I completely paid off one of my credit cards last month. I just checked my statement online, and now no more zero balance, they slapped on interest. Is that right? I had always thought if you pay off a card in the middle of a cycle, that's it, since when they calculate the interest at the end of the cycle, they use the current balance, which is zero, and obviously, any percentage of zero is zero. Or am I completely wrong on this? Thanks
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Credit card question..... (Interest)
- Thread starter yg17
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I don't know. But I would suggest three steps:
(1) Read your credit card policy / contract very closely and see what it says.
(2) Double-check when everything was received - when they considered it actually paid off.
(3) Contact the company directly if you still think that you're in the right and they did something wrong.
Sometimes interest is calculated daily. Depends on the type of credit or loan. I used to work for a student loan company that did that, so people would have to call in to get an estimated pay off amount.
Or average daily balance, which could be painful if you have a balance and pay off a big purchase at the end of the month.
I always thought it was daily after the first month (that is, any actively accruing interest). My MBNA statements have "DLY" listed after each percentage rate at the bottom. I don't keep a balance, so it's never been an issue for me, but I do see it could be a mess, I guess, if that means that now even if you write a check for the amount that's listed as your interest today, you'll have another small amount as interest that accrued on that interest over the last few days? 
I guess that's what the "estimated pay off" is for?
I guess that's what the "estimated pay off" is for?
Credit cards companies are really tricky. If you carry no balance, then there is no interest on any purchases in a statement period (i.e. a month). However, if you carry over any balance from the previous month, even a penny, then interest is accrued on EVERYTHING daily for the entire month.
I called, put up a bit of a fight, and spoke to a supervisor after their outsourced callcenter employee who didn't speak English refused to do anything and the supervisor reversed the charge. Yay
I called, put up a bit of a fight, and spoke to a supervisor after their outsourced callcenter employee who didn't speak English refused to do anything and the supervisor reversed the charge. Yay
That is good to hear.
I once had a similar situation. I decided to pay off the final interest payment just be done with the stupid card and the next month I got a new bill for the partial month interest on the previous month's interest. That is when It went too far.
You should always call ahead before paying off any loan to make sure you have the correct payoff amount.