When you pay off a credit card bill how many of you get billed for interest on the balance during the time frame between the billing date and the payment date, even though you pay before the due date. Just got one for about $7 even though I paid the previous balance in full prior to the date due.

Anyway a call to the bank and they waive it, every time,

Makes me wonder how many people actually pay that extra amount without calling, it's got to add up to millions per month...

I do the same as you, but don't get charged interest. Credit cards with U.S. Bank, Citi, Chase, and Wells Fargo.

I'm sure it varies with the specific card member agreement that is in effect when you get your card, but I think all the ones I can remember looking at set a interest free period of a certain number of days from the statement closing date. Maybe yours doesn't?

Maybe yours is set for 30 days? And on months with 31 days, you get hit with the interest for the whole 31 days when you make your payment on the final day?

In any case, I set all my cards to auto-debit 10 days before its due--so that if there's an issue, I have time to resolve it.

I just call and they waive the interest. It has to do with your billing cycle date vs the due date. If you want to avoid it just pay it a week or two early. It also only happens if you carry a balance then pay it off. If you always pay the entire balance off you won't get that charge.

Had one that tried that a couple times. Told them if they tried it a third time I would close the account. They tried.

You would not believe the shit storms that can cause. I worked for a major credit card company and often had to deal with the aftermath of people who for months refused to have a rational discussion on this very matter. If the customer would allow me to look at their account and discuss the matter rationally I would waive the trailing interest, late fee, annual fee, or whatever caused their account to not be paid in full. Hell, I even had the ability to correct any negative credit reporting (by the time it got to me it was hurting their credit badly) but waaaaaaaaay too many fools thought the best way to solve the issue was to cuss, act like a child and hang up.

Its just a small balance a few hundred bucks just use the cards for gas or costco to keep them active. No sense getting upset, usually they offer when I call before asking...

I'm betting CC companies rank in a megashiton of money on this...

Was the balance just from the previous billing cycle, or were you carrying a balance from a another month as well? The reason I ask is that if your balance was already accruing interest from a prior month's balance, then this could make sense. If the balance was from only that current billing period (meaning only from purchases in that billing period), then they likely screwed up. Check your cardholder agreement.

Assuming I understand correctly, I've never heard of this. It sounds like a scam that would make Wells Fargo proud.

You call every month to address this? You must have a lot of time on your hands. I'd dump that card in a nanosecond.

I always pay off the balance before the next billing date with Wells Fargo. Haven't had to pay intrest for the last 20 years.

Discover did this and I stopped using them. Cabelas card never does.

Never had this ever. I pay in full 1-2 days prior to due date. Never carry a balance and never had this sort of interest charged. If I had to call monthly to reconcile I certainly would be using a different card.

Here's where I get bit occasionally. I try to pay off my balance every month and when you do that, you incur no interest.

But, if I forget and just have my automatic minimum payment go through, I carry a balance and I get charged interest. When I pay off that balance on the next statement including the interest, I can still expect an interest to show up on the next statement after that.

To summarize, I incur an interest after paying off a statement where I carried a balance and incurred an interest.

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:
Here's where I get bit occasionally. I try to pay off my balance every month and when you do that, you incur no interest.

But, if I forget and just have my automatic minimum payment go through, I carry a balance and I get charged interest. When I pay off that balance on the next statement including the interest, I can still expect an interest to show up on the next statement after that.

To summarize, I incur an interest after paying off a statement where I carried a balance and incurred an interest.

See my post above. If you do carry over a balance, you need to pay before the monthly billing cycle ends which is usually a week before the due date. If you do that you will avoid that bill for $1.93 in interest.

You should never have to pay interest on a balance that is paid off before the due date.

I guess you have to read the fine print. My CC company doesn't charge such interest and if they did, I'd find a new one. There are just too many options out there if you have a reasonable credit score.

If you've been carrying a balance, then yes you get charged interest between the start of the billing cycle and when you paid it off.

If you pay in full every month, there should be zero interest.

quote:

Originally posted by pessimist:
Assuming I understand correctly, I've never heard of this. It sounds like a scam that would make Wells Fargo proud.

You call every month to address this? You must have a lot of time on your hands. I'd dump that card in a nanosecond.

Totally agree with this.

I went on my banks web site, got my pay it off now amount for my car, and did so - through the very same bank.

Imagine my surprise when they did this to me.

A phone call and a "suggestion" that this is not only unethical, but in fact criminal, they waived the fee.

are you running a balance month to month ? thats the only way i see this happening
i pay my CC Off in full well in advance of the next cycle date to keep this from ever happening. however, id lose my shit and get a new card tomorrow if they did this to me