If you had a $0.00 balance going into the statement period, and you did not take out a cash advance, then as long as you pay your balance off by the next statement there will be no interest. If you carry a balance from one statement to the next, then interest will accrue on your average daily balance.
Yes, you can get to a $0.00 balance easily. Pay your bill off in full by the due date, and do so each month. You will not pay interest, as long as you don't take out a cash advance (as interest accrues from the moment you take out the money).
Starting Score: 627 EQ, 621 TU - 11/15/08
@kc12286 wrote:
@ChesterPDexter wrote:Well, you didn't answer my question. Was there a cash advance included in the balance? If so, then the interest reflects that. Just pay it, and you'll be done - the balance will then be zero and will be reported as zero at the next statement.
I'm familiar with this because we've just paid off a lot of cards. People keep mentioning "residual interest" and I'm not sure what they're talking about. Double-cycle billing isn't allowed anymore, or is it? I have a number of cards, some of them sub-prime-type companies like GE Money Bank, and you'd think they would get away with anything they could get away with. Merrick Bank, too. HSBC also, now that I mention it. Someone at GE Money told me that the due date only pertains to the minimum amount due - that if you'd like to avoid being charged interest in a billing cycle, and you've already satisfied the minimum amount due by the due date, simply pay the amount that was quoted as a total on the last statement (minus any intervening payments and adding in any additional charges, of course) before the next STATEMENT date and you'll be golden.
In every case this has held true, with a number of different credit card companies. A few cards charged some "residual interest" but in each case, it was because part of the balance was being computed as "balance transfer."
Again, why don't you just call them and get them to explain it to you?
No cash advance, never done that with any of my cards because the APR on cash advances is usually higher than the APR on credit charges.
I did see that other post about "residual interest" after I posted my message. I'm thinking maybe that's what happened here. Since my balance was $460.76 when my statement cut for July and I paid it to zero by the due date of July 10th, they were charging interest based on the previous month's balance So if I pay this interest today, when the statement cuts for August, it will report zero and I won't be charged interest. I'll call to verify like you suggested.
Yes, it is so-called "residual interest." When Chase is saying that you can avoid paying interest on your purchases by paying your balance in full before the due date, they are talking about purchases made during that statement period. You have a grace period for those. But once you revolve a balance, interest starts accruing on that balance daily.
You are correct, the interest charge is for the 10 extra days worth of interest before they received your payment. Once you pay that off, you'll be at zero. And going forward, if you charge anything and pay it in full before the due date, you won't see any interest on that charge.
@kc12286 wrote:Thanks Walt. That really threw me. I did just get off the phone with Chase and they're "waiving" the residual interest and it will be reported as 0 when my next statement cuts in a month. Kind of annoying that I have to wait that long, but I'll live.
I've certainly learned something today. Now that Chase is taken care of, I'm moving onto the next card trying to get as much paid off as I can.
No problem. All in all, not a bad way to learn. I'm one of the lucky idiots who learned this lesson years ago by making my "last" payment, closing a card down, and not thinking about it again. Until I got a late charge for failing to make the real last payment. But they were nice and waived the late charge.
