Help - charged interest & a fee for going over limit!

jamalfatty

PROLIANT wrote: »

Visa cards have what is called a "floor limit" as do MasterCard, if the transaction is under the retailers Visa or MasterCard auth limit then it will go through with out checking available credit etc, I always leave a little fat on my limit say £40 or £50 just in case, never went over yet.

Not quite, floor limits are imposed on merchants rather than cards depending on their type of business, risk of fraud, average transaction amount etc and are very rarely used these days anyway as the cost of obtaining an auth for a transaction is negligible. They were mainly used back when a credit card was used by taking a physical imprint of it as it was then much more expensive to gain an auth for a transaction.

Credit cards do though have whats called a 'shadow limit' which is usually a %age of your credit limit that they will allow you to go over - possibly to make money from charges, but also possibly to not leave customers in the lurch (e.g. running out of petrol and only having credit card on them).
They wont ever tell you what this shadow limit is though and will be different for each customer

PROLIANT

jamalfatty wrote: »

Not quite, floor limits are imposed on merchants rather than cards depending on their type of business, risk of fraud, average transaction amount etc and are very rarely used these days anyway as the cost of obtaining an auth for a transaction is negligible. They were mainly used back when a credit card was used by taking a physical imprint of it as it was then much more expensive to gain an auth for a transaction.

Credit cards do though have whats called a 'shadow limit' which is usually a %age of your credit limit that they will allow you to go over - possibly to make money from charges, but also possibly to not leave customers in the lurch (e.g. running out of petrol and only having credit card on them).
They wont ever tell you what this shadow limit is though and will be different for each customer

Tesco, for example do not auth Visa debit, Visa credit or Mastercard etc under £10. Maplin Electronics dont auth until over £30.

jamalfatty

PROLIANT wrote: »

Tesco, for example do not auth Visa debit, Visa credit or Mastercard etc under £10. Maplin Electronics dont auth until over £30.

Not doubting you, but curious how you know this for these 2 particular retailers?!

Visa Electron and Solo cards will both require an auth code for any amount regardless of the retailer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_Electron
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solo_%28debit_card%29

PROLIANT

jamalfatty wrote: »

Not doubting you, but curious how you know this for these 2 particular retailers?!

Visa Electron and Solo cards will both require an auth code for any amount regardless of the retailer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_Electron
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solo_%28debit_card%29

I used to work for one of them and the other have used both type of card Electron and Visa, it takes typically 10-15 seconds on a good day to get auth on Electron from merchant, less than 5 seconds with Visa.

DestroyingAngel_2

Harry_McGarry wrote: »

I'm sure I'm not the first to do this, but any advice will be gratefully received before I contact Virgin.

Editted : Sorry, should also point out that I had a 12 month interest free offer on joining.

A couple of months ago I opened a Virgin cc account and made a balance transfer of £3500. My limit was £4000 and I have made a few other purchases on it since then. My statement now says that last month I went over the limit by approx £21 and I have been charged a fee of £12 for doing so. I also have to pay interest of £55.35 and it says that the estimated interest for the next statement will be £47.67.

Firstly, I'm pretty annoyed as I always thought that a cc had a limit and a purchase would be rejected if you tried to go over your limit. Maybe times have changed and I have been caught out? But now, will I have to pay interest every month? Am I in breach of my terms and conditions? I know the first point of call is to contact them but I would appreciate some advice before I do this to ensure I limit the damage.

Thanks.

First of all, a slap on the wrist for you for doing a BT and then spending on the same card! If you have a card with a promotional rate for BTs, you should really keep it strictly for BTs. If you have no promo for retail purchases, then if you spend using that card, whatever you pay off will NOT even touch the balance on purchases UNTIL AFTER you've paid off the BT in full!!

From what you said above, you went over the limit, so you effectively lost your promotional 0% on the BT and are now back on the standard rate. Hence the interest charge. Plus the "Overlimit" fee of £12.

What you need to do now is this:
Ring Virgin customer services and ask to reinstate the promotion back to 0%. You're a new customer, and Virgin will bend over backwards for new customers, especially if they've just done a big BT. While they're at it, ask them to refund you the interest charge as well. They will tell you the Overlimit charge is a valid charge, which it is (come on now, you can't win all the time, can you?!).

Sorry mate, as I explained above, there's not much you can do about what's now stuck under Retail Purchases...you'll just have to grin and bear it, chalk it down to experience. Now you know never to spend on a BT card again.:o

Good luck!

benf90

DestroyingAngel wrote: »

First of all, a slap on the wrist for you for doing a BT and then spending on the same card! If you have a card with a promotional rate for BTs, you should really keep it strictly for BTs. If you have no promo for retail purchases, then if you spend using that card, whatever you pay off will NOT even touch the balance on purchases UNTIL AFTER you've paid off the BT in full!!

From what you said above, you went over the limit, so you effectively lost your promotional 0% on the BT and are now back on the standard rate. Hence the interest charge. Plus the "Overlimit" fee of £12.

What you need to do now is this:
Ring Virgin customer services and ask to reinstate the promotion back to 0%. You're a new customer, and Virgin will bend over backwards for new customers, especially if they've just done a big BT. While they're at it, ask them to refund you the interest charge as well. They will tell you the Overlimit charge is a valid charge, which it is (come on now, you can't win all the time, can you?!).

Sorry mate, as I explained above, there's not much you can do about what's now stuck under Retail Purchases...you'll just have to grin and bear it, chalk it down to experience. Now you know never to spend on a BT card again.:o

Good luck!

See post number 5

mrsmortenharket

Why are people so quick to blame the CC company if they go over the limit.

If you have a credit limit then you need to keep an eye on your own spending.

You are given a credit card on the understanding you can manage the DEBT responsibily.