This e beca stupid question

[SushiAndRamen]

But, if I pay for something then clear it immediately on a credit card, will they still charge me interest?

Not if you clear it before payment is due - this will be on your statement.

No you won't be. Say you buy something for £100 and when the statement comes, you pay off £100 within the payment timeframe, you won't be charged interest. If you only pay £90 off, you will be charged interest that month on the £10.

Depends on the precise T&C of your card, but yes, normally if you pay for something using a credit card and then pay off the balance before the due date on your bill (which will be up to 45 days later) then you will pay no interest.

Thanks

There should be an initial period where no interest is payable, depending on the billing cycle of the credit card.

For example, I get a statement on the 9th of May, covering all my spending from 10th April to 9th May, and I have to make a payment by 4th June. If I pay the full statement balance there is no interest. If I pay less than the full balance off then I will start to ne charged interest and that will be added to the next statement that comes on 9th June, along with my new purchases made from 10th May to 9th June.

So I could buy something on my credit card and depending on my timing, have between almost 2 months to pay it off without attracting interest.

Is the credit card currently empty?

If yes, it is interest free, but you don't need to pay it now and can wait for the statement and pay it off before the due date, it will be interest free. So there's no benefit to paying it off early, and it will be detrimental, if you use money that's earning or costing interest, eg you go into overdraft.

If no, you will pay interest from the date of the transaction to the date it is paid off, following the stated order of payments.

Easiest thing to do is just set up a DD to pay the whole balance off on the due date.