Help with credit card interest charges on purchases balance when it's cleared

Consumerist

This is the problem with purchase-rates mixed up with promotional-rates on credit cards. Unless you paid off the accrued interest on the purchases as well as the purchase amounts themselves, you have not paid off the full balance on purchases. The MSE golden rule with promotional credit-cards is not to make purchases on them.

born_again

blossomhill1 said:

If I clear interest incurring balances before the statement, they shouldn't be charging any interest at all.  Aren't they obliged to clarify how they allocate payments on their statement and then follow that procedure?

Any payments made before a statement is produced, go towards the previous statement balance.

This is a mistake many people make. When they have a balance transfer on a card. Thinking that if they spend on the card & pay off straight away, it clears that debit.
Credit cards do not work like that. 

If you spend, you have to wait till they are statemented before payments are allocated in correct order.

blossomhill1

I understand how the statements work.  When I receive a statement, I pay the purchase balance total, in this case, ie December statement, it was £3511.  I paid that before the January statement was issued.  I repeat, there should be no "accruing interest" because, as per the paragraph on the statement, the entire interest-accruing balance was cleared before the January statement.  Virgin have decided to allocate the payments differently.  Apparently there were charges that had "not cleared" although they managed to include them on the statement.  There's nothing to say what those charges were and why they weren't cleared and nothing on the statement to say that that might be the case.

I don't pay off purchases as soon as I make them, I wait for the statement.  I would have expected that the statement would present an accurate reflection of the balances, but it seems it doesn't.

MorningcoffeeIV

blossomhill1 said:

I understand how the statements work.  When I receive a statement, I pay the purchase balance total, in this case, ie December statement, it was £3511.  I paid that before the January statement was issued.  

You need to pay it by the  payment due date, not by the next statement date. Did you do that?

Consumerist

blossomhill1 said:

I don't pay off purchases as soon as I make them, I wait for the statement.  I would have expected that the statement would present an accurate reflection of the balances, but it seems it doesn't.

The statement is accurate at the statement date only but interest charges continue to accrue on purchases until repayment in full.

blossomhill1

Yes I did.  The exact amount of the payment matches the purchases balance on the previous statement.

blossomhill1

Thank you for your comments, Consumerist.  Please see my quote at 12.57 where I copy the paragraph on the statement where it says interest will not be charged where purchase balances are cleared in full (excluding promotional balances).