Why are the grace periods different for interest?

[IcyCool7227]

On November 19, I was charged $10.54 in interest charges on my Mercury Rewards Visa card (issued by First Bank & Trust.) Even though I paid the statement balance before the card statement cut I was still charged interest. A supervisor told me that it can't be waived and if I don't pay the statement balance on the due date that I am charged interest. But it doesn't work like that with the Amazon Prime Store Card from Synchrony though. I paid off the statement balance after the due date and was not charged a penny of interest. When there was an interest charge with Synchrony they agreed to waive it.

So why doesn't the Mercury card waive interest and have a difference of when the statement balance is due? 

[unsungivy]

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@IcyCool7227 wrote:

On November 19, I was charged $10.54 in interest charges on my Mercury Rewards Visa card (issued by First Bank & Trust.) Even though I paid the statement balance before the card statement cut I was still charged interest. A supervisor told me that it can't be waived and if I don't pay the statement balance on the due date that I am charged interest. But it doesn't work like that with the Amazon Prime Store Card from Synchrony though. I paid off the statement balance after the due date and was not charged a penny of interest. When there was an interest charge with Synchrony they agreed to waive it.

So why doesn't the Mercury card waive interest and have a difference of when the statement balance is due? 

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Um. Reverse your question. Ask why Synchrony was nice and did you a favor. You did not pay the amount DUE by the DUE DATE. That WAS your grace period. You went OVER your grace period with both banks. Synchrony just opted to be nice... this time.

[JoeRockhead]

I hope I'm understanding you correctly. If you're saying you didn't pay the balance by the due date, but did so before the next statement date then they (Mercury) were within their rights to charge you interest. Technically, they could have charged you a late fee as well.

In addition, many issuers, and something Synchrony is known to do, will also use paying after the due date as a reason to raise your interest rate to their "penalty" rates which are almost always absurd and go as high as nearly 40% (for Synchrony). Synchrony in this case did you a favor by not charging interest, or any of the other negative actions they could have taken by not paying by the due date.    

[IcyCool7227]

To both of the responders I paid the minimum first way before the due date BEFORE making the extra payments AFTER the due date so a penalty APR and late fee wouldn't apply.

[Kforce]

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@unsungivy wrote:You did not pay the amount due by the due date
You went over your grace period with both banks.
Synchrony just opted to be nice... this time.

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^^^^ This

[FicoMike0]

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@IcyCool7227 wrote:

On November 19, I was charged $10.54 in interest charges on my Mercury Rewards Visa card (issued by First Bank & Trust.) Even though I paid the statement balance before the card statement cut I was still charged interest.

I think you are in error. If you paid the statement balance before it cut, your statement balance would have been zero. You would be pif, no interest. A supervisor told me that it can't be waived and if I don't pay the statement balance on the due date that I am charged interest. But it doesn't work like that with the Amazon Prime Store Card from Synchrony though. I paid off the statement balance after the due date and was not charged a penny of interest. When there was an interest charge with Synchrony they agreed to waive it.

So why doesn't the Mercury card waive interest and have a difference of when the statement balance is due? 

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[Anonymous]

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@FicoMike0 wrote:

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@IcyCool7227 wrote:

On November 19, I was charged $10.54 in interest charges on my Mercury Rewards Visa card (issued by First Bank & Trust.) Even though I paid the statement balance before the card statement cut I was still charged interest.

I think you are in error. If you paid the statement balance before it cut, your statement balance would have been zero. You would be pif, no interest.

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I think OP is perhaps using "statement cut" differently, referring to the following statement.   So paid minimum before due date, and paid the rest before the following statement cut.   As others have indicated, it is the payment due date that matters, statement cut has nothing to do with whether interest is paid or not.   And, outside 0% APR periods, if you don't PIF by the due date, you will owe interest, probably for two cycles.

[Kforce]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@FicoMike0 wrote:

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@IcyCool7227 wrote:

On November 19, I was charged $10.54 in interest charges on my Mercury Rewards Visa card (issued by First Bank & Trust.) Even though I paid the statement balance before the card statement cut I was still charged interest.

I think you are in error. If you paid the statement balance before it cut, your statement balance would have been zero. You would be pif, no interest.

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I think OP is perhaps using "statement cut" differently, referring to the following statement.   So paid minimum before due date, and paid the rest before the following statement cut.   As others have indicated, it is the payment due date that matters, statement cut has nothing to do with whether interest is paid or not.   And, outside 0% APR periods, if you don't PIF by the due date, you will owe interest, probably for two cycles.

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Forgot about the loss of grace and trailing interest.   

[Snook_on_the_Line]

By paying your minimum payment before the due date you have satisfied the minimum requirement for your account to be in good standing.  Hence no late fee

but that remaining balance revolved into part of the next month so they are correct by charging you interest 

As to why synchrony didn't charge you any interest I'm not sure.      The amount of interest may have been so small that it just rounded down to zero.   

[FicoMike0]

It appears that a credit card need not have a grace period, but if they do, it must be at least 21 days.

I just looked at my Capone account. The grace period is always 25 days, and the due date is always the fourth. The statement date moves with the number of days in the month so the fourth is always 25 days after the previous statement date.

It's possible that the sync Amazon account has a 31 day Grace period, making the due date the statement date, or the day after. That would account for the op thinking the due date was the next statement date.