Pay your balance off in full each month and you will never pay a penny of interest. If you carry some of it over, here is exactly when interest starts and how to stop it.
Pay in full, pay no interest
Every time you spend, you get an interest-free period to pay it back (up to 45 days from the day you buy to your payment due date). Clear your full statement balance by the due date and those purchases cost you nothing extra.
If you carry a balance
If you do not pay your statement off in full, you carry a balance into the next month. When that happens, interest also applies to your new purchases, from the day you make them, and it keeps applying until you have paid your balance off in full. This is how interest works on most credit cards, and it is set out in your credit agreement (Clause 5.3).
When you are charged
Interest builds up daily and is added to your account the day after your payment due date. You will always see how much is building up, and the date it will be charged, on your payment screen before it happens.
How to get back to interest-free
Pay your full statement balance by the due date and your interest-free period comes back the following month. If you have a full-balance auto-payment set up, this happens automatically, so there is nothing you need to do.
Here is how it looks
Say your March bill is £300 and you pay it all off by the due date. You pay no interest, and your April purchases are interest-free too, as long as you pay April off in full.
Now say you only pay £250, so £50 rolls into April. Because you are carrying a balance, interest now applies to your April purchases from the day you make them, until you have cleared what you owe. Once you pay your balance off in full, your interest-free period returns the following month.
The simplest way to avoid interest
Pay your balance off in full each month. And if money is ever feeling tight, we are here to help, just get in touch.