Natwest Card - Trailing Interest Query?

ian1246

Hi Guys.
Could do with some help/advice.

Basically I have a Natwest Credit Card - we always pay it off in full every month. We use it for ALL transactions (other than cash withdrawals) in order to get the rewards back. The exception is cash withdrawals due to the interest charged - which instead we always use debit cards for.

Unfortunately, It didn't quite twig when I used the card to buy some euro's from Asda Travel Money for our holiday, that the purchase was actually a cash withdrawal/advancement - that was on 08th August 2019, for £300 worth of Euro's.

On the 09th August 2019 we get hit with a £9.02 Cash Fee - that sucked, but fair enough.

Then the next statement arrives on the 03rd September 2019 - 12pence interest (shown as "purchase" on the credit card balance tab) charged and £4.96 Interest (shown as "cash" on the credit card balance tab) charged - both dated 03/09/2019. The total statement amount was £1,227.69.

In the small print it stated the following:

Q. Why have I been charged interest when I paid my statement balance off in full last month? A. Interest has been charged for one (or more) of the following reasons:
· You paid your statement balance in full last month but you did not pay your full balance in the previous month, meaning interest was due on the previous month's balance. Interest accrues from the date the statement is produced up until the date full payment is received.
· You made a balance / money transfer or cash withdrawal last month; these types of transactions (and their fees) attract interest on them.
If you pay this month's statement balance in full by the payment due date, no further purchase interest will be applied. Please note, this will not be the case if you make any cash withdrawals or balance transfers this month.

At the bottom, it stated the following:

Purchases 1.453% 17.436% £0.12 £922.18
Advances 1.937% 23.244% £4.98 £305.51

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I picked that statement up on the 09/09/2019 and immediately paid the full £1,227.69 - ordinarily the full payment goes out via direct debit on the 18th/19th of each month.

I figured that was the end of the matter.....

However, today - 03/10/2019 - I ve noticed a £0.03 Interest (shown as a "purchase" on the credit card balance tab) and £0.97 interest (shown as "cash" on the credit card balance tab)

I've gone to check the statement for October to see what these charges are for... and there isn't one - it just states "No Transactions" and there is a information tab which when I click it, states: "A statement won't be created if you didn't use your credit card or make any payments to it within a statement period, including any interest being applied. "

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Basically... what is going on? How do I stop further Interest payments? My current Credit Card Balance shows as -£498.30, which I have just manually paid off (03/10/2019) in the hopes of avoiding any further charges/interest.

I noticed when I went to click the payment option, the "full payment" option still listed £1227.69 - the old balance for the 3rd September 2019 - which was fully paid on 09/09/2019 (shows payment received in the credit card balance).

If someone could shed some light on the above, it would be much appreciated

Ben8282

I am guessing that the fee attracts interest at the purchase rate and not the cash advance rate for some reason. which would account for the existance of the 'purchase' interest.
What has happened is all quite correct. You will have paid interest for the period 8/8 to 3/9 on the September statement and trailing interest for the period 4/9 to date of receipt of payment in full on the October statement.
Interest will now stop. There will be no further interest.

One further point, not directly related to your question, is that the amounts of interest charged seem to be rather high. We are obviously not talking about significant amounts here, but the amount of interest charged is higher than I would have expected for a cash spend of £300.
You say that your statement says:
Advances 1.937% 23.244% £4.98 £305.51
If the first figure is a monthly rate, the second figure the APR, the third figure the interest charged and the fourth figure the amount of the cash transaction, something is not right if this represents the interest charged from 8/8 to 3/9.

born_again

Any purchase that is taken as a cash purchase will attract interest over 3 months. Next month you will have no interest to pay.
Quite why they show purchase interest is a strange one. But knowing CC systems. They seem to have minds of their own, where displaying interest is concerned.