MBNA payment due date trick

My MBNA payment due date has consistently been the 25th of each month for as long as I can remember. It has only ever moved forward from that by a day or two when the 25th falls on a weekend.

Chris

I have not noticed this trick on my cards Halifax and Nationwide. The date sometimes moves about a bit, but I assume that this is due avoiding weekends and there being a fixed number of days between payments but not all months having 31 days.

You could set up a direct debit to pay the full amount, then they wont be able to catch you out whatever they do with the date (assuming you have enough money in your account of course).

Gareth.

Yes, I would do that, except that very occasionally (when I've had an expensive month) I prefer not to pay off the full amount.

I guess I just have to make sure I pay up immediately. The reason I tend to delay paying is so I can decide towards the end of the month whether to pay the full amount, depending on how much cash I have in my bank account :\

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Hmm. That's interesting. It's even more infuriating that they don't do it to everyone.

I wonder if MBNA "tailor" their due dates to individual customers by electronic pattern searching. They might look for customers who tend to pay close to the due date, like me, and deliberately shift it forwards.

Bastards!! ('Scuse my French.)

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Why not set up a DD for the minimum amount, and then pay the rest manually the way you have been? That way, you get the best of both worlds - you can pay the full amount most months while still making a partial payment every now and then, but you'll never be caught out by a floating due date and end up being charged a late payment fee.

Mark

except that the OP was being hit by interest not late payment fees. Not paying *fully* by the due date results in interest on all recent transactions from the transaction date.

Jim A

If your conspiracy theory is correct, maybe the reason they don't try it on with me is because I pay by direct debit, so there would be little point.

Maybe that's the solution to your problem.

Chris

The simple solution is to read the bill.

Why not arrange an overdraft/increase your overdraft - likely to be much cheaper than not paying your credit card in full every month. Alternatively you *may* find it's cheaper get a cash advance off your credit card before the payment date, pay that into the bank you've got the DD with, to partially pay the bill!

Reportedly it is the other way around: those who consistently pay early then the date moves forwards.

In message , Francis Turton wrote

I have a direct debit to pay off the minimum amount to avoid any extra charges that may/will occur with a missed payment.

The credit card company has DD options for only the minimum amount due, a fixed monthly payment or the full amount due.

I do a similar thing with my amex card. If it's a heavy month and I can't pay it off in full I will do a "top up" BT from my Egg card. This avoids paying interest on my entire month's amex purchases *from the purchase date* and I only pay interest to egg from the date of the BT. If the next month is a "lean" month then egg gets paid off.

cheers adrian