Lloyds Bank Credit Card Interest charging policy

delboyo

I have just discovered that if you don't pay off (say) October's statement balance in full they charge interest in November's statement.     Fair enough. 
BUT.  They appear to be also charging interest now on any purchases made on the November statement even though payment isn't due until mid December.  What happened to the up to 56 day credit period?   
Customer Services tell me that if I pay off the outstanding balance in full my Interest charge for the November purchases will then be refunded !?!?    
My other Credit card issuer don't do that and their Customer Services person was astounded that Lloyds are doing this.   Is this legal?   Does it contravene any part of the Banking code - if one exists !

        

Yahoo_Mail

delboyo said:

I have just discovered that if you don't pay off (say) October's statement balance in full they charge interest in November's statement.     Fair enough. 
BUT.  They appear to be also charging interest now on any purchases made on the November statement even though payment isn't due until mid December.  What happened to the up to 56 day credit period?   
Customer Services tell me that if I pay off the outstanding balance in full my Interest charge for the November purchases will then be refunded !?!?    
My other Credit card issuer don't do that and their Customer Services person was astounded that Lloyds are doing this.   Is this legal?   Does it contravene any part of the Banking code - if one exists !

        

If they're doing what you say they're doing then it's purely down to how they display it, it doesn't in any way change how you're actually being charged.

In fact, I'd argue that being shown how much interest you would have to pay if you didn't clear it in full is an improvement.

delboyo

What part of  -  they are charging me Interest on my most recent purchases BEFORE payment is even due and while I still have 3 weeks of "credit" left   -  don't you understand?    It's not on the statement as a display item.  They will take the Interest charge on the most recent purchases even if I pay by the due date.   

Yahoo_Mail

delboyo said:

What part of  -  they are charging me Interest on my most recent purchases BEFORE payment is even due and while I still have 3 weeks of "credit" left   -  don't you understand?    It's not on the statement as a display item.  They will take the Interest charge on the most recent purchases even if I pay by the due date.   

They're not charging you though, are they? 

delboyo said:

Customer Services tell me that if I pay off the outstanding balance in full my Interest charge for the November purchases will then be refunded !?!?

So they're ultimately not charging you.  It makes no difference how they go about it unless you're actually paying the interest then you're not, uh, paying it.

Of course, I suspect this is just one customer services reps way of (poorly) explaining it and they're not "refunding" you at all.

Asghar

delboyo said:

What part of  -  they are charging me Interest on my most recent purchases BEFORE payment is even due and while I still have 3 weeks of "credit" left   -  don't you understand?    It's not on the statement as a display item.  They will take the Interest charge on the most recent purchases even if I pay by the due date.   

So you have both the purchases and interest already added for those purchases actually on the next statement.

Hightly doubt it, post an image.

delboyo

The "refund" will not be paid until the following month !   Multiply that by the many hundred thousands of customers who don't pay off their bill in full and that gives the bank an awful lot of money to put on the overnight FX for a month.

Yahoo_Mail

delboyo said:

The "refund" will not be paid until the following month !   Multiply that by the many hundred thousands of customers who don't pay off their bill in full and that gives the bank an awful lot of money to put on the overnight FX for a month.

You've obviously got the complete wrong end of the stick.  As Asghar says, post a screenshot.

delboyo

OK you do the maths.
Balance carried forward from previous month  £200.  New purchases this month  £250.  Due date December 11th.
Interest rate  1.499% per month.  Amount charged  £6.14
By my reckoning the interest should only be charged on the balance carried forward which would be £2.99
Does that make it clear?



   

Yahoo_Mail

delboyo said:

OK you do the maths.
Balance carried forward from previous month  £200.  New purchases this month  £250.  Due date December 11th.
Interest rate  1.499% per month.  Amount charged  £6.14
By my reckoning the interest should only be charged on the balance carried forward which would be £2.99
Does that make it clear?



   

As mud.

Post a picture of the statement (with sensitive info redacted) rather than a transcription.

jonesMUFCforever

(Quote removed by MSE Forum Team)
 I will try to reply.
If you do not clear the previous month statement in full you are charged interest on the balance AND you do not get the 56 day interest free days for future transactions until the next time the account is cleared again.
IMO this is how most UK credit cards work and why it takes 2 months for interest to stop (including trailing interest).

This is certainly nothing new for Lloyds Bank - they have always worked this way.

SuperAllyB

delboyo said:

OK you do the maths.
Balance carried forward from previous month  £200.  New purchases this month  £250.  Due date December 11th.
Interest rate  1.499% per month.  Amount charged  £6.14
By my reckoning the interest should only be charged on the balance carried forward which would be £2.99
Does that make it clear?



   

If you don't pay off the full balance you get charged interest on all the balance for the full period, or to put it another way if you do pay off the full balance the interest is "refunded".

Also you will get charged interest on new transactions until you've fully cleared two consecutive statements.  All card work this way.

Assuming the £2.99 shortfall was accidental then it's a lesson to learn, lucky the balance wasn't £000s.