Halifax Clarity Card 'interest'

Good morning,

SO I have had an interesting one. I have a haifax clarity card which I pay off in full every month.

However I have noticed these past 2 months I have been charged 'interest' on the 1st of the month.

Now I haven't used it in an ATM (well not since summer where i paid it off instantly) and i pay off the full amount each month, so I have no idea why I would be charged interest?

It is a minute amount of pennies, but I have no idea why they're charging. Has anyone else come accross this with this card? Have i missed something in the smallprint?
«1345

Comments

  • Check to see if any of your transactions are cash or quasi cash, e.g. Gambling, foreign currency, etc.
  • Curls2208
    Curls2208 Posts: 200 Forumite
    First Anniversary First Post
    I think that could be the case.

    The receipt says that....so I may have used it for a bet on football or something perhaps?

    If I pay the card off in full it should cleat that though right, and only have the interest for one month?
  • bigadaj
    bigadaj Posts: 11,531 Forumite
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    Curls2208 wrote: »
    I think that could be the case.

    The receipt says that....so I may have used it for a bet on football or something perhaps?

    If I pay the card off in full it should cleat that though right, and only have the interest for one month?

    You'll get a very small amount if trailing interest the following month and then no interest if you lay in full and in time every month.
  • Dobbibill
    Dobbibill Posts: 4,135 Ambassador
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    You will need to pay your statement in full twice to stop the trailing interest.

    Statement 3 will revert back to normal.
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  • Curls2208
    Curls2208 Posts: 200 Forumite
    First Anniversary First Post
    Thank you all. Good to know. By the way I'm newish to the forum, been lurking for a while, so many useful tips here!
  • Jlawson118
    Jlawson118 Posts: 1,132 Forumite
    First Anniversary Name Dropper First Post
    When I first got the card, I did a Balance Transfer from one of my other cards. I think the fee was 9.9% on a balance of £350 I think. I was waiting for a payment to come through so I needed a few more weeks, got charged £30 to do so which was to be expected but they kept taking monthly interest for a while, even though I'd paid it off in full before the bill date.

    I contacted customer services who said it was due to the balance transfer. Even though upon my phone application I'm almost sure they said I'd get 0% transfers. But that might have been another card they were trying to sell. So I didn't argue. But customer services offered to refund me the interest and I told them it was fine as long as I knew what they were for. For the sake of a few pence it wasn't much of a big deal.

    Haven't been charged since.

    Have you done any Balance Transfers?
  • Jlawson118 wrote: »
    When I first got the card, I did a Balance Transfer from one of my other cards. I think the fee was 9.9% on a balance of £350 I think. I was waiting for a payment to come through so I needed a few more weeks, got charged £30 to do so which was to be expected but they kept taking monthly interest for a while, even though I'd paid it off in full before the bill date.

    I contacted customer services who said it was due to the balance transfer. Even though upon my phone application I'm almost sure they said I'd get 0% transfers. But that might have been another card they were trying to sell. So I didn't argue. But customer services offered to refund me the interest and I told them it was fine as long as I knew what they were for. For the sake of a few pence it wasn't much of a big deal.

    Haven't been charged since.

    Have you done any Balance Transfers?
    No chance of them having a BT fee that high.
  • No chance of them having a BT fee that high.

    Yep. Unless it was a minimum fee or the usual APR (don't think they do an APR that low).
  • OceanSound
    OceanSound Posts: 1,482 Forumite
    First Post First Anniversary Name Dropper
    Made an ATM withdrawal abroad last month, which I figured would come to £154.14 (using online banking available balance). So even before it appeared on recent transaction I transferred £154.14 to the clarity account from current account.

    Transaction appeared a couple of days later and it came to £156.50 (I think the figure using available balance is only an indication). So I made another payment of £2.36 to cover the difference. During April I made some purchases all amounting to £140.41.

    Received electronic statement today. It has an interest charge of £1.68. In section called 'breakdown of balance' it's showing whole of the £1.68 was for 'cash transactions'. Not only that, it's showing the outstanding balance for 'cash transactions' as £146.68 (See below)
    halifax_clarity_-_breadown_of_balance.png
    I thought payments are allocated in a specific order. i.e. if two types have identical interest rate (which is what it is here: 18.95% for both cash transactions and purchases) then balance is paid off in this order:
    cash transactions, purchases, balance transfers and money transfers, and then default charges (plus any interest or charges incurred as a result of those balances).
    At least that's what the statement says.

    How on earth did the interest come up to £1.68? I know it's not a lot...the sun will still rise tomorrow, birds will sing etc. etc. But I'm not convinced the payments have been allocated properly.
  • Vortigern
    Vortigern Posts: 3,243 Forumite
    First Anniversary Photogenic Name Dropper First Post
    edited 17 May 2018 at 9:33AM
    OceanSound wrote: »
    I thought payments are allocated in a specific order.
    Yes, Payments are allocated first to the statemented balance.

    So, to avoid interest you have to pay off the whole of the previous statement balance, plus the amount of the cash withdrawal.

    Also, don't attempt to pay off the cash before the transaction appears online, otherwise your payment could go to recent purchases rather than the cash withdrawal that Halifax haven't seen yet.

    Make another payment of £146.68 now, to avoid further interest.
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