Tesco Credit Card - new option for interest free spending

rubble2

I have a Tesco CC and have received a letter from them with the above headline.

The body of the letter says ' As you normally pay your balance in full each month, you could now take advantage of a 0% interest balance transfer or money transfer rate and continue to pay no interest on your spending - as long as you repay your purchase amount in full and on time every month'.

Has anybody taken advantage of this? and if so how does it work in practice? I assume that if you have a 0% transfer deal in operation, the monthly statement will still show the minimum payment required to satisfy that deal, so you just pay at least the minimum requested plus your additional total other spending in order to maintain the 0% rate.

Just wondered how it is presented on the monthly statement?

Ebe_Scrooge

rubble2 said:

I assume that if you have a 0% transfer deal in operation, the monthly statement will still show the minimum payment required to satisfy that deal, so you just pay at least the minimum requested plus your additional total other spending in order to maintain the 0% rate.

That's pretty much it.  Repay all purchases in full every month, plus repay the minimum to the 0% deal.  The usual advice is not to mix spending and BTs on the same card, but as long as you're organised enough to keep track of what's what, it shouldn't cause a problem.  Just remember to put money aside so that you'll be able to repay the 0% portion when the promo expires.

There's usually a fee for doing either a BT or MT - if that's the case, then don't do it just for the sake of it if you don't need it.  But if it will actually save you paying interest on another card then it could be worthwhile.

I suspect the statement will just show the standard "minimum payment due", which will be the minimum needed based upon the statement balance.  So you'll probably need to do the calculation yourself to see how much you'll need to pay to cover "all purchases" plus "minimum to BT".

wiseonesomeofthetime

I get offers like this from Tesco in relation to my CC every month.

Not sure why they think someone who pays in full every month carries a balance on another card to transfer tbh.

I have six credit cards, for different uses, all repaid in full every month used, so never anything to transfer.

The 2.99% BT fee, min £5 (on deal offered to me) would also negate any real benefit for some too.

Tesco kindly keep writing off my usual sub-£1 balance. Not sure if that has any effect on my credit file in long run. I mean, the money is there for the DD, they just choose not to take it!