Money transfer confusion

MrInappropriate

Hi all.

This year I have decided to pay for my car insurance renewal up front to save on the added cost of interest. I was unable to source a 0% credit card that I had a reasonable chance of getting so I opted to take out a 0% money transfer offer with my existing Barclaycard, of £900. This amount turned out to be higher than the quote I ended up with, so there is some left over. It had a fee but it was a lot cheaper than the interest I'd have paid if I had paid monthly. I was planning on splitting the payments across 9 months until the promotion ends.

I secured a great renewal quote and sorted it all out last night but the payment was taken from the wrong card, and was charged to my Barclaycard instead of the debit card of the bank account I had the money transferred to. So now I have £900 sat in my bank and a balance which will appear on my December statement.

As I use this card for normal spending, which I usually pay in full each month, it has led to a lot of confusion. I am unsure how this may affect the 0% interest promotion.

Numbers:
Car insurance quote: £800 (to be paid in full)

Barclaycard - November Statement
Money transfer: £900
Spending: £500
Statement balance: £1,400

As the payment was taken yesterday, the car insurance will appear on December's statement. I'm not really sure how to deal with this.

Should I initiate a chargeback? I'm worried that I may invariably pay off the 0% amount and be stuck with the rest of the balance to pay at normal interest rates.

molerat

Don't do a chargeback against the car insurance, you could end up with the insurance being cancelled and ending in a lot more bother than a bit of credit card interest.

How do you pay the card off normally ?

As long as you do not go over your credit limit there should be no problems but by spending on a BT / MT card means you have broken the cardinal rule and will be paying interest on all your purchases, including the car insurance, from day 1. Best solution is to pay the outstanding purchases from the Nov statement NOW and wait until the next statement comes out and again pay the purchases off straight away. This will limit your interest as the payments will be allocated to those higher interest items. DO NOT SPEND ON THIS CARD as all purchases will incur interest. If you have not got another purchases card it may be worth getting one, even high interest, just to do your normal monthly spends as long as you pay it off in full.

MrInappropriate

I normally pay the balance off in full, though the card is normally used sparingly. This month I have used it more than usual as I have had a few £100+ transactions crop up.

So if I pay off JUST the purchases (November - £500, December - £800), that should leave me with the 0% balance to pay off across the remaining balance period, right?

Have definitely learnt this lesson the hard way.

molerat

Yes. I don't know how BC show the split across the differing promotions on the statements. Pay the £500 as soon as you can, like today !, and once you get the next statement the £800 plus any interest. In Jan there will be a very small amount of trailing interest but you will be back on track. Just remember not to use the card again until after you have paid off all the MT.

Superscrooge

Just to confirm. Pay off the £500 ASAP but don't pay the £800 until after it appears on your statement otherwise this £800 payment will be credited against your 0% MT balance.

brendon

Have you phoned your insurance company and asked if they can refund and charge to another card? (I am fairly sure the cooling-off period applies for renewals, too.)

MrInappropriate

brendon wrote: »

Have you phoned your insurance company and asked if they can refund and charge to another card? (I am fairly sure the cooling-off period applies for renewals, too.)

I called them and they told me they couldn't reverse the payment, I didn't explicitly ask for a refund at the time.

Could this be a better option I wonder?