Less Than 15 Days To Pay The Balance??

roop298

Ok, I agree I'm a bit of a novice when it comes to credit cards but it sounded like a good idea to get a tesco credit card.

Come the second bill it transpired I'd not paid the balance of the first by the due date and they stung me £12.

When I looked further the bill was issued on the 5th. I didn't recieve it until the 11th and it could have taken up to 4 days for the bank to process the bill. So that's a window of 5 days!

Do credit card companies have some sort of legal requirement to offer a period of time to pay or is this a way to make money from unsuspecting customers.

I cannot believe I'm the only one whose been stung like this.

Oh, and would this affect my credit rating at all, for missing the payment date? :mad:

JohalaReewi

Some cards have a very short period between statement date and payment due date. This will be in the T&Cs for the card. It is up to you to make sure the payment gets to them by the payment due date regardless of what happens to the statement in the post.

To prevent getting caught out like this, set up a direct debit with the card company to pay (at least) the minimum amount. That way, it becomes the credit card company's responsibility to make sure the payment reaches them in time (not yours).

Also, set up internet access to view your card balance and transactions online (if you can) and check it daily. This way you will see when a statement has been issued and, you can quickly spot any rogue transactions.

daveboy

roop298 wrote: »

Come the second bill it transpired I'd not paid the balance of the first by the due date and they stung me £12.

You signed the agreement, and didn't pay them by the due date.

Therefore you stung yourself to the tune of £12.

Zebedee69

Simple, set up s DD for the min amount every month. You'll never get stung again!

louiser_2

roop298 I agree with you. I'm fed up with this sneaky charging. I've just killed off my Co-op affinity card because of this even though they had quite a good rate.
I think it's quite reasonable to expect a week to pay off the bill after you've received your statement. Co-op allowed very little turn around time with statements supposedly taking 7 days or more to arrive in the post, I can't help but think that the statements sat around in the co-op offices for a few days after printing so that we'd have less chance of making the deadline.
An additional nasty sneak of theirs is to display 2 dates on the statement, one in bold which is the minimum payment due by date, and another less obvious one that is for full payment to arrive by. I got stung by interest more than once simply because I thought I had a little longer to pay off the bill.
I've switched over to Nationwide & post office - the interest rate isn't as good, but since they both give me proper notice to pay, I'm less likely to miss a payment & be charged interest anyway.

roop298

thanks for the helpful advice.