Virgin Credit Card: missed 1st payment allegedly

papayoda

Hi Money Savers

I need some help/advice if anyone has any experience of the following (sorry for essay)?

I recently took out a Virgin Credit Card to try and sort out some debt by doing a Balance Transfer in mid October. Everything was fine and I registered for online banking etc and made a first payment for £275 a few weeks later. I have been on holiday for a couple of weeks and returned yesterday to find a my first bill statement dated the 4th November requesting the first minimum payment be paid by 21st November which has since past. The statement shows the payment that I made of £275 as being cleared on the 4th Nov and I assumed this would act as my first payment but it appears that this was not counted and I have been charged the standard £12 late fee charge and lost the promotional 0% rate!!

I phoned up Virgin yesterday and was told I made the payment “too early” and therefore the statement did register that I made the minimum payment. I have never heard of this before and this has NEVER been an issue with my previous CC companies. Surely if the payment I have made on the 4tn Nov is showing on the first statement (also dated 4th Nov) then it should be taken as the first payment and not request another payment in the same month? :mad:

The person I spoke to did admit it was an error on their part and would reinstate the promotional 0% rate and also refund the £12 charge but advised I still need to make the min £25 payment as requested which I think is a little unfair. I have NEVER, NEVER missed a payment for anything before and am worried that a missed or late payment might show on my credit file when it was not my fault? Where do I stand regarding this and does a mark on you record such as this mean much? I am worried and frustrated and just wanted to see if anyone had any advice? Moral of the story? Probably stop being so efficient and wait for them to come to you....

ICan'tStandIt

Did you check when the due date would actually be before you made your payment ?

You payment may have credited your account before the statement had even printed. As a credit card requires one payment per month if there is a balance owed, your early payment would not have counted. Does the statement say opening balance £275.00 CR or just £0.00 ?

If it says £275.00 CR as your opening balance, they would have expected a further payment.

Credit card companies normally only report two late payments in a row, so as long as you're up to date by the time they report to Experian etc you should be ok.

If you explain your mistake to them, they'll probably give you your late payment charge back and may reinstate your 0%.

If you get nowhere with their customer services people, write to their complaints division.

papayoda

Thanks for the replay ICant'tStandIt! On the statement it starts with the BTs from other CCs on 26th October then the handing charges, then after these it says 4th Nov payment credit...A statement wasn't ready when I made the payment but I needed to do it before I went on holiday. I assumed it would count when the statement was ready...oh well nice to know this "missed payment" wont affect me much. They have reinstated the rate and charge but it's all just a little frustrating don't you think?

Moggles_2

Missed payments can trash your credit rating for years, but a single late payment will not harm your credit score.

That said, judging from posts to this board, Virgin/MBNA do not report late payments to the CRAs in these circumstances.

Note to everyone else: lenders vary in this respect. Some (eg. Barclaycard) always report a late payment, even when staff have promised otherwise :rolleyes:

Might be an idea to set up a direct debit to pay the minimum amount. That way, it's Virgin's responsibility, not yours, to make sure the monthly repayments get there at the right time

ICan'tStandIt

papayoda wrote: »

Thanks for the replay ICant'tStandIt! On the statement it starts with the BTs from other CCs on 26th October then the handing charges, then after these it says 4th Nov payment credit...A statement wasn't ready when I made the payment but I needed to do it before I went on holiday. I assumed it would count when the statement was ready...oh well nice to know this "missed payment" wont affect me much. They have reinstated the rate and charge but it's all just a little frustrating don't you think?

Never assume anything when it comes to something which, please don't take this the wrong way, you may not know enough about.

As a customer, of course you won't know the internal workings of the company you're a customer with, but it's often a bad idea to apply your own logic as a customer and act accordingly.

I agree that it may not seem all that logical and it's great that you didn't want your holiday to result in you missing a payment as you'd be surprised how many people think a holiday is a good enough reason not to pay.

I'm glad that you got the 0% reinstated and the charge refunded :-)

YorkshireBoy

MBNA (who also run the Virgin card) changed their T&C's earlier this year to say that they now WILL (not may) remove promotional rates if you breach the T&C's.

It's only a matter of time before they actually start enforcing this policy (the reason they don't now is probably because it ties up staff dealing with complaints because the customer won't 'let go') so the best approach for anyone - and especially those with MBNA cards requiring only a £25 minimum payment in the intro period - is to set up a direct debit for this minimum amount.

In fact, I'd go as far as to suggest that other lenders should follow Egg's lead and INSIST on a direct debit being set up.

ICan'tStandIt

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

MBNA (who also run the Virgin card) changed their T&C's earlier this year to say that they now WILL (not may) remove promotional rates if you breach the T&C's.

It's only a matter of time before they actually start enforcing this policy (the reason they don't now is probably because it ties up staff dealing with complaints because the customer won't 'let go') so the best approach for anyone - and especially those with MBNA cards requiring only a £25 minimum payment in the intro period - is to set up a direct debit for this minimum amount.

In fact, I'd go as far as to suggest that other lenders should follow Egg's lead and INSIST on a direct debit being set up.

A customer would just cancel the direct debit if they didn't want to pay that way, but were forced to as part of the application.

My main beef with DDs is that they lull customers into a false sense of security and think that their debt is going down, when often it maybe remaining static. DDs are often only 2.5% of the balance and this might, on an account with a high APR, only cover the monthly interest. Even on a decent APR or 0% a DD does not bring the outstanding balance down very fast.

Too may people leave their accounts on DD and don't check their statements closely enough and therefore don't pick up on this.

Papayoda's situation arose partly due to him/her making an assumption that turned out to be incorrect, but mainly it was down to Virgin not explaining things enough. They should have gone through the due dates and explained that there was no point in paying early etc when the card was applied for.

When someone applies for a credit card, they never (certainly in my experience) get asked what date they want their payments to be due. As most people want this date to fall in with their pay-day, it's important that this date meets a customer's needs.

Any credit card I apply for, I always have to ask them what date the first statement prints and when the first payment is due, they never volunteer this information.

Moggles_2

Originally Posted by ICan'tStandIt
Any credit card I apply for, I always have to ask them what date the first statement prints and when the first payment is due, they never volunteer this information.

This has been my experience as well.

That said, I applied for a Tesco cc recently. When I called to activate, the CSA informed me, unprompted, of my first statement date. Let's hope it catches on.

YorkshireBoy

ICan'tStandIt wrote: »

A customer would just cancel the direct debit if they didn't want to pay that way, but were forced to as part of the application.

Then the lender is allowed to cancel the credit card account? All's fair in love and war!

Or perhaps, more leniently, they could issue a warning on the first occurance, and on the second, suspend the account thereby preventing new spend until a payment was made. A third DD failure could result in the account being closed a la Egg earlier this year? After all, if someone has blown a shed load of money one month and can't be bothered/afford to repay 1-2% of it on time then they don't deserve credit facilities do they?

Perhaps all of this could replace the £12 late payment/failed DD fee?

...but mainly it was down to Virgin not explaining things enough. They should have gone through the due dates and explained that there was no point in paying early etc when the card was applied for.

And how much else should they have "gone through"?...perhaps the entire T&C's...again? Remember, they were read, understood (otherwise questions would have been asked?), and signed as such.

With regard to Virgin (and all MBNA cards) section 7 of the (2 page only) T&C's says, paraphrasing, "each month we will send you a statement" and section 8 says "the statement will tell you how much you have to pay...and when".

It doesn't get any easier does it?

Loyalty

If a payment is received between your payment due date and your next statement it will not count towards the new minimum payment. A payment will only count once the statement has been issued.

be warned, if you cancel a DD through your bank without informing us you are liable to end up with extra charges. If you don't tell us, how are we supposed to know? If you want to cancel a DD, call at least 10 working days before you payment is due to be taken. We can then cancel it for you. DD make a claim for the money in advance of the payment due date. once the collection process has begun. a member of staff can not stop it