Citi DC Interest

[pinkandgrey]

I’m a PIFer, but I’m curious about Citi’s policy on interest. It seems like they say they’ll charge you interest even if you pay your entire STATEMENT balance if your CURRENT balance is higher.

Any simplification would be appreciated. Also, are there any other cards that do this? I thought that as long as you pay the statement balance, there’s no interest...

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

No they don't charge interest if you pay your statement balance in full. Its a basic breach of agreement and I doubt they would be doing that.

Only time that may happen, is if you use its BT offer, which cancels your payment grace period. This will result in interest if you buy anything with the card, even if you pay those in full (AFAIK, you have to pay both BT and purchase in full right after purchase to avoid interest).

[pinkandgrey]

The wording is:

“Paying your statement balance may not pay your balance in full. Last statement balance does not include any transactions made since your last statement date. If you have not paid your account balance in full during the last two billing cycles, we charge interest on your account balance until we receive payment in full.”

That sounds like it’s saying you must pay the entire CURRENT balance.

[pinkandgrey]

Okay I chatted with a Citi rep. She said that as long as you pay the statement balance there will be no interest charges. Seems obvious lol but the wording scared me a bit.

[FinStar]

Citi isn't the only one with the same language OP.

To keep things simple, PIF and do not let any balance roll over beyond 1 statement cycle. The minute you do *poof* Finance Charge... until you reset everything back to zero, especially if you've made any transactions in between cycles.

[pinkandgrey]

By PIF you mean pay the statement balance, correct? I always do that, but not always the total balance as the current balance is usually higher than the statement balance. That’s why Citi’s wording bugged me. I thought they were saying that you had to pay the TOTAL balance regardless of what the statement balance is.

[kdm31091]

If you pay off the statement balance in full every month, you won't incur interest. Your current balance (when it is above and beyond the statement balance) has not been cycled for the statement yet, and thus isn't subject to interest. Your posted statement balance must be paid in full to avoid interest each month. Charges beyond that don't get charged interest until they revolve beyond a cycle.

[pinkandgrey]

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@kdm31091 wrote:

If you pay off the statement balance in full every month, you won't incur interest. Your current balance (when it is above and beyond the statement balance) has not been cycled for the statement yet, and thus isn't subject to interest. Your posted statement balance must be paid in full to avoid interest each month. Charges beyond that don't get charged interest until they revolve beyond a cycle.

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Yeah, that’s what I’ve always thought. But Citi’s wording made it sound like one has to pay the TOTAL balance to avoid interest. I was thinking Citi was crazy lol. This was all just a case of falling prey to complicated wording. 

[Anonymous]

I think Citi is just warning you that once you lose your grace period, you don’t stop getting charged interest until you flush it with a $0 balance.

[HeavenOhio]

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@pinkandgrey wrote:
The wording is:

“Paying your statement balance may not pay your balance in full. Last statement balance does not include any transactions made since your last statement date. If you have not paid your account balance in full during the last two billing cycles, we charge interest on your account balance until we receive payment in full.”

That sounds like it’s saying you must pay the entire CURRENT balance.

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Read it this way with the word "current" added: “Paying your statement balance may not pay your current balance in full. Last statement balance does not include any transactions made since your last statement date."

I agree that the part about interest could be better worded.