Tried to make a payment & I'm confused!

Inonowt

I got myself a barclaycard a while back to use for buying stuff on line, I dont spend a great deal on it & try to pay it off in full if I can. I've made payment until now by posting a cheque but forgot to do so in time. With the due date for payment the 4th August I called the customer service line to see what my options were & was told I could pay on the phone using an automated system using my debit card, great sorted I think. However the payment was refused by my debit card & I was put through to a call centre which sounded like it was in India, they said not to worry as no minimum payment was needed, I could send the cheque in as I'd done before I would'nt be charged for making the payment late.
I asked what it was that had happened, why there was no minimum payment needed & why I would'nt be charged for the late payment but they could'nt tell me, just it's how it was.
So what I'm wanting to know is what happened, why & is what they say true? More importantly am I going to get charged for a late payment & what may happen to my credit rating?
We aint talking about a large sum of money, the minimum payment is £5 & the total is £76 so paying up is well within my budget!
Is it possible to pay in person at a Barclays branch? That's not an ideal option as I live & work way out in the country but I'm sure I could get the time off work if needed.
Also, any pointers on why my debit card refused the payment? Plenty in the account which is with my local building society.
Cheers for any help & advice, Kev.

jonesMUFCforever

Yes you should be able to pay at any Barclays branch.
It might have been a security check reason for the decline or you might have misdialed one number etc etc.
However if you were to pay even cash tomorrow the likelihood of it getting there before 4th August IMO is slim.

normanmark

You'll get charged a late payment fee no doubt about it. My advice is to get a direct debit set up on the account

Inonowt

Normanmark, that's what I'm thinking, how can it be sorted if I hav'nt paid anything?
With regard to paying in cash at a branch why would it take any time at all to go through? You give them the cash, they log it in as paid & that should be it! It's not like the actual notes I hand over have to go through to someone at Barclaycard. Of course it wont work like that, far too logical!

jonesMUFCforever

Inonowt wrote: »

Normanmark, that's what I'm thinking, how can it be sorted if I hav'nt paid anything?
With regard to paying in cash at a branch why would it take any time at all to go through? You give them the cash, they log it in as paid & that should be it! It's not like the actual notes I hand over have to go through to someone at Barclaycard. Of course it wont work like that, far too logical!

No. What you have is a piece of paper which travels overnight from the branch to the clearing centre which in turn process the payment.
Credit card accounts are not branch based (for most banks anyway) this is why they tell you quite clearly on the back of the statement how many days you need to pay in advance to get there in time.

Scousebird_2

Inonowt wrote: »

Normanmark, that's what I'm thinking, how can it be sorted if I hav'nt paid anything?
With regard to paying in cash at a branch why would it take any time at all to go through? You give them the cash, they log it in as paid & that should be it! It's not like the actual notes I hand over have to go through to someone at Barclaycard. Of course it wont work like that, far too logical!

Well technically it does, your notes get swapped for one big note...it's called a Bank Giro Credit voucher, and this goes off to the people at Barclaycard to be put against your account. So it takes time to process.

Inonowt

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

No. What you have is a piece of paper which travels overnight from the branch

Ha ha, brilliant! All the electronic systems in use today means they can do all sorts but they still use paper! :rotfl:
I'll just have to send it off & see what they sting me for, my own fault for forgetting about it but I should have had an alert by text message & I definatly hav'nt had one.
Of more concern is my credit rating, will this affect it & how much? I'm thinking sometime in future I'll need a mortgage & my rating wont be the best as I've never took a loan out or bought anything on finance.

Moggles_2

Ways to pay (and the number of days each method takes) are shown on the back of your monthly statements.

Posting a cheque is by far the least reliable method and I'm rather surprised anybody still does this, TBH, when there are better options available.

Had you registered your details on Barclaycard's website today, your debit card payment would have arrived on time.

I don't think you can pay over the phone unless you're a Barclays customer and registered for Barclays telephone banking. You could use your own bank's telephone banking service of course, but this takes a day longer than paying online via Barclaycard's website

Moggles_2

Inonowt wrote: »

Of more concern is my credit rating. Will this affect it & how much?

One late payment won't affect your credit rating

Inonowt

Yeah, it's a bit stoneage using cheques & I should just get it set up with direct debit.
As it happens I am registered in that I can log in & look at my account online or is that different? The Indian call centre said it came up that the problem with my debit card was with the card or at least the account it was for so I'll have to chase that up. The first guy (who sounded as if he was in an english call centre) I spoke to who told me about being able to pay over the phone using my debit card said it did'nt matter who the card was with.
Thanks Moggles for reassuring me on the credit rating

Moggles_2

Inonowt wrote: »

As it happens I am registered in that I can log in & look at my account online or is that different?

No, once you've registered, you should be able to make a payment via the website without involving the call centre and it's fast. A payment I made on Tuesday was credited to my Barclaycard account today.