When 0% Balance Transfer is not 0%

jcumpsty

Can someone please tell me why this doesnt sound right...

Last year(2006) I shuffled my credit cards around. I took out a Halifax credit card offering 0% balance transfer. I continued to use the credit card for purchases, and because I always paid the purchases off in full plus a bit extra for the 0% transfer, I never paid any interest on the card.

When this deal came to an end I still had £5,000 of the balance transfer remaining, so I signed up with a Morgan Stanley card offering the same 0% balance transfer deal, although this time I had to pay a £50 fee for the privelidge.

However, one month I used the credit card to make a single £75 purchase. When the statement came I made a £200 payment on the card. THen the next month I was charged £1.50 interest. That was 2 months ago, and since then I have been charged interest despite having a 0% BT deal, and always paying off more than the minimum balance.

I just called up and got told that when I make a payment it is taken off the lowest interest rate, in this case 0%. So my monthly payments of £200 come off the £5,000 Balance transfer and the £75 charge on the card will continue to gather more and more interest (at 16.9%) until I pay off the full balance transfer.

I tried to tell them that this was not the case with my previous credit cards, and he just started accusing me of talking over him (which made me more frustrated). The only response from the helpdesk is that this is explained in the T&C.

Is that right, or is there someone I can complain to?

CLAPTON

it's common, it's normal and I'm sure it's in the T&Cs

youknowwho

Halifaxhave the same way of working. you must have had 0% on balance transfers and purchases. I dont know of any cc that works any different. Only keep a cc for one purpose, to bt on, or spend, this situation will then never arise.

Phantom_Flan_Flinger

As above, that's how they all work. The whole idea is to get you to spend on the card so that they can make some interest payments from you once you're interest free period is over.

They would have stipulated how they allocated payments in the agreement that you signed.

MarkyMarkD

youknowwho has given the only explanation of your apparently different experience on the Halifax card. Most cards are 0% on transfers and xx% on purchases, with the aim of getting the uninitiated to both spend and do balance transfers and thereby to incur lots of interest.