Academic question. What would happen with 19 pence underpayment?

CliveOfIndia

Belenus said:

Regardless, I am simply curious about what New Day would have done if I had not noticed the missing 19 pence.

In theory you'd have been liable for all the accrued interest, since you didn't clear the full balance.

However, I once did a similar thing, quite a few years ago - though not a BT, just paying off the monthly statement as usual..  Due to a scatterbrain moment, I paid off just a few pence short of the full amount.  Realised my mistake too late, and was fully expecting to be charged interest.  But was pleasantly surprised to not be charged anything.  This was a Tesco card, and was quite a few years ago, so things may have changed since then - and you certainly shouldn't assume you'd get away with it.  I'm not sure if there was some "leeway" within their systems or what, whereby if the shortfall was less than 50p or something then they treated it as full payment.  But certainly, according to the T&Cs, and also according to all the rules and laws about consumer credit cards, I should have been charged interest.

Belenus said:

Santander did the balance transfer but for only £1,400. They did not include the 19 pence. Fortunately I noticed this immediately and paid New Day the 19 pence shortfall.

Perhaps that was my mistake in the application process or maybe Santander balance transfers have to be full pounds only with no pence. I can't see anything in their terms about that.

In my experience this seems to be quite common.  Again, I can't say it applies to all cards, but the last time I did a BT (this was to a Natwest card) it would only let me put a whole number of pounds in on the application form.  So I had to make a manual payment for the odd few pence to make sure I cleared the other card completely.

km1500

can't think of a single reason why it should be limited to whole pounds and I wonder if this has caught many people out

Belenus

I too cannot think of any logical reason why balance transfers are limited to whole pounds only.

Many balance transfers will be to fully clear a balance owing and logically on average only 1 in 100 credit card balances will not include pence. 99 out of 100 will be xx:01, xx:02. xx.03 etc.

I have done a lot of balance transfers for stoozing purposes. I have just checked the last 3 balance transfers I did and they all include pence. Clive, one of them was to a NatWest card.

I can't be certain that it wasn't my error on the application that missed out the 19 pence although I am usually careful over such matters.

Oh well, no harm done.

Thanks again everyone for taking the time to reply.