I paid the "statement balance," not the "current balance" - will I pay interest?

CMB3

I recently paid my credit card bill (before the due date - 20/4/23). The account status before paying was as follows:

Current (full) balance - £355.46

Statement balance - £267.33. 

I couldn't quite afford to pay the current (full) balance of £355.46, so I decided to pay £300, leaving a current balance of £55.46. 

A couple of questions: 

1) If you pay the statement balance (but not the current/full balance), are you charged interest?

2) Given that it's an Aqua classic card, with a rate of 49.9% (variable), what would I be paying in interest for the remaining balance of £55.46 (if required).

cymruchris

Paying the statement balance by the due date will result on no interest being charged. The remaining balance will be added to any new spends for your next statement - and that will also need to be paid off in full to maintain interest free payments.

grumbler

The best way to avoid any mistakes is to have a DD set up for paying the statement balance in full and to have money available in your current account on the due date.

dgmjr2018

Im kinda new to credit cards, and from reading this (correct me if i am wrong): 

The statement balance is what i owe for that month (Which needs to be paid in full, in order to avoid paying interest) - whilst the remaining balance is what will be billed in the following month?

cymruchris

dgmjr2018 said:

Im kinda new to credit cards, and from reading this (correct me if i am wrong): 

The statement balance is what i owe for that month (Which needs to be paid in full, in order to avoid paying interest) - whilst the remaining balance is what will be billed in the following month?

Yes that’s correct. The only time you’d see interest applied (and it would already show on your statement) is if you made a cash withdrawal/cash services transaction on your credit card - as cash transactions usually attract interest from the moment they are recorded on your account. (Buying your shopping in Tesco and a few things on Amazon or eBay - none of those would be ‘cash withdrawal’ or ‘cash services’) 

Chrysalis

Yes you should be fine, as others have suggested I would setup a DD to match statement balance.

MrFrugalFever

grumbler said:

The best way to avoid any mistakes is to have a DD set up for paying the statement balance in full and to have money available in your current account on the due date.

Yes correct, however in this instance the OP is clearly unsure as to what balance is actually required to be paid so therefore having a DD setup to pay in full doesn’t help answer the OP’s question, they could still be left thinking they need to have the full £355.46 (current balance) ready in their account for DD which in fact is incorrect.

what Chris has said is correct.

Alex9384

cymruchris said:

Buying your shopping in Tesco and a few things on Amazon or eBay - none of those would be ‘cash withdrawal’ or ‘cash services’) 

Has anyone tried if Tesco gift card paid with CC at the till is treated as cash advance? Especially when paid together with some groceries, etc.?

grumbler

Alex9384 said:

cymruchris said:

Buying your shopping in Tesco and a few things on Amazon or eBay - none of those would be ‘cash withdrawal’ or ‘cash services’) 

Has anyone tried if Tesco gift card paid with CC at the till is treated as cash advance? Especially when paid together with some groceries, etc.?

I'm fairly sure it isn't.

Unless it's really a gift what's the advantage of using a gift card instead of paying directly by a CC?

CliveOfIndia

grumbler said:

Alex9384 said:

cymruchris said:

Buying your shopping in Tesco and a few things on Amazon or eBay - none of those would be ‘cash withdrawal’ or ‘cash services’) 

Has anyone tried if Tesco gift card paid with CC at the till is treated as cash advance? Especially when paid together with some groceries, etc.?

I'm fairly sure it isn't.

Unless it's really a gift what's the advantage of using a gift card instead of paying directly by a CC?

I think what they mean is can they buy a gift card and pay for it with their credit card.  If so, then it's not usually a problem, it'll be treated as a standard purchase.

It's good to ask the question though - quite often if you buy a gift card from a website that sells nothing but gift cards then it is sometimes treated as a cash advance.

Alex9384

grumbler said:

I'm fairly sure it isn't.

Unless it's really a gift what's the advantage of using a gift card instead of paying directly by a CC?

At the moment probably none, but I can imagine if you have a new CC with some cashback offer that only lasts for a certain period, you want to spend as much as possible, but you don't need to actually buy that much stuff in such a short period of time. You buy gift cards and later spend them on fuel or something over longer period of time, when the CC cashback intro offer is no longer available and you don't need to spend on the CC anymore.