Credit card interest when normally paying in full but not one month

Ecurb_FirstAid

Has anyone had experience with the above heading?

I normally clear my credit card balance in full every month, and have done for many years.  A couple of months ago, due to a cash flow issue, I decided to only pay £850.00 out of the £1311.17 balance.  Nationwide credit card charged me £33.99 in interest. The interest rate on the credit card is 24.9%.

I called the company and they said as I did not pay the full balance, interest was charged on the full statement balance, not on any outstanding amount.  I queried this and got nowhere.  

My understanding of this is that if I had paid the minimum payment of £25.00 I would have been charged the same amount of interest.  To me it makes no sense in paying any more than the minimum payment and then paying the full balance the following month.

Am I misunderstanding?
Is this standard credit card practice as I have never come across it?
It feels like I am paying interest something that I have already paid for !

For info

Balance 8th March £2481.54  Paid in full
Balance 8th April    £1311.17  Paid £850.00  (Left £461.17 outstanding)
Balance 8th May    £1633.08  Paid in Full   
(Note  £1633.08 = £461.17 from April, £33.99 Interest, £1167.92 new transaction)

grumpy_codger

Ecurb_FirstAid said:

....  

My understanding of this is that if I had paid the minimum payment of £25.00 I would have been charged the same amount of interest.  To me it makes no sense in paying any more than the minimum payment and then paying the full balance the following month.

Am I misunderstanding?

It does make sense as the next month interest will be smaller if you pay more. Even if next month you pay it in full, the interest won't be waived, at least for the previous month purchases.

DullGreyGuy

Ecurb_FirstAid said:

Has anyone had experience with the above heading?

I normally clear my credit card balance in full every month, and have done for many years.  A couple of months ago, due to a cash flow issue, I decided to only pay £850.00 out of the £1311.17 balance.  Nationwide credit card charged me £33.99 in interest. The interest rate on the credit card is 24.9%.

I called the company and they said as I did not pay the full balance, interest was charged on the full statement balance, not on any outstanding amount.  I queried this and got nowhere.  

My understanding of this is that if I had paid the minimum payment of £25.00 I would have been charged the same amount of interest.  To me it makes no sense in paying any more than the minimum payment and then paying the full balance the following month.

Am I misunderstanding?
Is this standard credit card practice as I have never come across it?
It feels like I am paying interest something that I have already paid for !

For info

Balance 8th March £2481.54  Paid in full
Balance 8th April    £1311.17  Paid £850.00  (Left £461.17 outstanding)
Balance 8th May    £1633.08  Paid in Full   
(Note  £1633.08 = £461.17 from April, £33.99 Interest, £1167.92 new transaction)

You are accruing interest every day, if you clear the balance they dont apply the interest, if you dont clear it then the interest is applied. 

Your next statement will have interest on the interest but as long as you clear that statement too then thats the end of it until the next time you let a balance slide

Voyager2002

Standard credit card terms:

interest is charged on each transaction, on a daily basis, beginning with the date of the transaction. However, all this is interest is waived if the balance is paid off in full. So if you make a partial payment, anything between the minimum payment and the full amount less one penny, you pay interest for the time up to the statement date. And of course there will be more interest on the next statement...

Ecurb_FirstAid

DullGreyGuy said:

Ecurb_FirstAid said:

Has anyone had experience with the above heading?

I normally clear my credit card balance in full every month, and have done for many years.  A couple of months ago, due to a cash flow issue, I decided to only pay £850.00 out of the £1311.17 balance.  Nationwide credit card charged me £33.99 in interest. The interest rate on the credit card is 24.9%.

I called the company and they said as I did not pay the full balance, interest was charged on the full statement balance, not on any outstanding amount.  I queried this and got nowhere.  

My understanding of this is that if I had paid the minimum payment of £25.00 I would have been charged the same amount of interest.  To me it makes no sense in paying any more than the minimum payment and then paying the full balance the following month.

Am I misunderstanding?
Is this standard credit card practice as I have never come across it?
It feels like I am paying interest something that I have already paid for !

For info

Balance 8th March £2481.54  Paid in full
Balance 8th April    £1311.17  Paid £850.00  (Left £461.17 outstanding)
Balance 8th May    £1633.08  Paid in Full   
(Note  £1633.08 = £461.17 from April, £33.99 Interest, £1167.92 new transaction)

You are accruing interest every day, if you clear the balance they dont apply the interest, if you dont clear it then the interest is applied. 

Your next statement will have interest on the interest but as long as you clear that statement too then thats the end of it until the next time you let a balance slide

I think I have it now.  I am getting charged interest on goods from when I bought them and not on the outstanding balance of the statement after the part payment.  Thanks for the info.