Avoiding interest fees...

[Anonymous]

Ok so currently my sapphire balance is 500, over the course of the month I've made some payments to bring down the balance. Currently my next due date is 5-21, and there is no minimum payment due. Does making payments throughout the month alter the computers ability to come up with a minimum payment, further avoiding interest fees and giving you more time the following month to pay?

[myjourney]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Ok so currently my sapphire balance is 500, over the course of the month I've made some payments to bring down the balance. Currently my next due date is 5-21, and there is no minimum payment due. Does making payments throughout the month alter the computers ability to come up with a minimum payment, further avoiding interest fees and giving you more time the following month to pay?

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Yes it alters the minimum payment but unless you have a 0% introductory offer in place you still will be charged interest on any unpaid balance from that month of purchases

[L0RDAVENTAD0R]

Whatever balance you carry on your statement date will determine how much interest will be charged to your account. Whatever balance you carry on your due date is irrelevant.

You can have a $0.00 minimum payment but if you carry any balance after your statement cuts, you will be charged interest unless you're currently in a promotional 0% period.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Ok so currently my sapphire balance is 500, over the course of the month I've made some payments to bring down the balance. Currently my next due date is 5-21, and there is no minimum payment due. Does making payments throughout the month alter the computers ability to come up with a minimum payment, further avoiding interest fees and giving you more time the following month to pay?

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Once you have paid the minimum payment, your online account will show $0 minimum payment due.   SInce you are making several payments a month, the first payment made after closing likely paid the minimum. 

If you want to avoid ineterest you need to pay the statement balance by the due date, even if you do it over several pay,ments.   This assumes you are not already paying interest from previous month.

If you are paying interest, paying as soon as you can reduces the average daily balance which interest is calculated on, hence less interest charges.

[Anonymous]

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@GMCSierraDenali wrote:

Whatever balance you carry on your statement date will determine how much interest will be charged to your account. Whatever balance you carry on your due date is irrelevant.

You can have a $0.00 minimum payment but if you carry any balance after your statement cuts, you will be charged interest unless you're currently in a promotional 0% period.

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This is not true for most any CC.   The average daily balance is used to calculate interest, not the balance on closing day.

[Anonymous]

If you statement balance was $500 and the cumulative sum of all your payments was $400, then an additional payment of $100 would need to be made by the due date to avoid interest being accumulated. If the statement balance was $500 and the sum of all your payments was say $1,000, then no interest would be charged and your new statement balance on the next statement would reflect the sum of you charges minus the sum of your payments. Also for the sake of balances, any returns are calculated as payments.

Easiest thing to do is to just set it on autopay, full payment due. If you need to make smaller payments to,keep your CL manageable, then the auto payment taken on the due date will reflect all partial payments you've made. If your partial payments exceed the statement balance, no payment will be made. So you don't have to worry about a double payment.

[LS2982]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Ok so currently my sapphire balance is 500, over the course of the month I've made some payments to bring down the balance. Currently my next due date is 5-21, and there is no minimum payment due. Does making payments throughout the month alter the computers ability to come up with a minimum payment, further avoiding interest fees and giving you more time the following month to pay?

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No. Your account will accrue interest accordingly on whatever terms the account has on the T & C if bill isn't PIF by the end of the grace period.

[TimeToRecover]

ok you guys have now confused me too.....

So lets write this out

5/1 charge made 100.00

5/3 charge made 200.00

5/10 statement cuts 300.00 balance payment due by 6/5

5/15 payment made 250.00

5/25 payment made 50.00   -- Balance is now 0

6/1 charge made 75.00

6/10 statement cuts 75.00 balance payment due by 7/5

So based on this my understanding is that no interest would be assessed because the "balance" was paid in full before the due date.  Clock restarts on the 75.00 for the due date of 7/5.

Am I correct?

[Anonymous]

Don't put so much thought into it. It's very simple, every month you get a statement

Whatever the balance is, you must pay in full..even if you've made charges since the cut off date---you are only responsible for what the credit card company is collecting from you on that statement.

If you want to pay more theres no penalty for that, but it's an option.

You only need to, again, pay the balance on the statement sent, in full, by the due date

If you're one day late, you will still incur interest charges even if you've explained your situation and got them to reverse the late fee..

And the interest rate is compounded, and thanks to the weird cut off dates of statement cycles you'll most likely see not one but two purchase interest charges because they tend to split the amount into two statement cycles

[Anonymous]

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@TimeToRecover wrote:

ok you guys have now confused me too.....

So lets write this out

5/1 charge made 100.00

5/3 charge made 200.00

5/10 statement cuts 300.00 balance payment due by 6/5

5/15 payment made 250.00

5/25 payment made 50.00   -- Balance is now 0

6/1 charge made 75.00

6/10 statement cuts 75.00 balance payment due by 7/5

So based on this my understanding is that no interest would be assessed because the "balance" was paid in full before the due date.  Clock restarts on the 75.00 for the due date of 7/5.

Am I correct?

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Yes, no interest due.   But to be more precise,  Any charges between 5/10 and 6/10 are due on 7/5.