Barclaycard penalising prompt payers

Trm4342

I have been a Barclaycard customer for 20 years and have always paid my bills in full.
My Statements are usually issued at the beginning of the month with a payment date normally the end of the month or beginning of the following month. As you can imagine, this suits with salary dates.

You can imagine my horror when viewing my February statement online which was dated 5th Feb, to see that they now expect me to settle my bill by 25th Feb!! (rather than the beginning of March which would be the norm.)

I called Customer Services and was told quite openly that I am now only provided with 20 days 'grace' because I am a prompt payer! After negotiation, I did manage to have the date extended for this month, but the rule still stands, I will have to settle my bill before other people who do not settle their bill in full. I AM DISGUTED and will be transfering my custom elsewhere.

has anyone heard of this before?

brightonman123

is it the grace period that gets you (quite generous, imho!), or the date the payment is due by? (ie, just before you get paid!)

it may be worth asking to change to a llater statement date (cycle run), so the payment due date is a few days after you get paid..

just be sure to get the bill settled on time!

daveboy

It has been recognised for a long time now that most companies have no real respect for people that have been 'customers' for many years.

If I was Barclaycard I'd be withdrawing your card. You haven't been a 'customer' for 20 years if over all of that time you've paid each statement off. You've made them diddly squat....so if you take your business elsewhere they probably won't be too bothered.

It isn't hard to ask for a change in statement date...or to organise yourself so you don't have to wait to be paid before you pay the bill.

To be honest I am disgusted at people who think that they should always get their own way.

Trm4342 wrote: »

has anyone heard of this before?

We have heard many, many people moan about tiny little things before...it is what MSE has become famous for.

I'd be thankful that you have access to credit, and that, like Egg did to 161,000 recently, they haven't axed you.

simongregson

The simplest thing to do is to vote with your feet and move to a different card with a longer interest free period. There are plenty. Loyalty doesn't pay! You should be able to find a card with a 59 day grace period fairly easily.

I'd keep the barclaycard open if it is currently your only card as it will be a plus point on your credit file. Perhaps charge a few items to it every so often to keep it active.

terafarma

A very harsh and ruthless comment from daveboy.The point of having a credit card is to use the credit and pay it off as at when due, in full where possible.

The profit made by card providers from retailers for processing payments should be enough for them. If you ask me, what then is the purpose of this website and this forum as being espoused by Martin Lewis himself? The point, is to save yourself money and not gift the banks your hard-earned cash. If you can make profit off them why not?

Just as they do not owe you any loyalty, but seek to screw you for every penny, same should also be applicable to them!

To Trm4342, I say well done, but look elsewhere for creature comfort. Barclaycard do not owe you any allegiance, as such look further afield for other banks that will treat you better. By the way, I'm a Barclaycard customer as well. The card might be worth keeping, if only as a rainy day saviour.

YorkshireBoy

terafarma wrote: »

The point of having a credit card is to use the credit and pay it off as at when due, in full where possible.

But it doesn't matter when you repay your bill, you still only make 12 payments a year. As already (albeit a tad harshly) stated, it's very easy to change the statement date to better suit your own circumstances.

The profit made by card providers from retailers for processing payments should be enough for them.

Would you be happy with a 1-2% return (less the costs of providing the service) on your savings? No, I didn't think so!

terafarma

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

[/b]But it doesn't matter when you repay your bill, you still only make 12 payments a year. As already (albeit a tad harshly) stated, it's very easy to change the statement date to better suit your own circumstances.Would you be happy with a 1-2% return (less the costs of providing the service) on your savings? No, I didn't think so!

Yorkshireboy, are you in the habit of gifting banks your hard-earned money? Have the banks complained about this? They have some other ways of making money so I believe they should be content with 1-2% return from over a million customers. Thank you.

YorkshireBoy

terafarma wrote: »

Yorkshireboy, are you in the habit of gifting banks your hard-earned money?

Au contraire. The banks pay me to use their services.

...they should be content with 1-2% return from over a million customers.

With respect, that's a ridiculous statement to make.

veryunsure

every time a credit card is used, the credit card issuer takes a %age, usually between 2 and 5%.

So to say that those who pay the bills of in full make them no money isn't exactly true, is it?

For every £100 spent, they charge retailers at least 2% in fees.

I think they simply make less money from you, not that they lose money to full bill payers.

CLAPTON

just to get the maths straight

if i use my CC for about £100 per month then I will owe to CC company something between 100 and 200 at any time (i.e. using the interest free period)

so lets say on average I owe them £150
now they make lets say 2.5% from the retailers

so over the year they lend me on average £150 and get a return of £25
so about 16.7% not brilliant but not peanuts either

YorkshireBoy

CLAPTON wrote: »

so over the year they lend me on average £150 and get a return of £25
so about 16.7% not brilliant but not peanuts either

But that 16.7% is a gross margin CLAPTON.

By the time they take off their costs, they'll probably make a loss on your account.

Also, there's the opportunity cost of tying up (potentially) £3K of borrowing capacity, which they then can't allocate more profitably elsewhere, for your £150 average indebtedness.