Guide to credit card fees, charges and interest

Interest is the cost of borrowing when you don’t pay back what you owe in full by the payment due date detailed on your statement.

On an M&S Credit Card, interest can be charged on three types of balance:

• Retail purchases (shopping) — added if you don’t pay the full statement balance by the due date (this excludes any promotional interest-free offers).
• Cash withdrawals — interest is charged on cash straight away, this applies to both GBP and non-M&S Travel Money currency exchange.
• Balance transfers — interest depends on the rate/offer on your transfer.

Each type of balance may have a different APR (Annual Percentage Rate).

Interest will show on your statement or on your transaction list in digital banking. 

When you make a payment, it’s used to pay off balances in a set order, this is called a payment hierarchy. We will pay off your owed balance in the following order:

1. Interest, charges and fees – e.g. late payment fee, cash advance fee
2. Cash Advances – e.g. withdrawing from a cash machine, non-M&S Travel Money currency exchange
3. Purchases (including M&S Travel Money) – e.g. shopping at M&S
4. Balance Transfers

• Where interest is charged at different rates in respect of items in the same category, those items will be repayable in the order of those with the highest to the lowest interest rates, this is to ensure the most expensive debt is paid off first.
• If two categories have the same interest rate, we pay the oldest transactions first.
• Interest on cash withdrawal is added daily until you pay the balance off.
• Any balance you clear by the payment due date won’t be charged interest.
• Any balance left unpaid after the due date will start to build interest, which will show on a later statement. 
• If an introductory rate ends, your balance will move to the standard interest rate.

You may be offered an interest free period on retail purchases or balance transfers. 

If you pay your full statement balance by the due date, you may not pay interest on retail purchases (including M&S Travel Money) made during the statement period which depending on when you bought something, that can be up to 55 days between purchase and payment.

Any transferred balance remaining on your account will be charged at your standard variable rate. You’ll also lose your promotional rate and interest will be charged at the standard rate if you’re late making at least your minimum payment in any month – so it’s important to make payments on time.