virgin credit cards - balance/amount you can use updates - heads-up

OceanSound

Be careful when using the 'amount you owe' and 'amount you can use' figures within the app. They can be misleading.

My credit limit is £3000.00. 'Amount you owe' is showing = £1661.41, 'Amount you can use' = £1338.59

However, neither of these figures includes the transaction for £295.88 that I did yesterday.

So, my actual 'amout you owe' is £1661.41 + £295.88 = £1957.29

'Amount you can use' = £1042.71

If you have a 0% offer and happen to go just by the figures on the app you may end up in hot water. This is because if you have a balance of say £2500,  you do a transaction for £250.00, your balance becomes £2750. The next day you check the app and only see balance as £2500, so you do another transaction for £300. Few days later you will see that you have exceeded the credit limit. 

Of course, exceeding the credit limit whilst on a 0% promotional rate means you lose that rate and start paying interest. To Virgin Credit cards credit (no pun intended) this particular scenario happened to me a few years ago. As soon as I realised (from what I recall I was over the limit for 1-2 days) I paid back enough to get the balance under the credit limit. 

Still kept the 0% promotional rate. Just had the overlimit charge of £9.00. Phew. close call. 

OceanSound

Deleted_User said:

OceanSound said:

Be careful when using the 'amount you owe' and 'amount you can use' figures within the app. They can be misleading.

My credit limit is £3000.00. 'Amount you owe' is showing = £1661.41, 'Amount you can use' = £1338.59

However, neither of these figures includes the transaction for £295.88 that I did yesterday.

So, my actual 'amout you owe' is £1661.41 + £295.88 = £1957.29

'Amount you can use' = £1042.71

In my experience of using credit cards for decades there is nothing at all unusual about this. Whenever a new transaction is made on a card, initially that is reported as "pending" (and therefore not yet fully recorded). It normally takes around a day or so for new transactions to be fully registered against your credit card account. So they will not be added onto the "Amount you owe" until that has happened.

There is no 'pending' information with virgin credit cards. With the virgin cards I'm using anyway. All other credit cards I used have shown amount available at least close to what is actually available (some foreign transaction amounts will change slightly due to exchange rate fluctuating once finalised)

I've also used credit cards for decades.  Perhaps you can tell us which other cards operate the same as virgin credit cards (no pending transactions shown and no near accurate 'amount available'), rather than just say 'nothing unusual'.

OceanSound

Deleted_User said:

I repeat what I said before. On all my credit cards the total mount owing usually does not include transactions carried out in the last 24 hours or so. I personally refer to those transactions "pending" (my personal designation) because, while they are shown online, I know that it will take around 24 hours or so before for such transaction will get fully registered and added to the total amount owing. Indeed occasionally such a pending transaction may even disappear from the list. That's the way the system works for my credit cards.

I don't see what your problem is: if you make a new transaction for £1000 you don;t need to be an Einstein to know that the amount of credit you can use has been reduced by £1000. So have patience and wait at least 24 hours for the latest transactions to be added to the amount you owe.

Rather than repeat what you said, it would've been good to specify the cards that DO NOT mention 'pending' transactions. For example, my Halifax Clarity card has the info 'Available credit". On the odd occasion, if I take cash out while abroad, the available credit will immediately go down by the estimated amount of the ATM withdrawal. So, I repeat can you tell us one card that you hold that DOSEN'T do the same as what I described?

Nothing to do with patience or how smart one is. It's simply to do with clear and concise information for the card holder to keep track of their finances. We don't all have the luxury to be able to remember each and every transaction or indeed enter it into a spreadsheet. We rely on the app.

OceanSound

Deleted_User said:

I repeat: you normally have to wait 24 hours or so after making a transaction before the transaction is confirmed. Prior to that, any such transactions in effect remain pending ("pending" is the term I choose to use even though the actual word "pending" may not appear on the screen). Until the transaction is confirmed it will not be added to the amount you owe. For example, it is possible for such a pending transaction to be removed from the account if it does not become confirmed.

I have used numerous credit cards since acquiring my first in 1967 but I'm not going to list them all here.

.....

I'm not talking about the 'amount you owe'. I'm talking about 'amount available'.

Sorry!. no time for youtube, so no idea what the video is about

OceanSound

Deleted_User said:

For a credit card:

Amount available to spend = Credit limit - Amount you owe.

With virgin we don't see the pending transactions. Do you mind telling us ONE of your CURRENT (not one from 1967) credit cards that don't list pending transactions. No need to to list them ALL.

dr_adidas01

OceanSound said:

Deleted_User said:

For a credit card:

Amount available to spend = Credit limit - Amount you owe.

With virgin we don't see the pending transactions. Do you mind telling us ONE of your CURRENT (not one from 1967) credit cards that don't list pending transactions. No need to to list them ALL.

You would be screwed if you had either an AA credit card Bank of Ireland or old Post office credit card that has been taken over by JaJa finance. 

As they don’t show pending transactions or show you what you have left of your credit limit when you use your card to pay.

It’s only after the transaction has actually been settled, does is show on the transaction list and credit limit reduced accordingly.

You should be keeping track of what your spending is be it either by keeping receipts for items purchased or writing it down somewhere. 

Mnoee

Jesus this forum is hostile.

Thanks for the heads up, OP - most of my cards do show pending transactions (and it's maybe 50/50 as to whether they show on amount you owe, but all are taken from available balance) and I'm currently only using my virgin card for a regular £2 payment to essentially create a direct debit. If I begin to use it for more regular purchases then I'll be careful to keep track of spending instead of relying on the app.

eskbanker

Deleted_User said:

For a credit card:

Amount available to spend = Credit limit - Amount you owe.

But, as above, the crux of this thread (which should of course be posted on the credit cards board) is that this depends on exact definitions - many cards will reduce 'available to spend' by the amount of pending transactions before these increase the 'amount you owe', which is generally used for 'total posted/statemented transactions', i.e. excluding pending ones.

So, the generic equation is Amount available to spend = Credit limit - Amount you owe - pending transactions, and only where pending is zero (either because nothing really is pending or because the card company chooses to present the data that way) does the shorter version hold true.

And then there's another can of worms regarding transactions being authorised to take a card over its limit....

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6311962/12-over-limit-fee-for-going-73p-over-for-2-days/p1

OceanSound

dr_adidas01 said:

OceanSound said:

Deleted_User said:

For a credit card:

Amount available to spend = Credit limit - Amount you owe.

With virgin we don't see the pending transactions. Do you mind telling us ONE of your CURRENT (not one from 1967) credit cards that don't list pending transactions. No need to to list them ALL.

You would be screwed if you had either an AA credit card Bank of Ireland or old Post office credit card that has been taken over by JaJa finance. 

As they don’t show pending transactions or show you what you have left of your credit limit when you use your card to pay.

It’s only after the transaction has actually been settled, does is show on the transaction list and credit limit reduced accordingly.

You should be keeping track of what your spending is be it either by keeping receipts for items purchased or writing it down somewhere. 

Screwed..a few years ago maybe. Not anymore. Now I'm on the ball. That's how come I was able to prevent it from happening again. 

Anyway, the banking apps, credit card provider apps, and budgeting apps (such as Emma) are there to help us keep tabs on spending. Hardly anyone these days mentions about keeping track of each and every transaction using pen and paper or a spreadsheet. 

To give you some idea, even the MSE site only has a spreadsheet for keeping tabs on your monthly budget. I challenge anyone to post something (from a reliable source) that says we should keep track of each and every transaction using pen and paper or a spreadsheet. 

Also, not showing pending transactions on the app or through some notification can be a security hazard. If you spot something on your app that shouldn't be there you can quickly take action by calling the card provider. 

[Deleted User]

Deleted_User said:

OceanSound said:

Deleted_User said:

For a credit card:

Amount available to spend = Credit limit - Amount you owe.

With virgin we don't see the pending transactions. Do you mind telling us ONE of your CURRENT (not one from 1967) credit cards that don't list pending transactions. No need to to list them ALL.

It's irrelevant to me whether my online credit card (or bank) accounts show pending transactions or not. Whenever I make (or am aware of) a new transaction in one of my financial accounts, I record the details on my personal finance database. That tells me all I need to know to keep my finances in order. I also keep all receipts for payments in case there might be a query when I receive my account statement. Consequently I've never in my life gone into overdraft, broken any credit limit or faced any penalties for failing to pay a bill on time. I've operated this way for decades, well before all this online and app stuff started appearing.

How is Fortran these days?