SportsTalk withBuhle Madulini

Either by accident or design… she was only debited the minimum payment… How many other people might this have happened to?

— Wendy Knowler, consumer journalist

FNB… calls it an isolated discrepancy… the customer has been refunded…

— Wendy Knowler, consumer journalist

Smart consumers pay off their credit cards in full every month to avoid interest.

Arabile Gumede (in for Bruce Whitfield on The Money Show) spoke to consumer journalist Wendy Knowler.

She told the story of an FNB client who instructed the bank to pay her credit card off every month.

When she applied for a credit limit increase the bank started – without her instruction – to only deduct the minimum payment, leaving her with a nasty surprise of an interest bill.

For more detail, listen to the interview in the audio below (and scroll down for more quotes from it).

It shows how quickly interest accrues…

— Wendy Knowler, consumer journalist

If you increase your credit limit… instruct the bank that you don’t want to revert to paying the minimum balance…

— Wendy Knowler, consumer journalist

Even one day late or one rand short, you’ll pay full interest on the amount owing.

— Wendy Knowler, consumer journalist

Interest rates are so much lower on a credit card than on a store card.

— Wendy Knowler, consumer journalist

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