Question about interest payment (Urgent!!)

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone,

My wife has been running a balance for years on her Citi AAdvantage Credit card, @13 % interest, and fortunately it's about to end soon!

Her statement cycle ends on the first of the month, and her payment due date is I believe around the 26th of the month.

She has a $1,400 balance left on it right now. My question is: if she pays it off in full right now (just before her statement cycle ends), will we get charged interest for February purchases?

My understanding is that if we pay her entire balance right now, we won't get charged for February purchases, provided that we pay her February statement balance in full at or before her payment due date in late March. Please confirm!

Another question is: will we save any interest by paying her balance right now rather than at the next payment due date (February 26th I believe) ?

Thanks

Xav

[oracles]

HI xav and welcome to the forums

1- No You will not pay interest on February purchases. As long as you pay in full by march due date, you will not incur any interest charges.

2- You definitely will save interest if you pay it off now as oppose to the due date. Everyday that goes by you are being charged interest. Pay if off now and you will save on 20+ days of interested.

Also, just to note you will still incur interest fees from the previous due date until the day you pay it all off. So if your last due date was January 26th, and the statement is going to cut Feb. 3 and you pay off your balance on Jan 31, from Jan 26th to Jan 31 , you will still be charged interest on your balance for those days and you will have to pay it on your Feb. 26 due date.

Hope this helps

[Anonymous]

Oracles,

Thanks a lot for answering

[Anonymous]

Personally, I'd wait until you receive a statement with no finance charges before using it for purchases.  You don't always know how they determine their cutoffs.

For instance, I've received offers that say something like "the promotional APR expires the first day of the billing cycle that includes July 1."  If that's from the card that closes around the 4th of each month, that particular cycle will actually be the one that starts June  5, nearly a month before the apparent start date.

[Anonymous]

Mike,

I noticed the exact same thing on my credit card, with my 0 % interet rate period ending January first. I wasn't running a balance so I didn't get charged.

[oracles]

No problem xav, keep us updated

[Anonymous]

I made a mistake with my wife's dates on her credit card. Her statement ended on Feb 6th, and her payment due date was on Feb 1st.

A problem happened. My wife paid her entire balance on the February 1st, but Citi charged her interest on Friday afternoon (right before her statement balance ended). Now her statement balance is $22.

Here's my question: is the new statement balance starting on Feb 7th (today) interest free (provided of course that she pays that balance in full on April 1st), or not?

Thanks a lot for your help guys.

Message Edited by xav on 02-07-2009 01:02 AM

[haulingthescoreup]

Just as a general comment, the order in which this goes is: the statement drops on the 6th (or whenever), and the due date is the following 1st (or whenever.) It's the amount on that statement which is due by the following due date. When you think of the due date coming first, it tends to be confusing --remember, that's the due date for the previous month's statement.

Anyway, there should not be any additional interest if she PIF's by March (not April) 1st, but I would definitely call Customer Service and ask them for sure, in case there's some weird rolling interest going on. And really, while you have CS on the line, pay the $22 then and there over the phone, get confirmation that the account balance is now $0 and that there will be no additional interest accruing, and write down the CSR's name.

[Anonymous]

Thanks

I'll give them a call