Interest being charged

kaffinity

Quick question. I have an interest free card for balance transfer. I moved £3k and am paying £450 monthly. My minimum repayment is £25 monthly. I bought something for £70 and was charged interest. Why is the company Virgin money not clearing my purchase first out of my £450 can they charge interest in this circumstance? I feel duped by them. If they can then I won't buy another thing but its annoyed me. 

molerat

They will be clearing the purchase first but it will start incurring interest from the moment you pop your card into the machine, you don't get the interest free period if not paying the card off in full, and will likely not be payable until the transaction has appeared on a statement.  Don't make purchases on a BT card has always been the advice and now you know why.

Fingerbobs

Most credit cards work like this. 
Purchases start accruing interest immediately, but the interest is waived if the statement balance (not just the purchase balance) is paid IN FULL by the due date. 
There are a few exceptions, but this is the general rule for most cards. 

Asghar

I had this earlier in the week with a Natwest Credit card.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6274978/charged-for-purchases-straight-away/p1

The interest appeared on the statement at the same time as the purchases I had made.

In my case they were kind enough to refund the interest they charged

Basically the card is useless for any interest free spending until the balance transfer is paid off.

jay1804

kaffinity said:

Quick question. I have an interest free card for balance transfer. I moved £3k and am paying £450 monthly. My minimum repayment is £25 monthly. I bought something for £70 and was charged interest. Why is the company Virgin money not clearing my purchase first out of my £450 can they charge interest in this circumstance? I feel duped by them. If they can then I won't buy another thing but its annoyed me. 

The only card I know that give u an interest free spending period with a BT'd balance is Barclaycard.

[Deleted User]

...and Nationwide.

kaMelo

Asghar said:

I had this earlier in the week with a Natwest Credit card.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6274978/charged-for-purchases-straight-away/p1

The interest appeared on the statement at the same time as the purchases I had made.

In my case they were kind enough to refund the interest they charged

Basically the card is useless for any interest free spending until the balance transfer is paid off.

But that's always been the case, purchases are only interest free because of either a special offer or by clearing the entire balance on each and every statement. This doesn't make the NatWest card useless, it makes it a balance transfer card not an interest free purchase card.

There are some that do allow you to do both, that's why it's important to understand what type of card you have. 
But to make things simple the advice is and has always been to use one card for balance transfers and another card for purchases, never mix the two.

phillw

Fingerbobs said:

Most credit cards work like this. 
Purchases start accruing interest immediately, but the interest is waived if the statement balance (not just the purchase balance) is paid IN FULL by the due date. 
There are a few exceptions, but this is the general rule for most cards. 

The way they do this is complicated, as it seems to rely on whether enough payments were made to cover the previous statement at the point the credit card is used rather than whether you pay the statement by the due date.

So they don't actually accrue interest immediately if you are paying your statement off every month.