Virgin - late debit card payment

Dagobert

I made a stupid mistake and as such don't deserve any sympathy. I am just trying to figure whether there is any remedial action that could be taken:

I have 0% on purchases until September but have only accumulated a modest amount (£480) and don't intend to use it for further purchases.

The due date falls on Saturday 25th. I made the min. payment to-day, Thursday. Looking at their time scales that won't be credited until 2 working days later, i.e. Monday.

The Virgin sort code does not accept Faster Payments. I presume any debit card payment, regardless from which bank, will take 2 working days to be credited by Virgin? I am just asking because I have plenty to choose from.

Customer Services said they would re-instate the 0%, which is very nice, but I am not so bothered about that as I could pay it off immediately. I am more annoyed about the fee (annoyed with myself that is) and any interest that might be due as a result.

ylesia

I've had quite a few credit cards over the years and I know that some of them credit debit card payments immediately if you pay over the phone. I would phone and speak to a real person rather than making an automatic payment and ask.

Debt_Free_Dreamer

I messed up with Virgin and wrote them a letter. They halved the interest payment, which I was happy about as it was as good as it was going to get. They also resinstated the 0%.

I now have standing orders to ensure a payment is always made. I can control these much easier than DD, but DD are the safest if you do not want to get stung.

Dagobert

I have had no reply yet.

charlieboycat

Dagobert

A person of your experience (on this site) obviously had a very good reason (or reasons) for not having a minimum payment DD set up. What trick am I missing?

Dagobert

charlieboycat wrote: »

Dagobert

A person of your experience (on this site) obviously had a very good reason (or reasons) for not having a minimum payment DD set up. What trick am I missing?

charlieboycat, I feel very flattered!

With hindsight it seems more like stupidity though! The reason for this was flexibility. I like to be able to change my funding sources. I have many different bank accounts and I am chopping and changing depending who has the best interest rates. I also only ever keep money in my current accounts if they have a decent in-credit interest rate. Hence I was worried about accidentally going over the limit when a DD cuts in.

I thought the possibility of a mistake was reduced if I just relied on my daily reminder and stayed organized. Unfortunately, I was wrong. However, I am constantly improving my reminder system, which is highly configurable. I am working on precisely scheduled reminders for all my payments.

charlieboycat

Fair enough. I too rely on a reminder system for lots of things - albeit not individual credit card payments.

Like you, I try to keep xxx-all in non-interest paying current accounts. But I have all my DDs on one particular current account and at the end of each month I set up multiple future transfers (into that particular current account) to meet the next month's known recurring DDs like credit cards, council tax, gas/electricity.

David_Lindon

I had a virgin card and missed it by 1 day, after calling them they and explaining this had never happened before they cancelled the fee and re-instated my 0% which was very kind of them.