Direct Debit cancelled - Return Payment Late Default Sum’

CannyJock

modcons wrote: »

I think this is totally unacceptable and will be writing a letter of complaint and requesting a refund.

No templates, because MBNA are in the right here. Your direct debit agreement with MBNA states clearly on it that they will take the direct debit payment regardless of any manual payments.

You shouldn't have cancelled the direct debit until you got a nil balance statement - if you think about it, even though you've paid an amount by debit card, there's nothing stopping you from going out and using the card again, and unless you've been paying the balance in full each month, there will be residual interest from the date of the last statement until the date you made your debit card payment.

The failed DD will have cost you £12 so there was £9.24 of interest that you were always going to be liable for.

All you can do is chalk it up to experience.

You can try calling them and explain your mistake and ask them very nicely if they can refund the £12 and take the payment for £9.24 of interest. If you get stroppy you'll get nowt IME.

CannyJock

Meterman wrote: »

I paid off my remaining balance in full 22 days before the due date and cancelled my DD - through my own bank, who said that was fine.

Unfortunately, it's nothing to do with your bank.

Or have you asked the bank to pay the amount on your behalf as they gave you incorrect information?

As above, MBNA were in the right here - they applied for the DD as the direct debit agreement said, it failed and they charged you for a failed DD.

It's not a question of common sense, it's a question of understanding how these things work.

yourenotrum

I work for MBNA and this happens all the time. Very simply, the DD is set to take out the minimum payment on the day the statement is sent out, so if you pay it off after, it'll either put you in credit (and we can refund that) or it'll try to take it and be rejected. Really, though, it's simplest to let it do its thing and fade out naturally.

jamesd

Meterman, one of the Key commitments of The Lending Code that applies to MBNA and other credit card providers is that they are to "deal quickly and sympathetically with things that go wrong". MBNA is a subscriber to the Code and appears to have failed to do so in your case, regardless of their view of how things went wrong.

You did not act wrongly in notifying the bank. The Direct Debit Guarantee specifies that this is the normal way and makes it clear that notifying the credit card company is an optional request, not a requirement.

You should also ask MBNA to ensure that they do not inform credit reference agencies that you have failed to meet your payment obligations. If they are treating it as a default they may have improperly notified the main credit reference agencies that you didn't make a payment on time.

It's unfortunate that MBNA's systems appear not to provide MBNA with a way to accept notification from a bank that a direct debit has been canceled and cease to attempt to take the payment. Even more unfortunate that it then charges a default fee. Both are made worse because notifying the bank is today the standard way that such notifications should be given. It's not surprising that the mismatch between the Direct Debit Guarantee, normal practice and MBNA's own systems causes this to happen all the time. Hopefully MBNA will address this so it stops happening.

With the current MBNA system yourenotrum has described the unfortunate way it's necessary to proceed.