Is 56 Days Interest Free Period a Scam

Advice1suggest

Hi, Can you experts help me understand one simple thing. I made a purchase last month on the MBNA credit card knowing that the Card T&C mentions that I have 56 days interest free period.
I made the purchases on 21/06/25 of £4129 and 23/06 of £42.
Statement was produced 25/06/25
I made a payment on 30/06 of  £172 , 14/07 - £2600 and another one on 21/07 of £150
statement produced on 27/07 with the interest of £66
- So I got in touch with customer services asking why the interest was charged and they kept repeating that there is promotional period. 
I made another payment of £1250 on 26/07 and also the £66 interest payment on the same day , these do not show on the 27/07 Statement. 
Now my balance shows that i have a credit balance of £1.60.

My question is that why was the interest charged when it was not 56 days from the date of transaction.  Even the MBNA website says it, if you search for "mbna 56 days interest free". (sorry cant post the links being new here)

Do all the Credit Card companies do this? I have read some other posts which suggests that its statement to statement which is every month. So my question is that how can the companies get away by saying 56 days interest free?

Any help or advice you can give on this, much appreciated. 

MyRealNameToo

The "up to 56 days" interest free is conditional on you paying the statement balance in full each month. If you dont pay the statement in full then there is no interest free period. 

So in principle you have a £0 balance card, you buy something on the 1st of the month, around the 28th you get a statement and 26 days later you pay the statement in full then no interest will be charged so in this case you've had 54 days interest free on that purchase.  It's up to 56 days because it will depend on both when the purchase was made within the statement cycle and when you make the repayment. Clearly if you buy just before the statement is created and repay it as soon as you receive the statement then its only a few days interest free. 

Were you to only pay 50% of the statement however the interest will be back dated to the date of purchase and so your next statement would be for the 50% outstanding plus the interest for the prior period. 


The only thing that varies between card issuers is how they treat 0% balances... some will give you interest free if you clear only the non-promotional rate balance whereas other stick to the more traditional approach that all balances must be cleared including promotional rate. This is why it's recommended to never spend on a card that you're already carrying a promotional rate balance on. 

CliveOfIndia

Advice1suggest said:

the Card T&C mentions that I have 56 days interest free period.

No, the T&Cs say that you have "Up To" 56 days interest free.  As explained by the previous poster, to get the full 56 days you need to (a) make a purchase on the first day of your billing cycle, (b) make your payment right on the "payment due" date, and (c) pay the full statement balance.

Advice1suggest said:

Do all the Credit Card companies do this? 

Yes, this is absolutely standard across the industry, and is how all cards work.

Advice1suggest said:

So my question is that how can the companies get away by saying 56 days interest free?

Again, it's not 56 days, it's up to 56 days.  In practice it's actually very rarely that you'll benefit from the full 56 days - depending on when you make the purchase, when you pay the statement, and allowing for 30/31 day months.

Caz3121

Make a transaction just after the payment statement is issued. The transaction will then appear on the next statement a month later and if you pay it in full by the due date on that statement there will be no interest to pay and you will have benefited from an interest free period of 50+ days
Don't pay the statement in full by the due date and there is no interest free period
Assuming you had a zero balance your statement would have shown £4,171 to be paid by x date to avoid any interest being charged. You did not pay that full amount by the date so interest is added.
Yes all cards work the same way

lr1277

If you don’t pay the statement balance by the due date, interest is applicable on the whole balance from the purchase date(s). This applies even if you pay £1 less than the statement balance.
Additionally if you pay the interest from a statement, there will be further interest on the next statement to take account of the time between them producing the statement and you making the payment. Normally this issue is resolved over 2-3 statements as long as you make payments in full after the statement levying the interest.

Advice1suggest

Thanks to all your responses. In my simple and possibly thick mind it takes some time to get the information absorbed. I think I understand now .  So I had to pay £66 interest only because I made the purchase just a day before statement was produced, so angry with myself. Took 56 days as 56 days.. once again thanks to all of yous much appreciated. Best wishes 🙏

CliveOfIndia

Advice1suggest said:

So I had to pay £66 interest only because I made the purchase just a day before statement was produced

Not strictly true - you paid interest because you didn't pay the full statement balance.

Putting aside the "up to 56 days interest-free" thing, as that muddies the waters somewhat, the way all credit cards work is this:

1) You make a purchase

2) Interest starts accruing on that purchase, on a daily basis.

3) If you pay off the FULL statement balance, at any point between receiving your statement and the "payment due" date (typically about 3 weeks or so after the statement date), then all the accrued interest is waived - kind of a "Brucie Bonus".

4) If you don't pay off the FULL statement balance (even £1 less than the full balance), then all of the accrued interest becomes payable.

The amount of interest accrued will vary dependent on when in the billing cycle the purchase is made.  For the sake of simplicity, let's say your billing cycle starts on the 1st of the month and your statement is produced on the 30th.  Make a purchase on the 1st of the month, that transaction will accrue 30 day's of interest.  A purchase made on the 29th of the month will only accrue 1 day's interest.

That last paragraph is irrelevant as long as you pay off your statement in full - since all accrued interest would be waived.  But if you don't pay off the full amount, it can make it a little more complicated to work out how much interest you'll pay, since it's not just 1.5% of £1000, or whatever.  Each individual transaction is calculated separately, and will accrue a different number of day's worth of interest.  Obviously, you don't need to work it out for yourself, the card issuer will calculate it for you and show you the overall amount of interest you've been charged.

grumpy_codger

In short, it's UP TO 56 days, not 56 days - depending on when a purchase is made and only if you pay the statement balance in full.

>> 

How does a credit card work? Martin Lewis

MyRealNameToo

Advice1suggest said:

Thanks to all your responses. In my simple and possibly thick mind it takes some time to get the information absorbed. I think I understand now .  So I had to pay £66 interest only because I made the purchase just a day before statement was produced, so angry with myself. Took 56 days as 56 days.. once again thanks to all of yous much appreciated. Best wishes 🙏

You are far from the only person that has fallen foul of it... I personally got the "up to" aspect of it but then hadn't realised it required the full balance to be cleared each month. Thankfully this was many years ago and the lesson learnt wasnt too painful. 

Once you have learned it, you probably won't forget again  

lr1277

Another possibility is interest not showing in your online account. This happened to me a few years ago so I don't remember the details.

However I went through a period of not having much money so I made the minimum payents. This meant I accrued a lot of interest whilst continuing to buy on the card.

If I a made a transaction it would show on the online portal and the paper statement.

However the interest added was not shown as a separate transaction. It was a figure added to the amount I owed due to spending on the card. So the statement balance was always higher than the sum of my spend. As I kept a track of my balance this was annoying especially as I wasn't going to work out the interest for each purchase and add it to my known balance.

grumpy_codger

lr1277 said:

....the interest added was not shown as a separate transaction. ....

If I understand this correctly, this is really hard to believe.