Credit card purchase interest free period

eskbanker

jaycoe_gmailcom said:

I’ve always paid off my CC’s in full at the end of each month and so have never really thought about this issue.

I'm still struggling to follow what was different last month if you always pay in full - you received a statement in early August but made a conscious decision not to pay all of the statemented balance when paying by the due date?  How do you normally decide how much to pay if it's not what's on the statement?

At the risk of labouring the point, if you wish to avoid interest charges, you need to pay the full statement balance by its due date, rather than paying a different amount by the end of a (calendar?) month.

Nebulous2

I've several cards with different payment cycles and have sometimes chosen a card to time a big payment for some money I am expecting, such as a maturing regular saver. 

It's worth noting the foibles of any cards you have,  as they vary a bit which can catch you out. 

My main card is a Barclaycard and some years ago they changed their process. A statement is no longer produced on the day it is dated, but around two days later. That means a purchase made on the statement date can appear on the statement.

The date for statements also moves around slightly, it isn't on the same date every month. We had a thread running about the peculiarities of Barclaycard dates some time ago, but I don't have details to hand. 

Nasqueron

Nebulous2 said:

I've several cards with different payment cycles and have sometimes chosen a card to time a big payment for some money I am expecting, such as a maturing regular saver. 

It's worth noting the foibles of any cards you have,  as they vary a bit which can catch you out. 

My main card is a Barclaycard and some years ago they changed their process. A statement is no longer produced on the day it is dated, but around two days later. That means a purchase made on the statement date can appear on the statement.

The date for statements also moves around slightly, it isn't on the same date every month. We had a thread running about the peculiarities of Barclaycard dates some time ago, but I don't have details to hand. 

Someone told me it's a fixed number of working days since the last statement or something like that, hence the variables, it just annoys me as I have a BT card with my money sat in a Kroo account so I need to check the email each month to know what day they are taking the DD!

Nebulous2

Nasqueron said:

Nebulous2 said:

I've several cards with different payment cycles and have sometimes chosen a card to time a big payment for some money I am expecting, such as a maturing regular saver. 

It's worth noting the foibles of any cards you have,  as they vary a bit which can catch you out. 

My main card is a Barclaycard and some years ago they changed their process. A statement is no longer produced on the day it is dated, but around two days later. That means a purchase made on the statement date can appear on the statement.

The date for statements also moves around slightly, it isn't on the same date every month. We had a thread running about the peculiarities of Barclaycard dates some time ago, but I don't have details to hand. 

Someone told me it's a fixed number of working days since the last statement or something like that, hence the variables, it just annoys me as I have a BT card with my money sat in a Kroo account so I need to check the email each month to know what day they are taking the DD!

Here's the thread we had about it two years ago. 

Barclaycard statement-are they issued on the same day as initial statement (or the next working day) — MoneySavingExpert Forum

The conclusion was that it occurs on the same working day every month. So my one is the 1st, which means it is very stable. If it is later in the month, say the 18th working day it will vary more. Statements are available 2 days later (not working days) and may well include transactions made on the statement date. 

pochisoldi

In my experience, Barclaycard issue a statement on the date that they state on the barclaycard site under "Activity Summary". As of today (15th Sep)  it's saying "04 Oct - October statement not ready to view yet". (The same information is not available in the mobile app)

The reality is that the statement gets "done" towards the end of day. Any purchase made on that date may or may not be on that statement. Transactions with merchants that present payments straightaway (bigger ones), or who batch payments and send them the same day, will almost certainly appear on the statement. Transactions at smaller shops and "less efficient" merchants will appear on the following month's statement.

I pay attention to this as my Barclaycard pays 0.5% cashback vs Chase who pay 1%. Early in the "credit card month", the Barclaycard "0.5% cashback + microstooze against offset mortgage" is more valuable than "1% cashback but the money goes straight out". I usually switch to using the Chase debit card around 10 days before the statement is due for everything except "pay at pump" and anything worth having S75 cover. The day after the statement goes out, it's back to the credit card for everything (and the Chase account lies fallow).

As far as "which day of the month" - for me it will be anywhere between the 4th and 7th, and I go off what the website says.
 
 

NoodleDoodleMan

jaycoe_gmailcom said:

In further to my initial query above, many thanks to all those that have responded.  Clearly there was a knowledge gap that I’ve now filled. I’ve always paid off my CC’s in full at the end of each month and so have never really thought about this issue. Tis a shame as I had the funds sitting in a high interest savings account ready to pay off the amount. Thought I’d leave it in there to maximise interest gained on it before paying off CC… so much for that!!! lol. Life lesson…

As explained and now understood the 56 days timescale for the interest free deal is a best case scenario depending on when you make the transaction and the date the monthly statement is published.

I had a similar experience many years ago - 'phoned the CC bank and pleaded ignorance - the young lady realised I must have been a right dumbo and refunded the interest as a goodwill gesture.

Mind you she did make it clear you can only use the "get ouf jail card" act once !!!