Credit card 0% interest lost HELP!!

[Duchess89]

I feel this is so harsh of Sainsburys Bank!

I got the Sainsbury's Bank credit card in July last year. Have a very strong credit history. We we're having our new extension done and put the new kitchen appliances on there and well as other things as it was 0% for 2 years. Credit limit 11,000.

Anyway at the start of December I put an amazon order on there and went over by £4.98. It was a delivery charge that I wasn't anticipating and just didn't realise.

That was the 6th December. Didn't realise until the 17th. I saw a £12 over limit charge and that the balance was £11,016.98 (£12 of that being the charge!!) and immediately send £20 over to clear it.

I have made every payment, none have been late, and always pay over the minimum. They have removed the 0% interest (no email about this) and have just charge £188 interest for this month.

What can I do? Was planning on keeping this card for a while and paying back towards the end of the year but now panicking massively!!

I realise now I shouldn't have gone that close to the limit, which is my mistake. Should have paid closer attention.

The plan was to always use that card because it had such a long 0% promo period. I realise people will disapprove of generally going in to debt, but we (thought!) we could leverage it to get what we needed to get done quickly. We were living in such a run down property. The plan was always to pay it back well before the 0% interest rate ended and the amount is not something that is insurmountable.

My issue is that there was never any notification on the app or email to let us know the promo had been taken away. Not even on the statement. I had no idea until I just checked the app this evening and saw the interest charged.

I realise that I have made a mistake but it seems so teeny tiny that I'm hoping they will take pity.

Will have a look at balance transfers too, will have to do a hefty payment off when we get paid end of Jan too!

Tesco do a 0% interest card which might work for balance transfer

It's not that easy to "just transfer" to another promotional offer. Depending who is actually operating the Sainsburys credit card, you can't transfer to any other card with the same provider. I know someone who had that. It was a B&Q card operated by MNBA. And it's amazing how many other companies use MNBA to provide their credit card.

That said:

www.uswitch.com/credit-cards/guides/who-owns-your-credit-card/

The teeny, tiny amount makes it all the more galling I'm sure - you can try and beg but tbh, you're probably going to have take it on the chin and find another 0%, if not 2 deals as you've got a large debt to transfer (as I'm sure you already know).

I actually feel a bit pissed off for you, as it's so maddening when you think it's all covered and some little thing turns it all to shit. "Can't think of everything" is a well-said phrase.

Very standard terms and conditions for a credit card im afraid, missing a payment or going over a limit will remove any promotional offer.

Id try to balance transfer it to be honest before that shows on your credit file - but it may be difficult to get a limit that high when you already owe that much.

Would you not be better taking out a loan at a low rate over a few years so the debt goes down? If you were planning on paying it off over 2 years then you should have paid off 2/3 k by now but you must be using it each month after making a payment which wont look great to other lenders

@PenguinLove1 The credit card was received in July, we did use it until December. The project didn't finish until the end of November. So yes we paid the minimum payments for a few months and put extra things on it as we needed to buy for the renovation. That was my plan - to use that card and max it out then pay it off in 2023 - as it was 0% interest. I cut up the card after that last purchase in December! Then I realised I mistakenly put an extra 4.98 on 😫

@TheHateIsNotGood Thank you! You understand exactly how I feel. Just thought I had a it planned out, generally I feel like I'm financially quite astute but am so cross with myself for messing up. I'm now at the mercy of the bank unfortunately with no one to blame but myself.

Thank you everyone for your advice. Have already looked at a few balance transfers and they don't look too bad. We had our car MOT yesterday and that was an additional £1200 to get it all repaired and now it looks like I'll be down another £300 with interest/balance transfer fees. Such is life!

Have you contacted them? Similar happened to me years ago, new credit card and I missed one of the first payments by about a week and lost the 0% fee. I contacted them to explain and said I was concerned about losing the interest free offer and they reinstated it, with a reminder that it wouldn't happened if I was late for a payment again. I suspect they know you will just transfer it to another card. This was about 15 years ago though when 0% balance transfers were everywhere.

I used a credit card to pay for my kitchen and appliances. 2 year interest free, put 10K into a high interest 2 year fixed account. When the 2 years were up, paid off the Cc and got about £500 interest on the savings. It’s a no brainer!

I move balances all the time, you’ll pay a hefty fee but it is usually cheaper than the interest. But not always.

I have 5 cards that regularly offer good 0% deals so I move money between them
all the time. When I was a student and interest rates were high I used to take the money transfer money, bank it at high interest and then pay it back at the end of the term and pocket the profit. If you are canny and disciplined you can really win with card offers but you need to be organised and manage it well. I could max out my cards and would owe about £75k. But I don’t- we rarely have more than £10k and usually around £3k and always on 0%. I haven’t paid a pound in card interest ever and have had credit cards since 18.

It’s worth begging @Duchess89 but it’s how they profit so don’t be surprised if they say no. They make no money out of me really apart from transfer fees but rely on others cocking it up to profit.

I would ring them and have a chat to explain. This happened to me in the past and they reinstated the 0%.

They may reinstate the 0% interest free if you call them and profusely apologise that it was an oversight on your part. If they can see you have paid perfectly well and never been overdrawn before, they may overturn their decision.

In terms of transferring the balance to another lender, this will be subject to credit checks and if your credit card provider has updated it's system with the credit reference bureau, this may very well affect you obtaining further credit.

Try and find another % if not a loan mighte cheaper interest wise

@otherwayup Depending on how long you need to save up, it can actually work out significantly cheaper to get a large purchase on a 0% credit card and buy it upfront than to wait several years and buy it at the current price.

If we had 10% inflation each year, then buying a £10k kitchen now is £10k @ 0% for 2 years. Buying it in 2 years is £12.1k

Whilst this isn't true in the OPs circumstances - if you had that 10k in your bank you could also consider putting it into a high-interest rate saver (whatever happens to be available) and then have that interest returned to you.

So overall a 0% credit card could end up with you being (relatively) £2.1k + £interest on 10k better off and with the added bonus of having the thing you wanted right now rather than having to wait.

Of course, it's not without risk if you're using it as the OP is - ie. relying on future income to ensure you can pay it down. But it's not as black and white as you're making out. Saving up and buying something later, or buying outright/not using credit cards isn't always a financially better option.

Because it’s not 1954 anymore. And using other people’s free money instead of your money is actually quite smart.

@sst1234
Obviously I realise that 🙄
Is your lazy, not even particularly funny comment all you have to offer? Lame.

For the financially savvy, 0% interest cards are a great way of borrowing but it sounds like op is unable to manage hers, hence a £5 transaction causing such an issue.

And what happens if the balance can't be transferred to another 0% card? With interest rates rocketing, someone's manageable debt can very quickly become beyond unmanageable.

I fell foul of Barclaycard because my monthly bank payment didn’t go through. Barclays said it was declined . Nationwide said it was never applied for. The Barclaycard customer service person was sarcastic and nasty, said I clearly didn’t have the money. I hadn’t missed a payment in 20 odd years and each month I pay the balance in full. I paid the whole balance and learned that they don’t give a shit. Transfer your balance quickly and hope it doesn’t show on your credit score.

@otherwayup It probably looks like I'm mis-managing money, but I had always planned to use the full credit limit and go up to 11k. But I miscalculated the last payment I put on there. I project managed our whole build and thought I had done so well managing all the money but fell foul at the last hurdle!

Looks like it can go either way when I call tomorrow. Fingers crossed for someone sympathetic!

That happened to me and I just grovelled a bit they were fine, reinstated the 0% so fingers crossed you’ll be ok.

Give them a call and you may very well find they reinstate the 0% rate.

Get balance transfer applications in asap as this might impact your credit rating.

It's standard terms and conditions for a credit card unfortunately, it will be there in what you be signed up for when you took the credit card. But give them a call they may understand.

How did you get on @Duchess89 ??

@hilbil21 Good news - they have agreed to reinstate the 0% and will refund the interest charged.

Was very calm and just explained it was me not calculating properly and that I'm mortified and very sorry!

Feeling very grateful - was a bit of a scare and a mistake I won't repeat. Won't get so close to the credit limit in future if I ever need a CC again.

Brilliant news. A weight off your mind.