protection the card offers and not for the time given to repay. Would a personal loan be a option for your purchase. You can get a 12 month personal loan for a low cost which may be an affordable alternative. £1,000 over 12 months would cost about £90 per month. You can still use your credit card for the actual purchase and use the personal loan money to pay off the credit card when it falls due.

chattychappy

alevel18 wrote: »

Do all credit cards have only 30 days to clear the balance or do some cards have longer?

e.g If I borrow £1000, do some cards offer an option to clear balance in (for example) 60 days (instead of normal 30 days)?

Well, all CCs give you the option of taking longer to pay... but then you must pay interest! In the end, it's a key part of the business model that people spend now and pay back over time - thus paying interest. Most CCs don't apply interest if you pay the balance in full each month. They are not out of pocked on this - they receive fees from merchants.

Cards do vary as to how long you get from a statement date to when you must pay in order to avoid interest. I've found MBNA the meanest - I only get 14 days. Barclaycard give me almost a month. So if I make a purchase just after a statement date, I get almost 2 months to pay.

Some credit cards give introductory deals on purchases. Typically these run for 12 months during which time you won't pay interest. But you must pay at least the minimum each month (typically 2 to 5% of the balance).

SnowTiger

It's usually less than 30 days. About three and a half weeks.

I used to have a Littlewoods debit card, issued by Woolwich Building Society, which morphed in to a credit card. They offered three months of free credit instead of the standard upto 56 days, but that was discontinued a long time ago.

As HappyMJ mentioned, some cards give you a shorted interest-free period. Natwest punters who pay their balance in full by Direct Debit lose about 11 days.

Some cards offer customers a longer interest free period on new purchase as an introductory offer or a special deal to existing customers.

alevel18

How is the 'balance' worked out?

If I borrow £1000 (0% interest over 12 months) what would the monthly balance be? Is it simply £1000 divided by 12?

HappyMJ

alevel18 wrote: »

How is the 'balance' worked out?

If I borrow £1000 (0% interest over 12 months) what would the monthly balance be? Is it simply £1000 divided by 12?

It's still £1,000. You'll have a minimum monthly payment to make which is usually 1% (plus interest) or £5. A £1,000 balance at 0% interest would require monthly payments of £10 reducing each month until the balance falls below £500 when the monthly payment stays at £5 until repaid.

YorkshireBoy

HappyMJ wrote: »

It's still £1,000. You'll have a minimum monthly payment to make which is usually 1% (plus interest) or £5. A £1,000 balance at 0% interest would require monthly payments of £10 reducing each month until the balance falls below £500 when the monthly payment stays at £5 until repaid.

OP should be aware that some cards, eg Tesco, have a minimum of £25 (or the balance if it's less than this)...just in case that's a problem.

alevel18

thanks everyone, I really appreciate your quick replies :-)

Missus_Hyde

We have a Lloyds card, which seems to give about a maximum time of 6 weeks between using the card and then paying it off in full, depending on when it's used.

I only really use it for buying things on line or ordering something which I can't take home immediately, ie furniture or carpets. Being slightly paranoid, I'm always slightly worried that perhaps the company might go broke between my paying for the goods and actually receiving them, so tend to put the purchases on the credit card just in case.

bengal-stripe

If you get your timing right and buy the expensive item immediately after the last statement has been produced, you have four weeks before the next statement, which will list the item in question. Then you have another three weeks or so to pay in full. So you can have about seven weeks of interest-free credit.

If you get your timing wrong and buy the item shortly before the new statement is due, so it just slips into the statement which gets generated two days later, your (potential) interest-free period is only just over three weeks.