Halifax Clarity: Why take 2 months to take interest payment on a foreign withdrawal?

fifeken

CliveOfIndia said:

fifeken said:

NoodleDoodleMan said:

My M&S credit card immediately rejects any payment that would put it into a positive balance.

How does it handle refunds?

All credit cards will allow a refund that puts the card into a positive balance - that's not against the rules.  It's when you deliberately make a payment to put it into credit that they'll either refuse or return the payment.

That's what I thought and why I queried the statement (my bolding):

"My M&S credit card immediately rejects any payment that would put it into a positive balance."

CliveOfIndia

I see what you're saying.

The "blanket" rule for all cards is that you're not allowed to deliberately put the account into credit, but a refund is a "special case", so to speak, and is allowed.

In my experience, different cards apply the "not allowed to deliberately put it into credit" (by means of you making a payment) rule either more or less stringently.  Strictly speaking it breaks the T&Cs of any card, but in practice I think most cards will allow it if it's just a small amount.  M&S does (again, only speaking from personal experience) seem to apply the rule rigidly.

Perhaps any HSBC-owned card might be the same, as HSBC own the M&S card - but I can't verify that supposition from personal experience.

MikeJXE

A Clarity card can be put into a positive balance 

I did it in error a few years ago when I had almost met my limit and needed more

I paid £2000 in about a week before payment date, full amount monthly 

The full amount I had been advised on on my statement went and left a positive balance

Nasqueron

MikeJXE said:

A Clarity card can be put into a positive balance 

I did it in error a few years ago when I had almost met my limit and needed more

I paid £2000 in about a week before payment date, full amount monthly 

The full amount I had been advised on on my statement went and left a positive balance

Once again, there is nothing to stop this happening, no-one is saying otherwise. However, it is explicitly against the terms of use of the account to do so deliberately e.g. pre-loading for a bigger spend. While you might get away with it, equally likely is the money is shunted back to the sending account or worst case, they close the card for mis-use, hence no-one should be encouraged to try this.

lpgm

May I continue this thread? 

Has something changed with Clarity? Last week I withdrew the equivalent of less than £42 in Romania. I paid it off the next day, while the transaction was pending and not properly posted to my account. My cash withdrawal interest rate is about 22.5%. I would expect to pay 2p or 3p of interest, as in the past - but my statement five days later had an interest charge of 10p. I had already cleared the previous statement balance before taking the money out. 

I contacted them and they said they would write to me explain how the interest was calculated. Unfortunately their letter is a generic one, just explaining interest charges in general terms. 

Any idea why the interest charge is 10p? 

zagfles

lpgm said:

May I continue this thread? 

Has something changed with Clarity? Last week I withdrew the equivalent of less than £42 in Romania. I paid it off the next day, while the transaction was pending and not properly posted to my account. My cash withdrawal interest rate is about 22.5%. I would expect to pay 2p or 3p of interest, as in the past - but my statement five days later had an interest charge of 10p. I had already cleared the previous statement balance before taking the money out. 

I contacted them and they said they would write to me explain how the interest was calculated. Unfortunately their letter is a generic one, just explaining interest charges in general terms. 

Any idea why the interest charge is 10p? 

Had you made any purchases since the statement? If the cash withdrawal was still pending the payment would have gone towards the purchases. This probably means the cash withdrawal still isn't paid off and will still be accruing interest until paid. 10p looks like about 5 days interest so this makes sense. 

CliveOfIndia

As above - if you made a payment whilst the cash withdrawal was pending rather than cleared, you hadn't repaid the withdrawal.  It therefore accrues interest until such time as it is repaid.

lpgm

zagfles said:

lpgm said:

May I continue this thread? 

Has something changed with Clarity? Last week I withdrew the equivalent of less than £42 in Romania. I paid it off the next day, while the transaction was pending and not properly posted to my account. My cash withdrawal interest rate is about 22.5%. I would expect to pay 2p or 3p of interest, as in the past - but my statement five days later had an interest charge of 10p. I had already cleared the previous statement balance before taking the money out. 

I contacted them and they said they would write to me explain how the interest was calculated. Unfortunately their letter is a generic one, just explaining interest charges in general terms. 

Any idea why the interest charge is 10p? 

Had you made any purchases since the statement? If the cash withdrawal was still pending the payment would have gone towards the purchases. This probably means the cash withdrawal still isn't paid off and will still be accruing interest until paid. 10p looks like about 5 days interest so this makes sense. 

Thanks, zagfles. Yes, there were purchases since the previous statement - so you're saying I should wait until the cash withdrawal has properly posted, and only then will they apply my payment to the withdrawal rather than the purchases? 

I'm pretty sure I've paid it off while pending in the past - but perhaps I didn't have any outstanding purchases then. 

born_again

lpgm said:

zagfles said:

lpgm said:

May I continue this thread? 

Has something changed with Clarity? Last week I withdrew the equivalent of less than £42 in Romania. I paid it off the next day, while the transaction was pending and not properly posted to my account. My cash withdrawal interest rate is about 22.5%. I would expect to pay 2p or 3p of interest, as in the past - but my statement five days later had an interest charge of 10p. I had already cleared the previous statement balance before taking the money out. 

I contacted them and they said they would write to me explain how the interest was calculated. Unfortunately their letter is a generic one, just explaining interest charges in general terms. 

Any idea why the interest charge is 10p? 

Had you made any purchases since the statement? If the cash withdrawal was still pending the payment would have gone towards the purchases. This probably means the cash withdrawal still isn't paid off and will still be accruing interest until paid. 10p looks like about 5 days interest so this makes sense. 

Thanks, zagfles. Yes, there were purchases since the previous statement - so you're saying I should wait until the cash withdrawal has properly posted, and only then will they apply my payment to the withdrawal rather than the purchases? 

I'm pretty sure I've paid it off while pending in the past - but perhaps I didn't have any outstanding purchases then. 

If you have a previous statement balance, any payments before next statement go to towards them.
If your previous statement was a zero balance. Then you could make a payment towards the cash.

zagfles

lpgm said:

zagfles said:

lpgm said:

May I continue this thread? 

Has something changed with Clarity? Last week I withdrew the equivalent of less than £42 in Romania. I paid it off the next day, while the transaction was pending and not properly posted to my account. My cash withdrawal interest rate is about 22.5%. I would expect to pay 2p or 3p of interest, as in the past - but my statement five days later had an interest charge of 10p. I had already cleared the previous statement balance before taking the money out. 

I contacted them and they said they would write to me explain how the interest was calculated. Unfortunately their letter is a generic one, just explaining interest charges in general terms. 

Any idea why the interest charge is 10p? 

Had you made any purchases since the statement? If the cash withdrawal was still pending the payment would have gone towards the purchases. This probably means the cash withdrawal still isn't paid off and will still be accruing interest until paid. 10p looks like about 5 days interest so this makes sense. 

Thanks, zagfles. Yes, there were purchases since the previous statement - so you're saying I should wait until the cash withdrawal has properly posted, and only then will they apply my payment to the withdrawal rather than the purchases? 

I'm pretty sure I've paid it off while pending in the past - but perhaps I didn't have any outstanding purchases then. 

Yes. Wait till it's properly posted. In the past if you has no outstanding purchases then you'd have theoretically breached the T&Cs by putting it into credit. And even if you did have purchases then it would be a timing issue as to whether the cash withdrawal or the payment would clear first, if the cash withdrawal clears first then you'd be OK. 

But just wait till the cash withdrawal clears. Then you can be sure. It'll only cost a few pence.