lardyl

Hi All,
anyone have an ANZ standard Visa card?
They have just notified me of changes to charges on the card.
They seem to be saying that their terms concerning interest are changing on 8th November and if you do not pay the balance off at the end of a given statement period all additional purchases will not be interest free but will be charged at their current rate, so you lose the "interest free" element of the card should you not clear it every month.
I'm not totally convinced that this is what the revised terms mean but I think that it is the case having read the changes.
Can anyone decipher it?
The examples they quote in the notification do not seem consistent to me.
Cheers

PS Anyone got an alternative card that does not remove your interest free period if you do not pay it all off.....? I have a business ASB VISA card.

MrsFychan

I've had one since July last year and it seems to work like this for me.

When I first use it the clock starts and then any other purchases I make during that period has to be paid in full or I get charged.

Not really one for credit cards so only ever use it for big items then transfer the money over from UK and pay off.

I did phone them after the first month and say that adding all items within the time frame wasn't giving each purchase a interest free time and they just said thats how it works. Can't understand their system of statement either so hardly ever used it

Charismatic

Statement date or payment date? Of course if you carry balances over the payment date you won't get the interest free period on future transactions, that's standard policy in my experience.


I've always wondered why "up to" 55 days interest free, at first I thought it was because it was slightly shorter than the shortest two months (Feb + April = 58 days) but then that doesn't actually make a blind bit of difference to them financially.

Then I realised I think it's something a bit more devious, if it was billed every 30 days people like me would just set the billing cycle in sequence with a wage payment and then keep their funds in a savings account accruing interest. By setting repayments at 55 day intervals banks force most customers to keep funds in on-call cheque accounts (since you can't set up an automatic payment from a savings account to a cheque or do a direct debit on a savings and few customers will set up a calendar reminder every 55 days to move funds manually) which increases their profit margin on accounts. So banks may be using weird payment intervals to rob customers of due interest.

At least...that's my line of thought.

Charismatic

I use mine for everything I can and accrue the rewards. Then I have a DD from my cheque account and a monthly calendar reminder to move funds from my savings to cover the amount.

This optimises the card rewards system and fully utilises the interest free period as well as maximises the rate of interest on funds as they sit in my on-call savings account.
My understanding of the "up to 55 days interest free" actually means that it is you get billed after 55 days, if you buy 55 days before the payment you get that item interest free for 55 days...but this window only occurs once every month (any time when it will be exactly 55 days until you are billed).

Ideally therefore you'd spend everything on the card 55 days before a billing date to get the full interest free period and maximise the duration your funds sit in your savings account. However Miss Charismatic complains that shopping only once every month is "impractical" for most women so it's more an average 22.5 days interest free in reality.

Also don't accept paying fees for a credit card. Banks will waive fees and if not cancel or switch banks to get the next year free (with a calendar reminder set up to make sure you do the same again next year).

lardyl

Thanks for that - not sure what the change is going to be then.
Will have to dig out the old T&Cs booklet......
Only ever failed to pay it off once but I may have to do this in the next month or so.......the vagaries of cash flow.

Charismatic

Linky: http://www.anz.co.nz/resources/0/b/0...df?MOD=AJPERES

I updated my post a few times to make clear.

Charismatic

Personal card I assume? I don't know about your exact situation like how much you are likely to carry on your card or what your credit is like but here is a suggestion if it's likely to be expensive.

Instead of paying interest in the ANZ card at 19.95%, open a credit card at Wespac (which you can usually get fee free for 12 months as a sweetener if they think you are a serious prospect, you have to play the game ) then transfer the balance and pay 5.95% on the transferred balance instead (they seem to offer a 1.99% special as well on transferred balanced but it isn't clear which rate applies and when). Still have to make the min. payment of course...

lardyl

thanks sir

Charismatic

My advice is now invalid, you can get an ASB "low interest" (you'll get the joke when you see the interest rate ) Visa card free forever. Even better if you DD the balance you never have to go to a branch. It is really a free card, no strings attached.

Just bring in some ID, sign the credit check form and its sent out in the mail. At all costs avoid the sit down meeting part unless you have an hour of your life you never want back (lesson learned there!).

Still can't argue with the price! In fairness it's a game changer until someone else comes out with a cash back deal on a free card.

Bo-Jangles

The 'free' offer is only available on new cards issued before the end of May 14 - otherwise its $60 pa

https://www.asb.co.nz/lowrate/

Charismatic

So? If you have a card just cancel it and then reapply. It's a brand new card!

Kin1of2

I have an ANZ visa card but might switch. I pay the "balance" on-line but have noticed that they include uncleared funds. For example - I got a shock when I looked at our balance after hiring a car where the "bond" of $2,500 the car hire company charged (just for the 3-day duration) was showing up in my credit card balance directly above the ANZ note that the full balance needed to be paid off each month. They did add to the note the balance included uncleared funds, but the big bold balance number still includes them. I was annoyed about this, as it is very misleading and can result in over payments to ANZ of amounts not owed in that time period. Considering the amount of customers they have, the bank could do quite well out of the over payments at the expense of their customers. ANZ told me they didn't have any intention of changing it.