Paying off retail purchases when you have 0% offers

rafhelp

Im only posting this to inform others who might do this.

If you have a 0% offer on your card credit (BT or MT) and you make a retail purchase, say you bought a new car for £2000 on it.

if you then paid it back as you got the money, to reduce paying interest on that purchase then you should be careful.

Even if you waited 5 days it could be likely that the money you put in will pay off the 0% balance offer and not the retail purchase.

This means that you will incur interest the following month.

So as an example.

Your statement date is 5th of the month

You have £2000 0% offer on your account.

You make a £2000 retail purchase on 13th of month.

You then acquire £2000 and then decide to pay back that purchase

You transfer £2000 to the credit card.

Sorted you would assume but...

The next time you check you check your credit you will be paying interest of like £50+ / month... and your 0% offer will have dropped.

The reason is even though your recent purchase should be cleared and money has been taken out your card (and if you check your online statement it will show the purchase added to the card) the bank says you cant actually pay that retail purchase off until after the 5th of the following month.

This seems a bit awkward to say the least, but all it means is that you cant make a short term payment on your credit card without jeopardising your 0% offer!

Seems wrong...

According to various sources when you make a credit card payment in, it should clear off the purchase with the highest interest being charged on it.

But in reality this isnt always possible, you have to wait till next statement date, and in that time obv you will then pay the interest of upto 30days on that purchase.... 

My advice if you have a 0% offer on a card, use a different card for retail purchases.

[Deleted User]

That's been the advice for many years.

If you want to use the same card, then get one of the few that allows you to clear only the interest bearing balance a d retain the interest free period