Nationwide

Elmer_BeFuddled

I know with the NatWest app that if I pay some money into my CC a/c mid month its taken into account. I.E. last statement balance £50, paid £10. Then look closer to statement end date and it tells me last months full balance and option to pay off balance, Then next screen tells me I've already paid £10 and have £40 left to pay.

Are they all not like this?

joeypesci

Elmer_BeFuddled said:

I know with the NatWest app that if I pay some money into my CC a/c mid month its taken into account. I.E. last statement balance £50, paid £10. Then look closer to statement end date and it tells me last months full balance and option to pay off balance, Then next screen tells me I've already paid £10 and have £40 left to pay.

Are they all not like this?

Nationwide certainly isn't. But that's the type of system I think they should implement and what I was trying to explain

kaMelo

joeypesci said:

kaMelo said:

joeypesci said:

harsh_but_fair said:

I have a nationwide credit card and if I buy something on say Monday it shows on Wednesday

This is not exactly acceptable to me so I also have a Barclaycard and if I buy something it shows pretty much immediately certainly within a few hours.

I would recommend you either get a Barclaycard or maybe a John Lewis partnership card both of which are pretty good at showing transactions in a decently short time

avoid Nationwide and First Direct if you want timely postsvto your account

Thanks. But what I want is if for that month I owe £200 and then before the due date pay £100, for it to update to show "Monthly statement is £200. £100 credit, statement now £100". Surely that can't be hard to do with online accounts and an app. I'd find it useful and I'm sure others would. Save having to work it out yourself, instead the app does it for you.

No credit card account operates like that.
The terms and conditions set out the time between producing a statement and the minimum payment due date. If they produce another statement after partial payments then the due date would change also to reflect the required time period between statement date and payment due date. That's why they only produce one statement a month.
Most credit card accounts however will give you a running total in their online banking, taking into account payments/refunds etc. but none that I know of are guaranteed to show everything in real time as not all payments require pre-authorisation, as such the credit card company cannot possibly know about the purchase until the retailer submits the details to them.

If you're paying off the whole balance every month why are you making part payments anyway? Just set up a DD to pay the whole balance automatically or wait until a couple of days before the due date and pay off the whole statement balance. Making interim partial payments serves no purpose whatsoever.

But surely, as it's all digital, it would be possible to "update" the statement in real time and not having issue a new one? So the statement is £400 owed by 21st July. Your paper statement of course can't change but a digital one can. Ignore the fact this might be completly pointless, ignore the fact if you pay off in full just setup a DD ignore all that. I don't understand why that online and digital statement can't update in real time or daily as you pay it off.

Day 1 - You owe £400 by 21st  July

Day 3 - Thank you for the £200 payment.

Day 4 - Digitial statement updates - You owe £200 by 21st July.

Simple. Or is it an accounting practise that the statement has to stay fixed and they can't update it even though its digital because of the accounting process? Genuinely curious.

The "Statement" cannot be updated. It's set at a fixed point in time, usually the same date (give or take a day) every month. It has to be this way as the "payment due" date is set in relation to the "statement" date according to the terms and conditions of the card issuer.
The "current balance" will update according to spending and payments made on the account but these are not guaranteed to be in real time. Payments by debit card can take a couple of days to credit the account for example and some merchants are pre-authorised for small amounts and only send the purchase information in batches, sometimes days later. Then there are refunds to consider. The "Current Balance" bears no real relationship to the "Statement Balance"

What you are after is another balance, a "current statement balance", and that just doesn't exist anywhere, or not that I know of anyway.  The example you list is not that simple in practice. As I said earlier, debit card payments can take 2-3 days to show in the account. In your example the payment on day three should credit your account by day 4 but it might not show in your account until day 6.

What I don't understand though is why then are you making things so complicated for yourself. Against all useful advice about setting up a DD you seem pretty clear you want to carry on making multiple interim payments. Unless you are maxing out the card and need to reduce the balance mid month or you don't trust yourself not to spend the money then making these interim payments just doesn't make any sense. 
Given that you are "not good with numbers and don't have support from people who can help with things like this"  it makes even less sense to do so and make a simple process more complex than it needs to be.
 If you are intent on making interim payments rather than a DD then you really are going to have to keep better records as the responsibility for paying the correct amount is yours.


PS. Why do you want to make interim payments throughout the month. A genuine question, as then maybe I can understand your thought process in doing so.

joeypesci

I'll answer the rest later but Nationwide just called, can see their error where their agent gave me the wrong amount. So they are removing the interest and giving me £25 compensation.

I've explained the idea to them which they are going to pass on. He seemed to understand and said it was a useful idea (although probably just assuming me being customer service )

Why have I never setup DD? Because I'm an idiot. I was always worried "What if I don't have the required amount at the end of the month, I don't want to go overdrawn as well". I've always paid it off but he explained that's not how the DD would work. It would request 3 days before due date the amount required to pay off debt. If I'd already paid £400 on a £500 bill it would only request £100.

But he understood the point of why it does look confusing. You say there is no such system like this but Elmer said their Natwest does this.

I am taking advice, but the idea of forums is people ask questions. Having been on the net for years I hate it when people don't answer the actual question and say stuff like "Don't do it like that, setup a DD". When I reply to posts, I try to reply to the question then give my opinion at the end.

So I'd say "Credit cards don't work like that at the moment. However some appear too, Natwest being one of them. It could be it is an accounting process, that Statement total owed can't be updated live. Having said all that and answering your question with no judgement, I'd then suggest you just setup a DD instead".

I mean no offense by this. I appreciate the help but its always annoyed me when people don't answer a question and push forward their idea instead. I did say last post ignore the option of a DD, ignore that it is a good idea, ignore all that, lets just discuss the idea of that real time update, is there an accounting reason behind it not being updated. I appreciate you did answer that in the end

eskbanker

Point taken and each to their own but IMHO it'll be a sad day on here when the only replies to "I'm having difficulty doing something cumbersome and unnecessary" are "here's how to do something cumbersome and unnecessary"!

xylophone

At least their cards always work unlike Dodo Bank and it's pointless teal debit cards.

Giving them the bird?

joeypesci

eskbanker said:

Point taken and each to their own but IMHO it'll be a sad day on here when the only replies to "I'm having difficulty doing something cumbersome and unnecessary" are "here's how to do something cumbersome and unnecessary"!

You missed the point. The point is you can answer "Here's how to do something cumbersome and unnecessary. But this is what I'd do." So you've answered the question but also given your own opinon. I'm on IT boards all the time and work this way when I answer questions. Otherwise you end up with "Apple are overpriced, buy a PC instead". I answer "If you want an Apple then go with it, you can get them from here and they run like this. But...if it was me, I'd get a PC as they are cheaper and easily upgradeable."

[Deleted User]

joeypesci said:

eskbanker said:

Point taken and each to their own but IMHO it'll be a sad day on here when the only replies to "I'm having difficulty doing something cumbersome and unnecessary" are "here's how to do something cumbersome and unnecessary"!

You missed the point. The point is you can answer "Here's how to do something cumbersome and unnecessary. But this is what I'd do." So you've answered the question but also given your own opinon. I'm on IT boards all the time and work this way when I answer questions. Otherwise you end up with "Apple are overpriced, buy a PC instead". I answer "If you want an Apple then go with it, you can get them from here and they run like this. But...if it was me, I'd get a PC as they are cheaper and easily upgradeable."

Can the OP not just use a calculator? 
Statement balance minus interim payments showing on the credit card account.

kaMelo

Firstly congratulation on getting a refund, a good result in the end.
You're not an idiot for not wanting to set up a DD, the reason people suggested a DD is because you stated you always pay it off in full every month. If there is a possibility you may go into an overdraft by having a DD then your reason for not having one is actually a sensible one as overdrafts are usually more costly than interest on a credit card balance.   Anyway enough on the DD, you've made your point and it's noted.
I actually asked about the interim payments as this is where tho confusion is coming from and if there was a reason you do this as opposed to one payment near the due date, doing so would eliminate the confusion.

To your actual question. I guess there is no actual technical reason, other than a bit more coding for someone, as to why things cannot happen as you want them to. I've never seen any that operate in that way but as suggested by Elmer the NatWest app seems to operate as you wish. Maybe they will take on board your feedback at Nationwide although I wouldn't hold your breath waiting.

jimbo6977

Nationwide can be a bit inconsistent with their online/apps. For instance they send me an email when they have sent me a secure message, but I can't access the secure messages via their app, I have to go via their website (unless someone can tell me different). All these little ripples probably fall into the category of "tout s'explique mais rien ne se justifie," ie there will be a reason for them but it might not be one that makes us any happier.