Hi,

just thought I would give another side to the story.

I have had a tesco credit card for 3 years now and had no problems with it at all. I had a full interest free period and am now on a very low life of the balance transfer interest rate.

So its not all bad with Tesco!!

Hi There,

Having read through a lot of your comments and quiries, i feel that this proves that we are a very nieve nation. Tesco are a part of the the RBS group who are 1 of the top 5 banks in the world. its very unlikely that they are breaking any laws or even coming close to breaking any laws. Small print is always going to be a grey area, however everything which you would need to know about credit cards will be stated in the trms and conditions which i assume on this occassion have not been read through.

Hey Lexusmedia

Other RBS Group cards also work in this way. This was a business decision, not anything to do with the banking system as a previous poster mentioned.

Most RBS cards are on a 25 day cycle. For example the statement is printed 3rd of the month, due date the 28th (ie 25 days later). But on full payment direct debit the collection date is either 15 or 20 days after the statement date. This is stated on the paper statement as the due date.

Direct debits are not compulsory so if it upsets you so much just cancel it and pay manually. You will probably find you are paying 5 days early anyway so theres no real difference.

Eco

I am surprised no one has written about this since.

I recently opened a Tesco Credit Card Account and set up a Direct Debit Mandate to pay the full amount due every month.

This mandate became operative and Tesco Credit informed me, via their on-line statement, that the due date was 8th October 2008.

Imagine my disgust, when checking my Bank Statement, that payment had been called on the 3rd October.

Fortunately, there were funds available to meet it.................. but what if there weren't.

Upon contacting Tesco Finance for an explanation, they say it's normal practice for them to call the payment early, EVEN though a Direct Debit payment has earlier been set up.

I know of no other Bank, Building Society or other Organisation that calls for payment BEFORE the given date, and doubt it's legality..In fact, if a weekend or Bank Holiday intercede, payment is always taken AFTER.

So that's how they give points generously. They collect your money early and collect the interest to pay for them.

This, all at your expense.

Beware if you pay off your account in full every month via a Direct Debit

Yes it's another Tesco credit card problem. I finally managed to sort out my earlier issue regarding a balance transfer fee. This was after talking to a Mr Graham Moscrop who I'm told is the head of customer services (although if you ask any of the customer service staff they don't know him!....) In future I would ask to speak directly to him with any issues as the staff seem unable to deal with any queries that aren't standard. My latest issue is that I've received my second statement which is saying if i only make minimum payment there will be an interest charge?!... I too am on 12months interest free on balance transfers & purchases. When i called to query why the suggested interest I have been told my minimum payment last month was £1 less than it should have been therefore my terms have changed!!.... I have checked my last statement & i actually paid the minimum amount as per the statement......... this means yet another phone call to unhelpful customer services at tesco to unwrangle another of the administration mysteries! Once again 'beware Tesco credit card'!

It has been said before, but people seem to keep coming back to worrying about Tesco, so it is worth repeating:

This isnt Tesco's fault - it is the banking system.  Tesco will have credited the account the day they receive the money, so if it is late being credited, then speak to your bank - they have more influence on getting these systems updated than Tesco do. 

i took out a tesco credit card back in jan, and i have to say, i got the full 12 mon period. i had no balances to transfer. maybe when they run a credit score it automatically puts you on a certain interest free period depends on what credit you have. because this is my only credit card, i had no balance to transfer, so they knew as a credit risk that i wasn't using the card to trans a load of money just to use the interest period only and make no other purchases.

As you can see from my earlier post, i had the same problem with Tesco, i wrote to them quoting section 2 of the credit agreement on interest free periods; they changed my statement to reflect the full period.

From the letter they sent to me, i discovered that the agreement should  be worded "upto 12 months interest free period". which is suppose to give them a legal right to minimize the free period as they wish.

MY ADVISE: read the agreement if it says "upto" then you won't get the full interest free period.

I had same problems with these clowns at Tesco...

Recently applied for the 12 month interest free balance transfer, received the credit agreement, PINs and Cards, all the paperwork quoted the 12 month interest free rate as I had applied.

During the application I had also quoted the balance I wanted to transfer. Just before I got the card I was advised the amount I wanted to transfer was more than the credit limit I was allowed. This was fine and I was happy just to transfer up to the credit limit (which for the record was only £200 less than the original balance I wanted to transfer anyway!). I was advised I needed to process the transfer over the phone when I activated my card.

It was once I got the card and called Tesco I started to have problems.... I called the day the cards arrived to activate them and transfer the balance. At this point they were very helpful and the balance was setup smoothly. Just to be sure all was OK I then asked the person I was speaking to, to confirm the 12 month interest free rate was on the account. I was then told in-fact I only had a 3 month interest free period.

Obviously I said this must be wrong as I had the credit agreement stating 12 months and anyhow this was the only reason I had applied for a Tesco card as I was looking for a long interest free period. The lady went off to query and called me back to say that Tesco had changed the terms of the offer for anyone applying after 14th march (conveniently the day I applied) to 3 months and that there had been an error in the paperwork I was sent and they could do nothing to help. I spoke to a supervisor who said exactly the same.

To my anger I then went onto the Tesco website tonight to see exactly the same offer I had applied for on the website still. I called back only to be told the same thing and after about 15 minutes of getting nowhere cancelled my card and the balance transfer.

It seems to me that Tesco are basically duping people into applying for 12 months interest free and then changing the terms based on the size of the balance transfer. I'm sure I would probably still be getting the 12 months interest free if the balance was small enough. There's no financial gain for them if I fill my credit limit with a balance transfer and pay no interest on it for a year but certainly is if I start paying interest after 3 months!!...

If it had not been for me double checking the terms I would have paid a 2% fee to transfer the balance and then have unexpectedly starting paying interest after 3 months and would have been able to do nothing except another balance transfer elsewhere and yet another fee.

It frustrates me that these companies can add clauses which allow them to make these changes and they don't even seem to have to let the people affected know.

I will certainly steer clear of Tesco finance now and encourage anyone else to do the same.

 

I got a Tesco clubcard CC recently, the initial offers are 0% on tesco purchases for 12 months and 0% on non Tesco purchases for 3 months, i applied for the card cos Tesco extra is just 2 mins walk from my house, i have a club card, so i do all my grocery shopping there cos of convenience.

I received my first statement recently , to find out that the 0%  on purchases is less than the period written on the agreement, i've written to them to clarify  the issue.

They replied to my letter stating they are investigating the issue i raised, i'm waiting for their final response before i give my unbiased opinion about the CC.

I'm amazed reading this, I am currently querying a balance transfer fee with tesco credit card as was informed at the time i phoned that there would be no fee. I have phoned tesco on numerous occasions, spoken to various people and their supervisors, and left messages over the last 3 days for the Customer Care Team Manager to call me...he has so far failed to do so. I certainly will be writing a letter of complaint to tesco and considering the financial ombusman too. They are certainly shoddy in their approach, have argumentative staff, and poor managers to say the least about their customer care! "Every little helps"...well i suggest we prove their point by taking our custom to other more responsible and professional companies! Beware of Tesco credit card!!!

Unfortunatley the BACS system is outdated compared to the rest of the world this is because it was created in the 1970's, but the good new is there are plans to improve this system in the future. There are plans in place from the OFT to change the BACS system in the next couple of years to a system that will be able to transfer funds instantly or up to a maximum of 3 hours which should help with these problems in the future. I know this does not help now, but it is something to look forward too in the future and should bring the UK out of the stone age with regards to bank transfers.

If you would like to know more information on this I advise you to look on the OFT website and they should have an update on what stage they are currently on.

I would want to write about the ongoing effect which is on your credit rating.

There is only one Tesco in France,which does wine, near to Calais. So you should be safe :-)

I remortgaged to the Abbey last year and we was talking to the mortgage advisor and we had to tell them what had happened and she said that she knows someone else that this has happened to, so beware Tescos are not all they're cracked up to be. My only worry is that if I write to them they will ask for the full amount and I haven;t got this, this has really affected things for the future. My wife and me are so annoyed with this country that we are going to be putting the house on the market and moving to france.
Beware when you get the card double check the rate.
I was thinking of writing to the CEO of Tescos and even the Financial Ombusman.

Regards

Nigel

Ooooh I have just taken out a Tesco credit card so I will watch this one carefully.Thank you for the alert.
On the face of it,the offer is very good, 0% for 12 months on purchases and a healthy credit limit. I will watch my admin though as the charging rate is nasty.

I think you should write to them to remedy your credit score and insist that it is corrected.