Halifax Clarity T&C change - interim manual payments now not accounted for?
Posted: August 2nd, 2018, 3:13 pm
(I am happy to be told I have completely misunderstood this...)
Got a letter advising of a change in T&Cs on the Halifax Clarity credit card, in particular regarding manual payments on a balance (see end for exact wording).
- When I'm abroad, I make a number of ATM withdrawals which is a transaction that attracts interest.
- As soon as I see the transaction hit my Clarity account, I manually transfer the money over to pay it off, specifically to minimise any interest accrued.
- The Direct Debit then simply collects any residual amount due, so the balance is fully cleared each month, one way or another. Job done.
- NOTE: Statements currently confirm that manual payments will always be applied to the highest interest-bearing transactions first (which basically means the ATM withdrawals, as online/shop transactions are interest-free if cleared same month).
With this change, my reading of it is:
- Any manual payments made will be disregarded and left in 'limbo', and the DD will take the full statement balance.
- e.g. you spend £500 in a month, manually pay £250 halfway through, they will still take £500 DD.
- NOTE: Statements currently confirm any such manual payments received >2 working days prior to the payment date will reduce/stop the DD as necessary.
With me so far?
The customer services person agreed with my interpretation after checking with other colleagues. So I escalated the query and ended up on a phone call with a rep who was trying to be helpful but more or less just kept repeating that I wouldn't pay any interest at all if I cleared the full balance each month. But that would = fee-free, interest-free cash worldwide, which is not the case?
So far I have been given two "solution" options, neither of which seem very sensible:
1. If I were to make any manual payment, onus is on me to call and organise a refund (even though manual payment would be pointless as ignored and then taken again by DD)
2. Cancel the DD entirely/change it to min amount only and make manual payments to clear every month (this just seems unnecessarily tedious/reliant on my memory!)
So how do I achieve my goal of minimising interest payable on the ATM withdrawals - or is maximising it their goal?!
This all just seems bizarre. Can any Lemons make head or tail of this (or explain where I am misunderstanding things)?
Sats
=============================
LETTER WORDING
“After 21st September 2018, if you have a Direct Debit set up to make payments towards your balance and you make an additional payment before your Direct Debit is due, your Direct Debit will not be reduced....This change means that any additional payments to your account will no longer affect your direct debit payments, helping you pay off your balance more quickly.”
Got a letter advising of a change in T&Cs on the Halifax Clarity credit card, in particular regarding manual payments on a balance (see end for exact wording).
- When I'm abroad, I make a number of ATM withdrawals which is a transaction that attracts interest.
- As soon as I see the transaction hit my Clarity account, I manually transfer the money over to pay it off, specifically to minimise any interest accrued.
- The Direct Debit then simply collects any residual amount due, so the balance is fully cleared each month, one way or another. Job done.
- NOTE: Statements currently confirm that manual payments will always be applied to the highest interest-bearing transactions first (which basically means the ATM withdrawals, as online/shop transactions are interest-free if cleared same month).
With this change, my reading of it is:
- Any manual payments made will be disregarded and left in 'limbo', and the DD will take the full statement balance.
- e.g. you spend £500 in a month, manually pay £250 halfway through, they will still take £500 DD.
- NOTE: Statements currently confirm any such manual payments received >2 working days prior to the payment date will reduce/stop the DD as necessary.
With me so far?
The customer services person agreed with my interpretation after checking with other colleagues. So I escalated the query and ended up on a phone call with a rep who was trying to be helpful but more or less just kept repeating that I wouldn't pay any interest at all if I cleared the full balance each month. But that would = fee-free, interest-free cash worldwide, which is not the case?
So far I have been given two "solution" options, neither of which seem very sensible:
1. If I were to make any manual payment, onus is on me to call and organise a refund (even though manual payment would be pointless as ignored and then taken again by DD)
2. Cancel the DD entirely/change it to min amount only and make manual payments to clear every month (this just seems unnecessarily tedious/reliant on my memory!)
So how do I achieve my goal of minimising interest payable on the ATM withdrawals - or is maximising it their goal?!
This all just seems bizarre. Can any Lemons make head or tail of this (or explain where I am misunderstanding things)?
Sats
=============================
LETTER WORDING
“After 21st September 2018, if you have a Direct Debit set up to make payments towards your balance and you make an additional payment before your Direct Debit is due, your Direct Debit will not be reduced....This change means that any additional payments to your account will no longer affect your direct debit payments, helping you pay off your balance more quickly.”