Do we need to change the way credit cards can charge interest?

Synthespian

born_again said:

If you do you due diligence than you will know you can & it is actually billed in arrears. It's a often asked question in "Energy" section.
But to do this you have to remember that you have to ensure that you can afford the big bills that the colder months bring.
So to many paying a monthly DD & building up a credit over low billing period is a easy way to balance out the costs over the year & not have a massive bill in January that you can not afford, as you overspent at Christmas.

Just like taking a fixed term mortgage or energy tariff. You are hedging you bets. It can mean you come out paying less, or more..

It's interesting to see people think that banks are profiting on these products, but have no idea on the number of staff required to run & support customer needs.
We have over 60 people in our area dealing with fraud & disputes. Never mind the cards side that deals with card deliver issues, balance transfer problems etc, which is another 60 people. A total loss making area over the year. This all has to be paid for. It's a FCA requirement to have these. 

Actually we said the same thing. it's charged in arrears and people have regular D/D independent of the actual specific amount per qtr that are designed to overpay to hedge those colder months. On the hand it saves bill shock but it does create this rather large cash pile which is the question about the balance of how things work. When was the last survey of consumer preference I wonder. I preferred having the specific amount. I don't have that for my phone line to cover calls, or my sky subscription in case I want a few more sky store movies. 

Fraud is one thing but I frequently smile when you get the "our lines are busier than expected" when you call most customer service lines. Why are they so busy if you're offering a well oiled working service. 

Fraud may be loss making but the whole service isn't. And having literally just had to talk to my bank yesterday because app gave me a notification that suggested fraud when it absolutely wasn't (and having worked in financial software for over 20yrs) that loss making phone call could have been avoided with the correct development and testing (and end consumer understanding) of the app and its usage. 
And that's before how the call was handled and the fact it took longer than necessary to get to bottom of the problem. 

Fixing that scenario (and others) might save tbat call team one or more people and improve their cost efficency as a result. 

born_again

Why do you need a "survey of consumer preference" when the option is there? 

Your lucky it was not fraud. Less than 1% of our calls on fraud are genuine. There are limits on the number of blocks that turn out to be genuine. Too many & there are fines.

If you had ever worked in fraud software, then you would know that it is a fast evolving area & banks are always one step behind the fraudsters, as they constantly change their targets.

grumbler

Synthespian said:

grumbler said:

Synthespian said:
Do we need to change the way credit cards can charge interest?

What you want is in fact even better bonus/advantage. compared to what you currently have.

It's not about a better advantage.  

It is

It's about asking if it's right to charge money on things that have been paid off.

It's right to charge interest on credit. Pay it of on the same day you make a purchase - and there will be no any interest, but this defeats the purpose of credit cards.  However, they give you a nice opportunity to pay the monthly balance later  in full and on time and to have all the interest waived. Use it or lose it.

It's an easy experiment on the calculations.  Do a massive payment earlier in the month.  Then a few days later, do a smaller payment. Pay off the massive and part (but not all) of the smaller payment a few days later. 
Now, let's say 4 days have passed since the charge and the payment ... you really think it's acceptable (ignoring what's in the T&Cs) to charge interest on the full balance for the remaining 19 day of the month? 

There is no need for experimenting. Interest is calculated daily on the current balance. The earlier you pay and the bigger payment you make, the smaller interest will be if you don't pay the balance in full before the due date. If you do, the interest will be waived, big or small.

penners324

Set up a direct debit to take the full amount