Customers of Tesco Personal Finance / Mastercard be aware of a new scam 
being operated.  This is an example of what is happening and how they are 
deliberately putting information on credit records that is false.

Take for example a Mastercard issued by Tesco with a £5000 limit per month. 
The Billing period runs from 10th to the 10th of the following month.  If 
you were to make transactions between those dates of say £4000 and the Bill 
sent through the post shows this, you would think you were below the monthly 
credit limit.  You would be ONLY if you did not spend anything from the 10th 
of the month until the direct debit payment had cleared in a few days after 
the statement was sent.

If you spent the £4000 between 10th January and 10th February, then spent 
£2000 on 15th January - Tesco would try it on with a £12 charge by claiming 
you had gone over your monthly limit.  This is wrong because Tesco state 
clearly (tape recorded) that they define a "month" as the dates within the 
Billing Period.  So they class their "month" as in this example from 10th 
January to 10th February but for adding charges they class a "month" as a 
calendar month.

Very very misleading !   If you have been misled like this give Tesco a 
call, also email the press office at Mastercard to complain and you will 
have the £12 refunded.

The next scam operated by Tesco was concerning collection of the unlawful 
charge.  If they said you had exceeded your limit in January, they would put 
the charge on the Bill in February, then send a letter asking for payment 
and warning about 14% interest charges.  You would think it is OK to leave 
it until the direct debit is taken for the February Bill it was on.  WRONG, 
they say because you didn't pay it within so many weeks of the date the 
overspending was noticed in January  it would attract interest.

After reading the longwinded terms and conditions Tesco are wrong on both 
counts and will refund the fee, but you need to be polite on the phone, 
don't shout, just ask for what they class as a month and explain each Bill 
with the start and end date.  Mastercard should be ashamed of allowing Tesco 
to run such a scam to deliberately mislead customers and try it on with 
unlawful charges.