Can credit card companies charge interest after you pay balance in full?

To avoid interest, you must:

1. Have had a $0 balance as of the CLOSING date of the previous month's statement (not the payment due date). This is the one 'gotcha' that most don't understand.

2. Paid the current balance in full and your payment must be posted on or before the due date.

3. Must not have used a cash advance to make the purchase (no grace period here).

Sounds like you have a 9.9% card. That would explain the $4.45 interest. Check with CapOne to see if they screwed up. Understand that a payment in the mail or on line is not considered paid until it is actually posted to your account. Did your account show the amount you paid?

Go back to the bill after you paid off the laptop - find out when they credited your account for the payment and then check your checking account for when they debited your checking account - see if the dates match. And then compare the two dates to the actual due date. I would hazard a guess that Cap One took a day or two to catch up to the cashed/debited date (Citi does this all the time with the payment on my second mortgage, but they are also good about crediting back the 7 cents in excess interest :).

Because of the delay many banks have in crediting accounts, your definition of on time does not always jive with Cap One's "reality" (even though you were probably on time). If the debit was prior to the due date, then you have a real valid argument for getting them to waive the interest and late fee (especially if your bank can provide some sort of proof that you can send).

Generally, you should not have any interest if your balance was paid in full by the due date. There are two things I can possibly think of might have caused this:

1. Your account payment posted a day or two (possibly because the bank misapplied your payment to another person's account).

2. Your account is subject to double cycle billing, in which they look to see if you had a balance the month before, and use the average balance of the two to calculate interest. Double cycle is less common than it used to be.

Call them up and ask - maybe they made a mistake.

Strange.

Only thing I can think of is that you were carrying balances before.

But you know all about "left over interest".

I would call that card company or check your statement online to see if that laptop company for some reason made an extra charge later on.

Read your credit card agreement.. Some sub-prime cards, Capital One being one of them, charge interest for the month in which you owed money. For example, you spent 450 on Friday, and payed it off the following Monday, you would owe interest on the 450 for the entire month.

corporate executives need to be locked up for screwing with peoples credit, and I had my dealings with Capital One over a 23 dollar charge added onto my account after I paid the card off. Totally illegal any maybe I need to haul Capital One into Federal Court for bullshit charges so they can get rich off the consumer.

If there was a previous balance before you paid it off the answer is yes. If there was no balance before the laptop, there should be no add'l interest or late charge. Is it worth disputing it? YES.I'm also an old times.

There may be some credit cards that charge you even if you pay on time and in full. It is unusual, but not illegal.

With most cards:

If you pay on time and in full every month, then they do not charge interest. If there is a month when you don't pay on time and in full, then they charge interest for TWO (2) months. So, yes, you can be charged interest for a month when you paid on time and in full, if you did not pay on time and in full in another month.

The answer would be NO! If they are it is illegal...and that is Credit Card companys for you. I would contact them and say show me where you charge intrest on a 0 balance account and I will show you a good attorney

Hi Catdad...I am sorry this has nothing to do with your questions but I want to give you a huge THANK YOU for your info on 1099-c forms.

You gave some info to send the guys who called me today. I don't even know if it's mine and when I asked for proof of debt they said they were reporting it to the IRS...They said it was from 1998???

Well if I could see you I would hug you for you advice :)