Interest bearing balances include amount rolled over on credit cards, cash advance and outstanding balances on term loans that have interest charged.
Amounts charged to credit cards that are fully repaid by their due dates are typically excluded since they do not attract interest. Likewise, outstanding amounts on interest-free instalments payments plans are also excluded. If interest is imposed on a particular instalment due to late payment, the instalment amount will be included. However, if no interest is imposed, the particular instalment can be excluded.
Interest-bearing unsecured balances also refer to amounts that attract an effective interest rate. As outstanding balance on a 0% balance transfer which incurs a processing fee has an effective interest rate of greater than 0%, it will be included as interest-bearing and included in the computation of aggregate outstanding balances for BTI calculation.
