Credit card charged interest even though nothing owed

B

Bronte

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Last month I got the mastercard bill and went to pay it but checked account first and it was in credit due to two Ryanair refunds (for xmas) so I reckoned (stupidly maybe) that I didn't have to pay anything? Is this correct. I'm so mad at myself that I let this pass when I could have paid it.

Now I've got my bill and they've charged me a few pence in interest but not only had I the credits but I had two debits but still didn't owe anything because the refunds were higher than the debits.
 
Generally a refund paid to a card and a payment are 2 entirely different things.

Your experience would be common
 
That is what I was wondering whether refunds are counted as payments but the credit card company/bank were unclear on this.

Coincidentally I rang the credit card company yestereday as the next bill (March) had arrived and instead of the 29 cent interest on the February bill they charged me 26 cent on the March bill. As the February bill was in credit I didn't pay anything so maybe that's why it's on the March bill. As the girl was unsure herself how the 'system' works she is contacting head office of my bank and will get back to me today. The way the bills are laid out are designed to confuse.

Don't know if it applies to Irish credit cards but apparently as we are moving to an IBAN coding rather than just the bank account itself the system cannot register payments on the correct date. It takes a couple of days instead.
 
I would assume that if your credit card is in credit at the time the bill is sent out that the company should not be able to charge you interest on a credit balance. I know it's only a few pence in your case, but if you'd a large balance on the card the amount charged would have been large accordingly, so it would be helpful to have it clarified.

Saying that, I was in a similar position this month and for safety's sake was prepared to pay the full amount, omitting the credit if it related to my 'current balance' as opposed to my 'last statement'. But they had already applied the credit to the balance due (paper bill in transit). Been in the same situation before with a large credit pending that I really couldn't afford to pay twice, but I did it to avoid the possibility of paying interest. Which then meant I'd a large credit sitting on my account which wasn't great either (the amount in credit isn't covered if your card is stolen and used).
 
Interest is not charged on a credit balance, instead it is charged on a debit transaction from the posting date of the transaction
 
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