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

zagfles

born_again said:

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.

That's not the issue, as the PP made clear "I had already cleared the previous statement balance before taking the money out"